(2) YA Kincade Webster, a Black star wide receiver for the mostly white Neeson Preparatory Academy in Virginia, has ambitions of attending The Ohio State University and going on to the NFL. He puts up with racism at his school (and online) and tries to keep his head in the game. But when he takes the bus home one day, a white woman accuses him of grabbing her, and fellow passengers take her side, causing Cade to make a quick exit. Ducking into a pawn shop (where, unbeknownst to Cade, otherworldly forces are at work), he says to the shopkeeper, "I wish everyone would stop acting so scared around me." This wish sends Cade on an unwanted and terrifying journey on the Ruin Road between life and death and an association with his neighborhood's evil slumlord Arvin Skinner, who long ago made a bargain with the Night Merchant: years would be added to Skinner's life in return for Skinner's causing pain and suffering to others (including murder). Skinner's influence is now everywhere in Cade's life, endangering him, his friends, his neighborhood, and Neeson Prep. Giles's horror thriller is expertly crafted and indeed truly horrifying, weaving many threads into this tapestry of evil: Cade's father's lung cancer; violence by the local gang; bomb threats called in to his school; issues of racism, wealth and privilege, and family. Pair this with Giles's The Getaway (rev. 11/22) for a double-header of evil and mayhem.

Reviewer: Dean Schneider | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2024

(2) YA Seventh grader Kareem dreams of becoming the first Syrian American NFL player. He hopes to make the middle school football team as quarterback -- not likely since the coach's son, Austin, is up for that position, though Austin offers to get Kareem on the team if he'll do his homework for him. Conflicts with Austin propel the story, and Kareem must learn to stand up against him and for his new friend Fadi, a recent Syrian refugee. Kareem is a reader, and his books -- Holes, Locomotion, Hatchet -- help him make sense of his world. The story turns dark when Kareem's mother travels to Syria in order to bring her parents to America, but then President Trump's Executive Order 13769 -- the "Muslim ban" -- goes into effect at the same time, trapping them in Syria. Kareem joins protests against the ban and is bolstered by how widespread those demonstrations are, showing him the power of people taking a stand. Safadi's verse is at times somewhat wordy and didactic, but the story itself is heartfelt and personal, anchored in one boy's perspective and the author's own experiences. From midpoint on, it gathers momentum, becoming a tale of true depth, with characters to care about and a solid resolution. An author's note is appended.

Reviewer: Dean Schneider | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2024

(3) K-3 My First I Can Read Book series. In their newest adventure, reminiscent of "The Tortoise and the Hare," impulsive Fox (Fox the Tiger, Fox Has a Problem, rev. 7/23) and Fox's hapless friends play football. "Fox wants to win. Elephant, Rabbit, and Bear want to win. And Snail? Snail wants to win too." As in other books in the series, the digitally assembled pencil and watercolor illustrations extend and add humor to simple, repetitive text. "Elephant kicks the ball far" graces a page in which readers see the ball fly out of the field and land deep in the mountains. When the players chase the ball, they take off on skateboards, a bike, and a scooter--except for Snail, who muscles along, playing independently. Soft lines, gentle textures, and smiling faces on cartoon-style characters (one of whom wears a colander as a helmet) give this a lighthearted, giddy tone that rewards reading practice.

Reviewer: Adrienne L. Pettinelli | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2025

(2) 4-6 Illustrated by David Wilson. In this engaging graphic memoir, protagonist Misty is a fierce competitor who loves football: it combines strategy, teamwork, and tackling ("In other sports, I get in trouble for barely touching people!"). So when she finds out the summer before seventh grade that there's a town youth football league, she signs up. She persuades her best (and only) friend, Bree, to sign up with her; but as Misty throws herself into conditioning and acquiring skills despite the scorn of her male teammates, it soon becomes clear that Bree is more interested in clothes, hanging out at the pool, and a new friendship with a cool, popular girl. Misty's coach's statement that "football is all about getting knocked down and getting back up again" serves as the central metaphor for the book as middle school brings the pain of Bree's betrayal, the humiliation of trying unsuccessfully to fit in, and an imposed-from-without dissatisfaction with her appearance, among other challenges. Cleanly laid-out panels make for accessible reading, and the book does an excellent job of folding the football story line (including plenty of play-by-play game-time action) into that of Misty's life struggles. Readers will cheer as Misty eventually makes new, true friends; wins the acceptance of (most of) her football teammates; begins to take on a more responsible role in her family; and comes to an empowering conclusion: "I knew one thing for sure: I was done trying to be someone else." Appended with an author's note and a disclaimer about the dangers of playing tackle football.

Reviewer: Martha V. Parravano | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2022

(2) 4-6 Two years ago, Winston and Louise Volpe's father Lenny--beloved former quarterback for the Chicago Horribles--walked away and disappeared, a hero "lost in time and space, done in by his own broken mind." Now the siblings and their mother ("the incomplete Volpe family") are dealing with his absence in their own ways. At their middle school, Louise has thrown herself into discovering a cure for brain damage in Science Club, Winston into playing tuba for the band. But then...what is behind the mysterious behavior of a group of Winston's teachers? Is a ghost haunting the Chicago Horribles' locker room? Can Louise find a way to free the Horribles' live-bear mascot? Madcap antics ensue, but this is still, at its heart, a story of grief over the loss of a father and husband from CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy); as such, the novel would make a good companion to Jacqueline Woodson's Before the Ever After (rev. 9/20). Heider deftly balances screwball action and humor with poignancy and even profundity, and offers a hopeful conclusion--in which Winston finds his own "center of the galaxy" with a fellow tuba player, Louise finds an achievable science project, and all the Volpe family members find support in one another.

Reviewer: Dean Schneider | Horn Book Magazine Issue: March, 2021

(2) YA When star defensive lineman Ash Bowman makes a bone-crunching tackle during a football game, he sustains a concussion that knocks him into a parallel world. The differences are subtle (stop signs are blue; football team colors have switched), but subsequent tackles yield much more drastic changes. After a concussion in that world, he enters one where he's a spoiled rich kid with a side job as a drug dealer. Then he gets knocked into a world where Brown v. Board of Education never happened, fundamentally altering white Ash's friendship with his best friend, who is Black. Still later, previously straight Ash finds himself in a romantic relationship with his male math tutor and dealing with the fallout when he comes out. And finally, he awakens as a female cheerleader dating the emotionally abusive star quarterback. It's a testament to Shusterman's storytelling powers that he is able to develop a cohesive narrative across these multiple shifts, exploring the subtle nuances of how they affect not only Ash but the entire supporting cast, though the novel falls somewhat short of the emotional heft the subject matter seems to demand. The device that ties it all together--that Ash has become "the center of the universe" and must learn to control these shifts to return to his original reality--is a bit tidy, but serves as a vehicle for provocative explorations of race, class, gender, and sexuality.

Reviewer: Jonathan Hunt | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2021

(2) K-3 Tate's latest picture-book biography (Swish!, rev. 11/20; William Still and His Freedom Stories, rev. 1/21) focuses on artist and professional football player Ernie Barnes (1938–2009). The opening pages describe Barnes's childhood struggle to find his place in "the Bottoms, a neighborhood of hardworking but poor African Americans" in Durham, North Carolina. A quiet, unathletic child, Ernie enjoys drawing and paging through art books at the house where his mother is employed as a cleaner. In an attempt to find social acceptance, he joins his school's football team; after a coach introduces him to bodybuilding, he begins to achieve athletic success. From there, the two parallel tracks of his life--visual art and football--continue until his late twenties, when he quits football for good and pours his energy into art, leading to international renown. Tate incorporates words from Barnes's memoir, From Pads to Palettes, into the story, grounding it in the artist's own memories and voice. At the same time, he makes the deliberate choice not to mimic Barnes's artistic style in the illustrations. (An afterword directs readers to Barnes's website and other sources, in order to "enjoy the true artwork of Ernie Barnes in its full glory.") It is impossible to tell the story of a Black American artist born in the 1930s without discussing segregation and racism, and Tate weaves those threads seamlessly into his narrative, drawing particular attention to the moment when Barnes exhibits his work at the North Carolina Museum of Art, a place where he had once been told by a docent that "your people don't express themselves this way." A comprehensive bibliography is appended.

Reviewer: K Rachael Stein | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2021

(2) YA Sophomore Wyatt Parker plays football, but only to forge a closer relationship with his older brother Brett, Grayport High's star quarterback. Their father is an alcoholic who lives vicariously through Brett and ignores Wyatt. With red tide threatening the fishing industry--the bedrock of their Massachusetts town's economy--football gives people some hope. In Kester's debut novel, the characters, the town, and the culture of high-school football are richly developed, with keen insight and pithy prose.

Reviewer: Dean Schneider | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2019

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Laura Freeman. In 1947 there was "an unwritten college-football agreement that said when integrated…teams played schools in the South, they wouldn't play their black players." Respress-Churchwell tells the fictionalized (somewhat awkwardly) story of how Chester Pierce and his Harvard team broke this rule. Color-saturated digital illustrations highlight Pierce's deep-brown skin tone--along with Harvard's crimson and gold school colors and the green football fields. Bib.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz

(4) 4-6 Ultimate Sports Road Trips series. Following a rah-rah introduction about the featured sport, each entertaining, if superficial, volume highlights seven or eight stadiums or sites that would make great road trips for super-fans. The four- or six-page sections provide basic place facts (including name, location, date opened, capacity), overviews of the teams' or participants' histories, and captioned photos. A trip map is appended. Reading list. Glos., ind. Review covers these Ultimate Sports Road Trips titles: Ultimate NHL Road Trip, Ultimate Soccer Road Trip, Ultimate NBA Road Trip, Ultimate MLB Road Trip, Ultimate NASCAR Road Trip, Ultimate College Basketball Road Trip, Ultimate NFL Road Trip, and Ultimate College Football Road Trip.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz

(4) 4-6 Ultimate Sports Road Trips series. Following a rah-rah introduction about the featured sport, each entertaining, if superficial, volume highlights seven or eight stadiums or sites that would make great road trips for super-fans. The four- or six-page sections provide basic place facts (including name, location, date opened, capacity), overviews of the teams' or participants' histories, and captioned photos. A trip map is appended. Reading list. Glos., ind. Review covers these Ultimate Sports Road Trips titles: Ultimate NHL Road Trip, Ultimate Soccer Road Trip, Ultimate NBA Road Trip, Ultimate MLB Road Trip, Ultimate NASCAR Road Trip, Ultimate College Basketball Road Trip, Ultimate NFL Road Trip, and Ultimate College Football Road Trip.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz

(4) 4-6 Brooklyn loves ballet and hates football. Unfortunately, everyone in her new Texas town, including her quarterback stepbrother, are football fanatics. When the middle-school football team is required to take classes at her ballet studio, Brooklyn learns that football and ballet have some similarities after all. Brooklyn's feelings of alienation in her new surroundings are well wrought in this predictable but buoyant middle-school novel.

Reviewer: Mariko Turk

(4) K-3 Neighborhood Sports series. Neighborhood Sports series. “Don’t sit around indoors. Play kickball outside with your friends!” These upbeat volumes provide very simple rules and instructions for the title sports. While the texts’ helpfulness can be questionable (“Kicking is easy. Just point your toes down and kick”), their enthusiasm comes through in exclamation point-heavy writing and clear illustrations of children at play. Reading list. Glos., ind.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz

(4) K-3 Neighborhood Sports series. Neighborhood Sports series. “Don’t sit around indoors. Play kickball outside with your friends!” These upbeat volumes provide very simple rules and instructions for the title sports. While the texts’ helpfulness can be questionable (“Kicking is easy. Just point your toes down and kick”), their enthusiasm comes through in exclamation point-heavy writing and clear illustrations of children at play. Reading list. Glos., ind.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz

(4) K-3 Neighborhood Sports series. Neighborhood Sports series. “Don’t sit around indoors. Play kickball outside with your friends!” These upbeat volumes provide very simple rules and instructions for the title sports. While the texts’ helpfulness can be questionable (“Kicking is easy. Just point your toes down and kick”), their enthusiasm comes through in exclamation point-heavy writing and clear illustrations of children at play. Reading list. Glos., ind.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz

(3) YA When Cade stumbles upon a girl half-dead in his family's Texas-border cornfield, he heeds her request to hide her. Cade enlists best friend Mateo's help, and the boys enfold Jane Doe in their world of football games and dances. But Jane is certain her past with a Mexican drug cartel will catch up with her. High-school romance mingles with dark suspense in Banerjee's debut novel.

Reviewer: Rebecca Hachmyer

(3) K-3 Encounter series. Illustrated by Nick Hardcastle. At age sixteen, American Indian Jim Thorpe was sent to the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania. In spite of adversity, he thrived there as a multi-sport athlete, particularly as the 1912 football team's linchpin in beating--against all odds--West Point's Army team. Straightforward, conversational text and meticulous ink and watercolor art reveal the prowess and importance of this extraordinary athlete. Reading list. Bib., glos.

Reviewer: Carolyn Shute

(3) YA Three Alabama teens spend the summer working at Unclaimed Baggage, a store that sells the contents of luggage left behind at airports. Local girl Doris is a talented finder of things, Nell is a Chicago transplant desperate for a job, and Grant is a former football hero struggling with addiction. The lost-and-found metaphor is an apt one for a summer of self-discovery and newfound friends in this thoughtful, nuanced novel.

Reviewer: Rachel L. Smith

(4) K-3 Neighborhood Sports series. Neighborhood Sports series. “Don’t sit around indoors. Play kickball outside with your friends!” These upbeat volumes provide very simple rules and instructions for the title sports. While the texts’ helpfulness can be questionable (“Kicking is easy. Just point your toes down and kick”), their enthusiasm comes through in exclamation point-heavy writing and clear illustrations of children at play. Reading list. Glos., ind.

Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz

(3) 4-6 Sports All-Stars series. Succinct, easy-to-read biographies of these sports stars each include a brief look at the person's childhood before focusing on that individual's particular training and road to athletic success. Dramatic narration, direct quotes, color photographs, and sidebars round out the informative main texts; "All-Star Stats" for that sport are appended. There are four other fall 2018 books in this series. Reading list, websites. Glos., ind. Review covers these Sports All-Stars titles: Aaron Judge, Breanna Stewart, Dak Prescott, and Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Reviewer: The Horn Book, Inc.