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| Perma-Bound Edition ©2007 | -- |
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Gr 5-8 This novel has much to recommend it. Troy White is a typical 12-year-old in many ways, dividing his time between school, organized sports, and friends. He has one special talent, though: when he watches football on television, he subconsciously computes team statistics, players, and other variables, and he can call the plays before they happen. What could be a nice parlor trick takes on new significance when his single mother gets a job with the Atlanta Falcons' public relations department. Suddenly, Troy is in a position to help the struggling team win, if he can only make the grownups around him listen. It's an uphill battle at first, but eventually running back Seth Halloway witnesses Troy's uncanny ability and puts his own job on the line to help convince the coach and the team's owner. Drawing heavily on his own eight years as a linebacker for the Falcons, Green gives armchair quarterbacks a rare and realistic glimpse at the pain, sweat, and politicking of professional football. He includes enough cameo appearances from real players (Mike Vick, John Abraham, and Demarrio Williams, among others) to make fact and fiction meld seamlessly. Fictional characters are fairly two-dimensional, especially the scheming assistant coach who wants nothing more than to see the team lose so that he can step in as head coach. Nonetheless, the fast action and plot twists will keep fans of the game glued to the story. A first purchase for libraries looking to bolster their sports fiction. Kim Dare, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA
Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)Adult author and former Atlanta Falcon Green (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">American Outrage) delivers a satisfying YA debut, using his own NFL experience to bring readers behind the scenes. Twelve-year-old Troy White’s athletic ability and his preternatural talent for predicting football strategy are both going to waste (he’s stuck playing second-string on his team), until frustration with a vicious bully on his team pushes him to “borrow” an official NFL football from local Atlanta Falcons star linebacker Seth Halloway. As Troy languishes on his own football team and resents the father who abandoned him, he strives to alert the Falcons of his gift: “Sometimes a kid’s heart tells him to do something and he needs to listen, even if it means getting in trouble.” Acting as a mentor, Seth encourages Troy to come clean about his adventures (“The truth is more important than the trouble it brings”) and to forgive his father’s desertion (“All I know is, things happen. Unless you’re the one they’re happening to, you usually can’t understand it”). Seth ends up dating Troy’s mother and coaching Troy’s team, giving Troy the chance to shine not only on the sidelines, where his play-predicting ability helps bring the Falcons to victory, but on the field as well. “There was no rage fueling him now. It was something else, a blinding energy he never knew he had.” Non-sports fans will root for underdog Troy (“I want to do something. I want to be something. I thought this was my chance”) and enthusiasts will thrill to the firsthand knowledge Green brings to the novel. Ages 10-up. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(July)
ALA Booklist (Tue May 01 00:00:00 CDT 2007)Troy White has a lot of frustrations. His father abandoned the family when he was little, his beloved Atlanta Falcons team seems destined for another losing season, and, on his own football team, his gifts as a quarterback are ignored while he sits on the bench, watching the coach's son on the field. Troy's most unusual gift is his ability to predict coming football plays with uncanny accuracy. When his mother is hired for a PR job with the Falcons, Troy sees an opportunity, yet he can't convince anyone to recognize his talents. Finally, the Falcons' middle linebacker sees Troy's gifts, and Troy becomes the team's secret weapon. Some kids will find the premise a little far-fetched. Still, the author, who has written numerous adult titles and spent eight years in the NFL, imparts many insider details that football fans will love. Green makes Troy a winning hero, and he ties everything together with a fast-moving plot.
Voice of Youth AdvocatesTwelve-year-old Troy has a gift. He can see football plays before they develop. He knows that his talent could help his beloved Atlanta Falcons-but how can he make them aware of it? When his single mother gets a PR job with the team, Troy sees his chance. He uses the sideline pass secured by his mother to try talking to a coach. Things go badly, and his mother nearly loses her job. Meanwhile Troy also struggles with being a talented quarterback who warms the bench while the bully who is the coach's less-talented son plays first string. An aging Falcon linebacker befriends Troy and helps him to realize his dreams. This story is frustrating from the start. For a twelve-year-old, Troy is pretty immature as he is given to crying quite readily when things go wrong. He frequently disobeys when the punishment obstructs his plans to help the Falcons. After being grounded by his mom for one of his misdeeds, he plants his best friend in his room playing video games while he sneaks out in another attempt to make things go his way. The football insider aspects of the story will appeal to some, but most teen readers will tire of Troy and his antics.-Debbie Clifford.
Kirkus ReviewsSixth-grader Troy White is a one-of-a-kind athlete with the ability to predict which plays any football team will run even before the ball is snapped. However, his mental talents don't help him crack his youth-league team's starting lineup (the coach plays his own son at quarterback). Troy dreams of pitching his talent to his beloved Atlanta Falcons, helping them post a winning season. Seemingly an after-school-special waiting to happen, and marked by cinematic writing, this feel-good story has a place in libraries fielding requests for clean and uplifting stories. Touching scenes of underdog Troy wishing he had a father to help him are contrasted with very realistic on-the-field football action, which is not surprising considering that the author is a former NFL player. Many actual players' names are dropped throughout the story but some, like Randy Moss, may soon switch teams. More than a sports story, romance pops up as Troy nudges star Falcon linebacker Seth Halloway to date Troy's mother. This light and fast-paced story will appeal to the tween crowd. (Fiction. 10-13)
School Library Journal (Sun Jul 01 00:00:00 CDT 2007)
Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)
Wilson's Junior High Catalog
Wilson's Children's Catalog
ALA Booklist (Tue May 01 00:00:00 CDT 2007)
Voice of Youth Advocates
Kirkus Reviews
ILA Young Adults' Award
Chapter One
Troy knew it was wrong. It was wrong to sneak out of the house after midnight. It was wrong to take something that wasn't yours. And, even though he wasn't that kind of kid, that night, he was doing both.
Usually, on a night like that night, the crickets' end-of-summer song and the moths bumping against the window screen would put him to sleep. Usually, he didn't hear his mom turn off the TV in the living room. And usually, if he was up that late, the water groaning through the pipes while his mom ran her bath would finish him off. But that night, worry kept him awake. Because he really wasn't the kind of kid to sneak out, and especially to take something that wasn't his.
But if he did have to quietly slide open the screen, straddle the window, and drop to the ground with a thud, this was a good night to do it. Stars swirled around the big yellow moon, casting shadows perfect for hiding. Shorts and a T-shirt were all he needed to stay warm.
He didn't plan on having to run, but he laced his sneakers tight in case he did. His feet fell without a sound over the path through the pine trees. He could smell the trees' sticky sap, still warm from the hot September day. An owl hooted somewhere close. A rabbit screamed, then went quiet. The crickets stopped, and only the buzz of mosquitoes filled the air.
Troy looked back at his house. It was nestled into the pines, with no side or backyard. In front, there was nothing more than a gritty patch of red clay. A tire hung from a limb at the edge of the patch. A target for footballs. The house was more like a cabin, a single-story box with a roof covered by fallen pine needles.
Still, the weak orange glow from the night-light in the bathroom window was like a friend, calling him back. Away from the owl and the mosquitoes.
But Troy had other friends, and he dodged through the pine trees into the darkness, finding his way to the railroad tracks almost without looking. He stood on the steel rail, balancing his sneakers and looking down the long line toward the Pine Grove apartment complex, where his friends lived. He tried to whistle, but it came out wrong. He tried again, and again, before giving up.
"Tate?" he called, first soft, then louder. "Tate."
A whistle came back at him from the woods, high and clear, the way you'd call a dog. In the light of the moon, he watched two figures climb up the stony railway bed and start walking his way on the tracks. One of the figures was as thin as the rail she balanced on. Tate McGreer, a pretty girl with dark eyes, olive skin, and silky brown hair tied into a ponytail.
The other was big and burly. A twelve-year-old in the body of a high school kid. Nathan had a buzz cut like his dad and he liked to laugh, big belly laughs. He wasn't laughing now. His eyes were wide and shifting nervously, and he was puffing. Tate was the only one who stayed calm when they heard the low, sad sound of the coming train.
"The Midnight Express," Tate said, peering down the tracks. "It wakes me up almost every night. Atlanta to Chicago.
"Like clockwork."
They all scrambled back down the bank into the rocky ditch, and Tate chewed her gum and nudged them both and asked, "You got a penny?"
"A penny?" Troy said.
Nathan dug into his pocket and came up with a nickel.
"That'll work," she said, taking it from him and scrambling back up the side of the railroad bed.
The ground underneath them was rumbling now. The train's light glimmered and shook. Troy yelled at her to come back. She set the money down on the rail, glared at the train for a moment with her hands on her skinny hips, then hopped back down into the ditch with them.
When the train went by in a rush of hot air, it roared so loud, Troy had no idea what Tate was saying, even though he could see that she was shouting at the top of her lungs. As the last car clacked away down the tracks, he asked her what.
"You see how big that thing was? It's like a warning, right? Like 'go back,' " she said.
Her dark eyes sparkled in the moonlight. Nathan had his hands deep in the pockets of his cutoff shorts, and he nodded at her words. Troy thought about the rabbit he heard screaming in the dark.
"Don't go," he said, shrugging. "I'm not making you."
"We're not going in," Tate said, snapping her gum. "I said that. But we'll wait for you on the outside. That's what friends do. Moral support."
"You shouldn't stand on the tracks when the train's coming like that," Nathan said.
"Aw," she said, swatting air, "if they see a person, they slow right down. Jam their brakes on. Sparks everywhere."
She skipped up the bank again and lifted the flattened nickel up for them to see. It shone in the moonlight.
"Cool," Nathan said, taking it from her.
Troy went up and over the rail bed, leaving them behind.
"Don't you want to see it?" Tate asked, calling after him.
But his eyes were on the wall. Already through the trees he could see it. Ten feet high. Cool gray concrete. It surrounded the Cotton Wood Country Club. Tennis, golf, and five hundred of the most expensive homes in Atlanta. He had driven down Old River Road once, past the massive front gates and guardhouses on the other side. When he asked his mom if she'd ever been inside, she glanced at him and said it wasn't a place for people like them. She said he shouldn't spend his time wondering or worrying about it.
Football Genius. Copyright © by Tim Green . Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.
Excerpted from Football Genius by Tim Green
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
New York Times bestselling author and former NFL player Tim Green scores a touchdown with this exhilarating and action-packed story about an ordinary boy who becomes a hero you can really root for. Perfect for fans of Mike Lupica.
Twelve-year-old Troy White has a phenomenal gift: He can predict football plays before they even happen. Any position. Any player. Any team.
When Troy's single mom gets a job working for the Atlanta Falcons, Troy sees this as an opportunity to show what he can do. But first he has to get to the Falcons—and with tight security and a notoriously mean coach, even his mom's field passes aren't much help.
Then Troy and his best friends devise a plan to get the attention of star linebacker Seth Halloway. With Seth's playing and Troy's genius, the Falcons could be unstoppable if they'll only listen. But if he can’t convince Seth he’s telling the truth, the Falcons’ championship and his mom’s job are at risk.