Review by Booklist Review
With a sharp intensity fueled by both wrenching events and the main character's white-hot core of rage, Green sends an abused foster kid blasting his way through daunting challenges on and off the football field. Thirteen-year-old Harrison is caught by surprise when his fifth set of foster parents turn out to be a loving couple. Though justifiably suspicious of this change of fortune, he not only makes new friends at school but finds a channel for his temper in the school football team coached by his new foster father. So overwhelmingly fast, strong, and brutal is Harrison that he even intimidates his own team members. But his dream of NFL glory is cut short when an MRI on a knee injury reveals bone cancer advanced enough to require amputation. With coaching from both a hard-nosed disabled vet and an indomitable young fellow patient, Harrison sets his sights not just on rehabilitation but a return to the gridiron. Unlike Green's previous novels, the game action largely stays in the background, while Harrison's ferocious struggles with inner demons and physical obstacles make absorbing reading.--Peters, John Copyright 2010 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-7-Tim Green reads his latest football story (HarperCollins, 2012) about an emotionally abused but athletically gifted 13-year-old. Staccato pacing coupled with distinct and persuasive descriptions of football characterize Green's style as both writer and narrator. A victim of the worse kind of foster parents, Harrison is essentially enslaved until a freak accident and an exceptionally kind counselor get him placed in a foster home with a childless couple who always wanted a boy like him. As new parents, the Kelly's patience and unconditional love toward Harrison are almost as unlikely as their convenient occupations as junior high football coach and lawyer. Once his life improves, Harrison is sure his good fortune can't last and waits for his regular bad luck to recur. And it does, in the form of bone cancer that requires the amputation of his leg the week before his football team is set to compete in the state championship. Harrison's anger, frustration, and pain are tangible. The Kelly's friend, Major Bauer, who has a similar amputation, comes to train Harrison to deal with his handicap and redevelop his athletic prowess. While Major Bauer and Ms. Kelly argue about giving Harrison false hope that he can play football again, Harrison must find his own peace. Green's narration is well-paced and engaging. Although the story is melodramatic and stretches the suspension of disbelief, it will attract sports fans.-Janet Thompson, West Belmont Branch Library, Chicago Public Library, IL (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Harrison's mother died an addict and his foster father is abusive. Then he's rescued by a caseworker and placed in a new family. Harrison finds his calling on the football field, but his glory is cut short when he must battle cancer, his toughest obstacle yet. This book offers Green's signature sports action as well as a thoughtful outlook on illness and recovery. (c) Copyright 2013. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Harrison has led a hard-knock life up until he's taken in by loving foster parents "Coach" and Jennifer. After he inadvertently causes the man's death, Harrison is taken from a brutal foster home run by a farmer who uses foster kids as unpaid labor, a situation blithely ignored by the county. His new foster parents are different. Coach is in charge of the middle school football team, and all 13-year-old Harrison has ever wanted to do is to play football, the perfect outlet for his seething undercurrent of anger at life. Oversized for his age, he's brilliant at the game but also over-the-top aggressive, until a hit makes his knee start aching--and then life deals him another devastating blow. The pain isn't an injury but bone cancer. Many of the characters--loving friends Justin and Becky, bully Leo, a mean-spirited math teacher, cancer victim Marty and the major, an amputee veteran who comes to rehabilitate Harrison after life-changing surgery--are straight out of the playbook for maudlin middle-grade fiction. Nevertheless, this effort edges above trite because of well-depicted football scenes and the sheer force of Harrison himself. His altogether believable anger diminishes his likability but breathes life into an otherwise stock role. A predictable, fast-paced sports tale with some unexpected heart. (Fiction. 11-14)]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
