Skip to main content

The Extra Yard

By

                                            The Extra Yard - Lupica, Mike


The Extra Yard
by Mike Lupica
Simon & Schuster, 2016.  292 pgs. Fiction

     Teddy Madden is a bit of a schlub until his friend Jack takes him in hand, helps him get into shape, and then finds him a spot as a catcher on his school's baseball team. But Teddy wants to play football. He makes the team on the strength of a one-handed grab in the end zone at tryouts and surrounded by friends Jack, Gus, and Cassie he looks forward to a great football season with the Walton Wildcats. But then his long-absent father shows up. His friends tell him to stop hating on the man, and Teddy makes progress until his Dad (a former quarterback) shows up on the sidelines and starts coaching. Predictably, the starting quarterback (Jack) goes out for the season with a shoulder separation, and Teddy steps in at quarterback, only to discover that his father actually has some good ideas. The team goes undefeated into the championship game, where things turn out a little differently than one might expect, but all's well that ends well, nevertheless.  I am a big Mike Lupica fan - his books, including this one, are filled with likable characters wise beyond their years and excellent descriptions of skills, games, and tactics. "The Extra Yard" is a little unsettling, however, because with our growing understanding of the consequences of playing football, especially for young people, it seems a little off that Lupica revels in the violence of the game, and encourages his readers to follow Teddy's example of not being afraid to "play hurt." Young sports fans and football players will love this book; their parents maybe not so much.  Plus Teddy's dad really is a cluck.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Faker

By
Faker By Gordon Korman New York: Scholastic Press, 2024. Fiction. 214 pages. 12-year-old Trey is used to starting over at a new school -- he has the routine perfectly memorized: make new friends, introduce his dad to the wealthy parents of his new friends, and "Houdini" themselves out of there before they get caught running their latest scam. Trey's dad is a master con artist, and Trey has just been promoted to full-partner. Their new scheme for the next big score brings them to the affluent suburb of Boxelder, TN where Trey's dad has cooked up a fake electric car company for investors to buy into. The only problem is that Trey is starting to grow tired of moving around and never putting down roots, especially after forming a fast friendship with Logan and developing a crush on Kaylee, a socially conscious girl in his class. As Trey longs for a normal life, is there any way he can convince his dad to get out of the family business? Gordon Korman is a perennial favorit...
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: The Bletchley Riddle

By
  The Bletchley Riddle By Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin New York: Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2024. Fiction. 392 pages. It's spring of 1940, Hitler has swept through most of Europe, and people believe England will be next. Half Polish-Jewish, half American Jakob has been recruited from Cambridge to Bletchley Park where they are working on deciphering the enigma machine. Jakob's sister Lizzie, meanwhile, is being forced to move from London to Cleveland to live with her grandmother after her mother disappeared in a 1939 attack in Poland. Lizzie manages to escape the keeper her grandmother sent for her to bring her to America and makes her way to Bletchley, where she's eventually given the task of delivering messages between departments. When secret messages begin appearing with Lizzie's belongings, she must decipher them to find the truth about her mother's past and location, while keeping the secrets away from the MI5 agent that seems a little t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dragon Run

By
Dragon Run by Patrick Matthews Scholastic, 2013.  336 pgs.  Fantasy      Al Pilgrommor is excited for Testing Day, when he will receive his rank, a tattooed number on the back of his neck, and a path forward to his future occupation and life.  He feels confident because his parents were fours on a scale of seven, but he is worried for his friend Wisp who doesn't have much of a chance of scoring above a two at best. But when Al is scored a zero, he not only has no prospects, he may lose his life as the dreaded Cullers are unleashed to kill him and his family to purify the land's bloodlines.  Al's world is ruled by dragons--the lords and supposed creators of humankind--so he thinks that even if he survives, he will have to make his living as a beggar or thief. But when Al sticks up for his Earther friend in front of Magister Ludi, he is drawn into the struggle of a secret organization hoping to destroy the Cullers, and perhaps the dragons them...
1 comment
Read more