Stupid Fast by Geoff Herbach

Stupid Fast by Geoff Herbach

Sixteen-year-old Felton can’t figure out what’s going on with his body.  He can never get enough to eat, and yet never feels full.  He’s sprouting hair in places he’d rather not even think about. And, he’s outgrowing his clothes so fast he doesn’t have any jeans that are even close to long enough.  To add to all this, suddenly he can run “stupid fast,” and the track and football team coaches are eyeing him to try out.  Due to his crazy meditation attempts in his younger days, he’s been known as Squirrel Nut since elementary school.  But things might be changing as the jocks start to find his ability to run “fast like a donkey” valuable to their teams.

His home life isn’t much calmer; his mom can only be called a retrograde hippie.    When he was only five, Felton found his dad’s dead body hanging by one of the beams in the garage.  Although Felton and his younger brother barely remember their professor father, their mom has burned all his belongings in an effort to start fresh.  Partly due to his strange family, Felton has been bullied by the other students and only has one good friend Gus, who is gone for the summer.  Now that Felton has to take over Gus’ newpaper delivery route, he sees a beautiful girl his age playing piano at the crack of dawn as he makes his paper deliveries.  And she doesn’t know he’s viewed as smelly, hairy squirrel nut by the kids at school;  and their romance begins.

This book surprised me by being so readable.  I know young men will love it because it speaks to sports and all the physical and mental changes boys go through as they become men.  I think girls will also enjoy it’s exploration of growing up differently from the rest of the crowd.  I highly recommend this book to all teen readers as a fast and engaging read.

Leverage by Joshua C. Cohen

Leverage by Joshua C. Cohen

At Oregrove High, nobody messes with the football team!  When the gymnastics team wants to use the weight room and humiliates the football players in a strength contest, a war of pranks starts between the two teams that escalates until one of the youngest gymnasts is raped by three steroid-fueled football players.  The horrendous act is witnessed by two boys: Danny, a gymnast stuck behind some mats in the back of the storage room and Kurt, a fullback transfer student who beats up the three sick athletes, but has his own history with abuse.  The book is narrated in alternating chapters by these two characters, who could be more different, but eventually become friends.  The suspense of who to tell about the rape or what to do about it kept me on the edge of my seat until the end of the story.

I think this was a great book and recommend it to all mature high school readers. It is dark and realistic, touching on the current hot topic of bullying in a very realistic way.  It gets quite graphic and also has strong language, but both fit perfectly within the context of the story.  I give it 5 stars out of five!!!

First Round Lottery Pick

First Round Lottery Pick by Franklin White

Langston Holiday is one of the best basketball players Cincinnati has ever seen.  He has been playing on the courts of Poindexter Village, aka The Vil, since he was four years old and is now the number one recruit in the nation.   But instead of heading off to college for a least a year before he can turn pro, he’s opted to sign up for the overseas draft and play three years in Europe, before going pro in the U.S.  He should be in line for a multi-million year contract, and suddenly things are changing for him in the hood.  His best friend Jalen will support him in whatever he wants to do, and his mom reluctantly agrees that it’s his decision, even though he will be giving up the chance at a free ride to UCLA, which she’s always dreamed of for him.  His girlfriend Tori adores him and supports him in whatever he wants to do.  His estranged father tries to tell him how important the college education would be for him, but he blows him off when his partner makes a sarcastic remark about Langston’s mom and takes off in anger.

Now The Vil is in an uproar at his news, some with envy and some folks trying to figure out how to cash in on Langston’s good fortune.  His girl-on-the-side Katrina won’t stop chasing him around the hood.  Toy, a former local ball player himself, has been badgering Langston for six months to sign with him and his newly formed sports agency.  Sadly, things never go as smoothly as one would like, especially in a hood like the Vil where everyone is up in everyone else’s business, and some folks are trying to capitalize on other’s good fortune to make their own money.  There are drug deals, a kidnapping, blackmail and more.

This page-turner deserves a play in all YA collections with a strong interest in urban drama.  The characters are solid, the action non-stop, and the writing decent.  I especially appreciated the the writer White went out of his way to avoid constant swearing, while still keeping the language realistic and authentic.  I found the ending a disappointment, but that’s just my opinion.

Try this title is you like Urban Drama, and the authors Sister Souljah, Tracy Brown, Ni-Ni Simone and Walter Dean Myers. Click HERE to see all our Urban Drama reviews.

Fighting Back

Fighting Back by Rocky Bleier

This book is about a professional football player named Rocky Bleir that was drafted into the military after his rookie year with the Pittsburgh Steelers.  He was sent to serve in Viet Nam and was severely injured in battle when a grenade blew off part of  his foot and leg. For his service, he was awarded a Purple Heart and Bronze Star.  The doctors told him that he would never play football again or even walk the same.  But he persevered and worked countless hours strengthening his legs,  and eventually going on to being the starting running back on the Steelers,  helping to win the super bowl four times .

I really enjoyed the part in the book when he described his feelings in the hours before the super bowl. I enjoyed this because it was cool to know what was going through his head after all he had been through heading into the biggest game of his life.

My Rating:

8 ½ out of 10
B+
4 out of 5 stars

I would recommend this book to someone who enjoys books about tragedy to triumph.

Reviewd by Brian, class of 2010

Dystopia Reigns Supreme

Unwind by Neal Shusterman                                                               Rash by Pete Hautman

Here I am, reading one of my favorite genres again, this time titles recommended by one of our amazing library volunteers, soon to be a librarian herself.

Unwind is the gripping story that follows Conner and two other “Unwinds” as they struggle to escape their fate as becoming human organ donors, used for every part of their bodies from their brains to the tips of their toes.  After the world war fought by pro-life and pro-choice armies, the Bill of Life was signed, allowing unwanted teens to be unwound without actually ending their lives–they would become unwilling organ donors. Conor’s being unwound because he’s just too much trouble for his parents.  Risa’s problem is that she’s a ward of the state, living in a StaHo, and they have to make room for more babies.  In contrast, Lev has known since he was a child that as his parents’ tenth baby, he was destined to be tithed as an unwind, something that has always been viewed as a great honor in his religion.  The books follows their story from their original escape to the Happy Jack Harvest Camp and beyond.

This gripping story kept me up at night reading with a flashlight in bed as my husband slept peacefully next to me.  It is an amazing book I can’t recommend highly enough.

Rash, on the other hand, was a much for straightforward story, with fewer ethical complications.  What I especially appreciated about this story was that it is a combination sports novel and dystopian commentary on our society, all at the same time!  The year is 2076, and the United SAFER States of America has outlawed anything remotely hazardous, including most sports, verbal abuse, and even schoolyard fights.  The problem for our main character Bo is that he has a terrible temper, probably inherited from his father who’s currently in prison for a road rage incident in ’73.  Interesting, the prisons are run by conglomerates like McDonalds and Coca Cola, and the inmates are basically free labor in their enormous fast food factories.

When Bo gets the opportunity to enhance his meager living conditions by playing on the sadistic warden’s illegal football team, his natural athleticism forces him to  jump at the chance. Although football has been outlawed in the USSA fro years, Warden Hammer played in college and still loves the brutal sport.   Unfortunately,  Hammer wants his team to win against the nearest prison’s  team at any cost, and the situation gets complicated rather quickly. Add to this the killer Polar bears that live outside the frigid work camps and artificial intelligence program named Bork that has taken on a life of its own, and this novel moves along at a rapid clip.

In many ways this story reminds me of Holes by Louis Sacher, and fans of that book won’t be disappointed by Bo’s journey.

Reality Check

Reality Check by Peter Abrahams

I almost abandoned this book after about 40 pages, and I’m so glad I picked it up again the next day.  This mystery novel has high school junior Cody Laredo at its center.  He used to be an amazing quarterback until he got benched for the season after a serious knee injury and the ensuing surgery.  Then his amazing girlfriend Clea is coerced by her rich father into going to a boarding school in Vermont, allegedly to increase her chances of getting into a school like Harvard.  Cody knows for sure that she’s brilliant enough to follow that path, but can’t help feeling like their relationship is the real reason her father wants her across the country from their small hometown of  Little Bend, Colorado. So with no football practice and no girlfriend (he broke up with her before she left), Cody completely loses interest in school and actually drops out.

Nothing means much to him until he sees the newspaper headline, “Local Girl Missing.”  Clea had just sent him a cryptic letter just the day before, and with that as he only clue, he head out to the Dover Academy in Vermont to try to find Clea.  The part of the letter that felt like some type of clue was:

“…Some of the kids are cool, some are snobby, some make me feel kind of hickish.  One or two I don’t like at all.  It’s hard to know who to trust sometimes.  Like rolling the dice–a cliche’ that turns out to have real meaning.   But that’s true everywhere–right?”

This book is the edge-of-your-seat thriller; I could not put it down until I finished it.  With lots of twists and turns, I guarantee it will keep you in suspense until the surprising conclusion.

Black and White

Black and White by Paul Volponi

A teacher told me his students loved Volponi’s books, and that led me to ordering them all for our library, and starting my reading with this one. This book is the story of two high school seniors, Marcus and Eddie. Marcus is black, and Eddie is white, but they have been closest friends for years and no longer even notice the color of the other’s skin. In addition, they are the stars of their high school’s basketball team, earning the nickname “Black & White” for their power on the court. Hoping for college scholarships, they play like mad men, but make one terrible decision that will alter their lives forever.
This story is told alternately in both boy’s voices, making it totally realistic for me. The way they spoke seemed really natural, making it very believable. I couldn’t put the book down, hoping that somehow things would work out OK for both boys. I would recommend this book to readers who like sports or who like edgy stories.

Game

Game by Walter Dean Myers

It’s hard to go wrong with Myers, and this book is just proof for his devoted readers. This title is especially great for those readers who loved his earlier basketball books Slam and Outside Shot. I saw three copies of this paperback in the back book room, and knew we had to get them out into the collection ASAP.

Drew Lawson is a great player who hopes that his mad skills will get him offers from Division I colleges during his senior season. His real goal is the NBA, and he knows his mental game is as deep and his skills on the court. But at the beginning of his senior season, the coach starts favoring a new white player from eastern Europe, implying that Drew isn’t enough of a “team player” to carry the team beyond the regional play-offs. As always, the basketball action scenes are riviting, but just as engaging is Drew’s internal struggle to be the best player he can, as well as earn Coach Hauser’s respect and snag a great college deal from one of the schools sending scouts to scope out the team. Like in many of Myer’s books, this one is set in Harlem, with all the aliveness and vibrancy of the scene, as well as the young men who have given up on their dreams showing the “weakness in their eyes” as they hung out on the streets.

Gym Candy

Gym Candy by Carl Deuker

This is the perfect book for the football and sports fan. This book looks at the competitive side of high school sports, and what an athlete might do to get an edge over his competition. Mick has always been a football running back, ever since he can remember. Trained since he was four-years-old by his father, a former college and NFL draft pick, he can’t imagine his life without the game. But Mick’s not the star of the high school team like he was in Pop Warner. He has to work, train and push for everything he gets, and even then the coach won’t start him because he’s just a freshman. But the real stress starts when a new coach comes on board in Mick’s 10th grade year. He makes first string, but the pressure causes him to make some hard decisions about how far he is willing to go to be a “star running back.”