Football Genius

This is a review of the audio book.

Author: Tim Green

Reader: Tim Green along with the "Full Cast Family"

Producer: Full Cast Audio

Production Year: 2008

Most of the listeners will be: 4th through 7th grade boys.

Listener's Advisory: If you like sports books, try Heat by Mike Lupica. 

Summary: 

Troy White is a football genius. He knows what plays a team is going to run before they happen. Troy would love to use his gift to help the Falcons get to the Super Bowl. When his mom, the Falcons' newest PR hire, gets him a field pass, Troy is tempted to approach one of the coaches with advice and he is removed from the game like a criminal. Is there any way for Troy to get these adults to give him a chance?

My favorite passage:

Troy and his friend Tate show up at the home of Seth Halloway, a Falcons player who knows what Troy can do. He had thought that Troy had cracked under the pressure when he had tried to show off Troy's skills to one of the coaches, but Troy thought it was something else and wanted another chance to talk to Seth. When they get to his house, Seth is reluctant to let them in, but Tate kicks him and then demands hospitality while they watch a game on TV with other players that are hanging out with Seth. She says that when you are a girl you have to stick up for yourself.

What I really think:

Good things about this book - Boys will love it, especially football players. There are a lot of details about how games are played and what happens behind the scenes at the Falcon's stadium. The relationships are pretty strong. Troy and his friends. Troy and his mom. Seth and Troy. Seth and Troy's mom. 

Not as good things - The storyline is kind of predictable and ties up too neatly at the end. You don't always end up getting everything you want. 

And there was one conversation between Troy and his mother near the end that especially bothered me. She was worried about going on a vacation with Seth because Troy is everything to her. Without him she has nothing. 

I think this was supposed to be sweet, the mom putting her son before her dating life. But, whoa. If your child is your "everything" that is robbing them of being something for themselves. Think about it. I'm not saying she should run off to Bermuda and leave her kid behind, but she should totally have a social life that does not revolve around her son. It is better for everyone. This is just a little nitpicky thing I noticed and probably wouldn't bother most other people. 

Overall, I have to admit that the only reason I listened to this book is because of one of the 5th grade book clubs that I lead. They chose it. And even though I am not so very interested in reading books about sports, I enjoyed it. If that isn't a good review, I don't know what is. 

The narration was fine. It took me a little while to get used to the full cast experience - a different reader for each character, but it certainly results in effective voice differentiation. I kind of questioned some of the accents. I mean, if you only have to do one voice you should be able to get it spot on. But since Atlanta has a lot of transplants, I'll hope the non-regional accents were intentional. (After all, I live here and I don't sound Southern.)

Paper Towns

Author: John Green

Publisher: Dutton Books

Publication Year: 2008

Most of the readers will be: High school boys and girls.

Reader's Advisory: If you like looking for missing girls, help Adam find his sister in Graham Marks's novel Missing in Tokyo.

Summary:
Quentin thinks his dreams are coming true when his neighbor and long-time crush, Margo Roth Spiegelman not only notices him but invites him on a night of adventure. Together they drive around Orlando "bringing the rain" down on people who have wronged Margo (and even one person who has wronged Quentin). Q can't help but wonder what the next day will bring. And what it brings isn't Margo. She has disappeared.
Soon Q starts finding clues that are just for him. For the second time she has chosen him. He is the only one who can find her (maybe with the help of some friends and the Omnictionary), and he isn't going to let her down.

My favorite passage:

I kept going through the A's and then the B's - making my way through the Beatles and the Blind Boys of Alabama and Blondie - and I started to rifle through them more quickly, so quickly that I didn't even see the back cover of Billy Bragg's Mermaid Avenue until I was looking at the Buzzcocks. I stopped, went back, and pulled out the Billy Bragg record. The front was a photograph of urban row houses. But on the back, Woody Guthrie was staring at me, a cigarette hanging out of his lips, holding a guitar that said THIS MACHINE KILLS FASCISTS.
"Hey," I said. Ben looked over.
"Holy shitstickers" he said. "Nice find." Radar spun around the chair and said, "Impressive. Wonder what's inside."
Unfortunately, only a record was inside. The record looked exactly like a record. I put it on Margo's record player and eventually figured out how to turn it on and put down the needle. It was some guy singing Woody Guthrie songs. He sang better than Woody Guthrie.
"What is it, just a crazy coincidence?"
Ben was holding the album cover. "Look," he said. He was pointing at the song list. In thin black pen, the song title "Walt Whitman's Niece" had been circled.
"Interesting," I said. Margo's mom had said that Margo's clues never led anywhere, but I knew now that Margo had created a chain of clues - and she had seemingly made them for me. I immediately thought of her in the SunTrust Building, telling me I was better when I showed confidence. (pg 113)

What I really think:
Once Margo went missing I found myself thinking "Please don't let this be another Looking for Alaska." Don't get me wrong, I love Looking for Alaska, but Green did that already, and since he seems to be pretty much amazing, he ought to have more stories in him.
There are some similarities: Boy obsesses over unatainable girl who is made even more unatainable by the fact that she disappears. He strives to understand her and ultimately understands more about life and himself.
By the end I decided it was different enough from Alaska to make me happy.
The mystery aspect is fun, but there are enough serious moments to remind you how important it is to Q that he solve the mystery. I actually like the meditations on "Song of Myself." As a teenager I often looked for answers in poetry and literature, and sometimes you can find answers there.
Green may be the only person who could make me enjoy Whitman, but I still don't like "When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer." Do you hear me, Green? I like knowing the science behind stars!