Tim Tharp. KNIGHTS OF THE HILL COUNTRY

The Kennisaw Knights in the hill country of Oklahoma are on their way to a fifth undefeated season of football. Football and the football legends of the past are about the most important things in this small Oklahoma town. Since Hampton Green is the star linebacker, he feels the pressure of finishing the season on a high note. But things are changing during his senior year. He becomes friends with a girl that makes him begin to realize that there might be more important things in life than football. When Hampton begins to question the ways things have always gone, he encounters resistance from his best friend and other players on the team. Will he be able to begin thinking for himself?
I really enjoyed the way the author created the setting and mood of this small town. You could feel it in the characterization, particularly with the dialect. He was most certainly familiar with the way people speak in small town Oklahoma (and some places in Texas) otherwise, he couldn’t have pulled it off so well. There were times when I felt like I was listening to some of my relatives talk. He really brought this small town to life.
Bottom line: if you like football, you’ll love this one!

Chris Crutcher. DEADLINE

Ben Wolf is entering his senior year with big plans. He didn’t plan to just coast and party his last year in school, like most guys. As he put it, “It was my year to read everything I could get my hands on, to speak up, push myself and my teachers to get the true hot poop on the World at Large, so I could hit the ground running.” As it turns out, Ben finds out that he has a disease that gives him only about a year to live. So, he decides to scrap his original plans and dare to take big risks. He’s way too little for it, but he decides to play on the football team at school. After all, what does he have to lose? He also decides to go after the hot girl that he thinks is way out of his league. He doesn’t plan to tell anyone about his diagnosis, so they'll still treat him "normally." But he begins to wonder if it's the right thing to do keeping it from his family and friends. Should he let them prepare?






So, how would you live your life if you only had one year left?

I always enjoy Chris Crutcher’s books, and this one was no different. He deals with major issues with such style, yet without overdoing it. His writing is so distinct and familiar that reading the first page was like being with an old friend again. He has the most awesome way of putting things. Check this out: “Dallas Suzuki may sound to you like a car dealership in Texas, but for the past three years, she has been the single prey in the crosshairs of my Cupid’s bow, and she doesn’t know it because she is way, way out of my league.”
Seriously, what a cool sentence! And the character name, come on- how’d he think that up?
This whole book is full of those kind of awesome sentences (and so are his other books).

Some others to consider by Crutcher:


SLEDDING HILL

STAYING FAT FOR SARAH BYRNES


IRONMAN

CRACKBACK, RUNNING OUT OF TIME, ESCAPE FROM MEMORY

Coy, John. CRACKBACK

If you like football, you will love this one! Miles is a varsity football player. His team is expected to go to State this year. His dad, his coach, and his best friend are all pushing him Miles to be stronger and faster by any means necessary. He faces some tough decisions. Just how important is football to him? What will he risk? I enjoyed the detailed descriptions of the football games. Great read!

Haddix, Margaret Peterson. RUNNING OUT OF TIME

After hearing Margaret P. Haddix speak at the Teen Book Festival, I've become interested in her other books, besides Among the Hidden. She told us how she came up with the idea to write this book, so I really wanted to read it. It's about a girl named Jessie who lives with her family in the frontier village of Clifton, Indiana in 1840. However, she soon finds out that it is really 1996 everywhere else. Her village was set up for tourists to see through hidden cameras. The only reason her mother tells her the secret is because the children in the village are dying from diphtheria, a disease cured long ago in the modern world. She sends Jessie out to get medicine for the dying kids. Jessie is a little freaked out by the modern world, at first. Plus, she's threatened by the man who was supposed to help her. This was a great mystery from Haddix that I just could not put down!

Haddix, Margaret Peterson. ESCAPE FROM MEMORY

Wow, this was a really cool book! Kira gets hypnotized at her friend's house. Afterwards her friends are baffled by what she has said. Apparently, she spoke another language and has unusual memories of a strange land that she doesn't know anything about. She asks her mom about all of it, but her mom refuses to tell her anything. Then the next day, her mom disappears. Then someone claiming to want to help her shows up at her house to take her to her "homeland." This is a wonderful mystery. Another great one from Haddix!