Review of Losers Take All by David Klass

Klass, David.  Losers Take All.  Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2015.

At Fremont High School, aka “Muscles High”, if you are not an athlete, then you are a nobody.  The whole school—and the town of Fremont, New Jersey—is totally obsessed with sports.  They even have a whole week at the end of every school year devoted to honoring their athletes.

Jack Logan’s father and two brothers were talented football players, but Jack---well, not so much.  In fact, Jack doesn’t even like sports.  At the end of his junior year, his seventy-year-old principal dies of a heart attack during the annual “senior run” and is replaced Coach Muhldinger—the football coach.  As his first official act as principal, Coach Muhldinger decrees that all seniors must play some kind of sport.

When Jack is roped in to trying out for the football team, he ends up in the hospital, instead.  Jack and his girlfriend, Becca, decide to form a “C” level soccer team and ask the school’s part-time Latin teacher, Mr. Percy, to be their coach.   A whole group of unathletic seniors join the team with the goal of not winning, but just surviving the season without getting injured.  Hilariously, they lose games in fine fashion and become a media sensation via online videos.  .  The team attracts a whole group of fans that are against violence in sports and bullying.  This does nothing to enhance the team’s image with Coach Muhldinger, who seeks revenge on the team for the humiliation it has brought to him.

In Losers Take All, David Klauss has succeeded in capturing the essence of competitive sports, including the negative aspects of violence and bullying that sometimes go along with it.  He has tackled these hard issues “head on” and provided a thought-provoking look into how sports culture affects the mood of a school and a town.  He has also put a lot of humor into the plot with his descriptions of play-by-play scenes of the soccer team’s games.  Readers will find themselves cheering for the mix of misfits that are doing their best to lose every game they play.

The characters are extremely well developed.  Principal Muhldinger is your stereotypical coach—all business, gruff, overbearing, and opinionated about non-athletes.  Our main character, Jack, who is also the narrator, provides a genuine male teen voice.  He thinks he has no athletic ability, but discovers he has a true talent for soccer.  Even though it seems like his football-hero dad is not on his side, Klass shows that Tom Logan is a loving and supportive parent.

Sports fans and non-sports fans, alike, as well as readers who enjoy humorous fiction, will enjoy this book.  I recommend it for middle school, high school, and public libraries and give it four out of five fleur de lis!

Review of Fat Boy vs the Cheeleaders by Geoff Herbach

Herback, Geoff.  Fat Boy vs the Cheerleaders.  Sourcebooks Fire, 2014.

Sixteen-year-old Gabe “Chunk” Johnson lives in Minnekota, MN with his controlling dad and former body-builder grandpa, who moved in after Gabe’s mom ran off with an architect to Japan.  Gabe’s favorite thing about school is playing the trombone in the Minnekota Lake Area High School Band.  Every day he buys multiple bottles of Code Red Mountain Dew from the school’s soda machine because he thinks the proceeds are funding summer marching band camp.  Unfortunately, Gabe’s soda habit, lack of exercise, and his dad’s junk food purchases have caused him to gain a lot of weight.

One day, Gabe notices that the prices on the soda machine have increased.  He finds out later that the proceeds are now going to the school’s voluptuous new dance coach and dance squad, formerly the cheerleaders, instead of the band.  Consequently, band camp is cancelled for lack of funding.  The band director flips out and does some crazy things and is dismissed by the school board.  Helped by his friend and coworkers, RCIII, Chandra Gore, other band members, and band alumni, Gabe declares war on the cheerleaders and leads a rebellion to regain control of the soda machine and reinstatement of the band director.

Along with his cause, Gabe also gains a girlfriend, gets help shaping up and eating right from his grandpa, and helps the school acquire funding for the summer marching camp.

This book is extremely character-driven.  There are a lot of stereotypes in this humorous novel, and Geoff Herbach destroys some of them.  RCIII, for instance, is a black, talented athlete, but he enjoys hanging out with the band students!  The Goth girl, Chandra “Gore” Wettinger, is actually very nice and sensitive, contrary to what other students think about her and her past.

I can totally relate to this story because I was in band beginning in seventh grade and continuing all through college.  I also have three band directors in my family, so I understand the funding issues bands deal with.  Gabe is such a loyal, hardworking band member, and he thinks his director is pretty cool.  He epitomizes the typical band student and loves music.

I loved Gabe’s grandpa.  He inspires Gabe and sticks by him; he is a great positive role model.  He cheers Gabe, lifts him up, and supports his weight loss and fitness attempts.  He gives him advice because Gabe’s father is still trying to overcome rejection from his ex-wife.

Readers looking for a humorous read will enjoy this story.  It is refreshing and delightful to see and such an underdog become a hero!  I recommend this book for eighth grade readers and high school  and public libraries.  I give it four out of five fleur de lis!

Reviewer's Note:  The copy reviewed was received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Review of Colin Fischer by Ashley Edward Miller & Zack Stentz

Miller, Ashley Edward and Zack Stentz.  Colin Fischer. Razorbill (Young Penguin Readers Group), 2012.  978-1-59514-578-9.  226 p.   $17.99, hc.  Grades 8 and up.

Colin Fischer is a fourteen-year-old freshman with Asperger’s Sydrome.  He is high-functioning and extremely intelligent, but is an outcast because of his lack of social skills.  He is very observant and detail-oriented, and has kept a notebook of his observations for many years.  He does not excel at any sports, except jumping on the trampoline, which seems to calm his nerves and help him to think.

On his first two days as a freshman, Colin causes a scene in class, gets sent to the principal’s office, learns to shoot basketball, becomes a witness in a school gun incident, gets into a fight, and lies to his parents for the first time.  This, from a boy, who has never been in trouble at school!  When he is sent to the office for disrupting class, he is able to tell Dr. Doran, the principal at West Valley High School, specifics about a student’s cellphone that no one else would even notice!

The next day, as Colin’s friend, Melissa, celebrates her birthday with cake in the cafeteria, there is a school shooting!  The obvious culprit is Wayne, one of the school bullies, but Colin knows he is innocent and sets out to prove it.  Although Wayne has tormented Colin since grade school, the two pair up and go on a wild adventure to figure out who owns the gun used in the shooting!  Using what they learn, what Colin overhears and his honed powers of deduction, Colin pins the crime on the girlfriend on another of the school’s thugs.  The solving of the crime results in mutual admiration and an unlikely friendship between Colin and Wayne!

Colin Fischer is just a delightful novel!  I cannot remember the last time I laughed so much while reading a book!  Colin is a wonderful character, very matter-of-fact, and takes everything so literal.  He writes down everything in his spiral notebook, which is actually more of a journal, including the word, “investigate”, if he needs more information.  Because he has a hard time deciphering facial expressions, he carries around flash cards to help him label emotions.  In the book, the font for these emotions…ANGER…SERIOUS…IMPRESSED…and so on, seem to mimic the actual words he might see on his flash cards.  During the story, readers find out more about Asperger’s Syndrome, both through writings in his notebook and through dialogue.

Colin’s mom and dad are great parents!  They have worked at raising Colin to be independent, but are still surprised when moments arrive when he doesn’t need their help.  He is still able to surprise them with his accomplishments.  His brother, Danny, on the other hand, is resentful and jealous of Colin, who just seems to shrug it off.  This is one-sided sibling rivalry!

My favorite part of the book was the quest that Wayne and Colin went on, specifically the time spent in the home of the La Familia gang!  I also loved how Mr. Turrentine, Colin’s gym teacher, took the time to actually teach Colin how to shoot the basketball.  Mr. Turrentine had the best line in the book when he said to Colin, “Life is a contact sport, and pads are not an option.”

This is a great guy book, but girls will also enjoy it.  It’s a quick read and one that shouldn’t be missed!  I highly recommend it for upper middle school, high school, and public libraries!

*Reviewer’s Note:  This book was received from Library Media Connection in exchange for an honest review.

 

Review for In Too Deep by Amanda Grace

Grace, Amanda.  In Too Deep.  Flux, 2012.

All Sam Marshall wants is for  Nick Davis, her best friend since forever, to notice her.   She wants him to think of her as more than a friend.  So she dresses up in a mini-skirt and heels for a party and tries to make Nick jealous by throwing herself at Carter Wellesley, the most popular and most athletic boy at Mossy Rock High School.   Instead of welcoming her into his bedroom, Carter insults her and sends her crying out into the hall.  Sam has already had too much to drink, so she doesn't think anything of it when Michelle Pattison asks her if she's ok.  When she gets to school, Sam doesn't know why people keep staring and whispering about her.  It's not until later that she discovers that her classmates think that she was raped by Carter.  She cannot believe it, but she doesn't deny it, either.  When she tells girls in her class that nothing happened, they want her to pretend until the school year is over.  In her wildest dreams, she never thinks about how this will affect Carter, his family, and Nick.  And when she does think about it, it's gone too far and she doesn't know how to get out of it.  On top of all this, her father, the chief of police in Mossy Rock, is still trying to control her life.  How can she gracefully get out of this terrible situation, continue to have a relationship with Nick, and find a way to go away to college?

In Too Deep is a fabulous read, filled with emotion and a girl's hopes and dreams.  Sam, the main character, has deep self-esteem issues.  She was been raised by a father who she thinks doesn't love or care about her.  Her mother is long-gone, and her father seems to care more about work and controlling Sam's decisions than her well-being.  Nick, who has been her best friend forever, is liked by everyone.  He has an on-again/off-again relationship with a girl named Reyna, but is actually in love with Sam.  Both of the main characters were extremely well-developed and very likable.  Carter Wellesley, on the other hand, is the star athlete and golden boy, but is also a jerk and a womanizer.  It is all too easy for people to believe that he raped Sam, and it spreads throughout the school and the town like wildfire.  However, I find it strange that her father, the chief of police in an extremely small town, did not hear this rumor until it was too late!  He seemed to know everything else that was going on in his daughter's life!

There were so many themes going on in this novel--gossip, small-town life, where everyone knows everyone, budding romance, underage drinking and partying, peer pressure, and father-daughter relationships.  The humiliation, embarrassment, and rejection that Sam feels is real, as is the hopelessness and helplessness of her situation that she unwittingly, and then just as willingly, creates.

This novel is a real page-turner!  I recommend In Too Deep for high school and public libraries!

**Note:  The book reviewed was an advanced reader's copy received from Library Media Connection in exchange for an honest review.