crackback

Crackback, by John Coy ISBN: 0-439-90372-6 ©2005 201 pages

Good sections to read aloud: p. 2 where he is getting yelled at about catching the football, the pp. 8-9 where dad is yelling at him too, even though he is the one that told him how he should catch!

Summary: Miles Manning, our main character, is a junior in high school and a starter for his high school football team. Immediately at the beginning of practices, one of the assistant coaches on the team starts razzing him about everything. Things take a drastic turn for the worst when the head coach has to step down when he finds out he has cancer and the assistant takes over. Miles loses his starting spot, which only makes things worse at home with his father who is already on his case and a big hot head. Is it worth sucking up to the coach to get his spot back? Why won’t his dad ease up on him? Miles has a lot of issues to deal with at such a young age...can he overcome them?

YA sports fiction: football; fathers; family problems; high school; coaches

©Jennifer Lang-WDMS-2007