2nd Quarter ORB

Second Quarter Outside Reading Book Review

Football Genius by Tim Green. Harper Trophy, 2008. Genre: Realistic fiction


The book Football Genius is about a young boy named Troy White. Troy has a great ability where he can predict a football play before it happens. It is like a gift. Troy also is a huge Atlanta Falcons fan. Star linebacker Seth Halloway meets Troy and finds out about his great talent. They try to get people to believe him but struggle with it at first. Troy is invited to the Falcons game to test his abilities. After a while, he shows his talents and helps the Falcons win the next few games. Troy is offered a job by the manager for 10,000 dollars a game. Meanwhile, Troy is battling with his enemy Jamie Renfro throughout the book with his two friends Tate and Nathan.

“As close as you can come to NFL action without putting on the pads. Filled with excitement, suspense- and great football!”
- Bill Parcells, Dallas Cowboys head coach

Throughout the book, Troy battles with Jamie. They are on the same football team and do not like each other. Jamie’s dad is the coach. Even though Troy is a better quarterback than Jamie is, Jamie still starts. Jamie also makes fun of Troy and his favorite football team, the Atlanta Falcons. Troy does not have a father. His mom gets a job with the Falcons. Troy is introduced to Seth Halloway by stealing one of his footballs in his backyard and his mom makes him return it. This toss-up happens because Troy tells Jamie his mom works with the falcons when she did not have a job yet. Jamie then tells him to bring back an Atlanta Falcons football.

Tim Green writes the book in Troy’s point of view. You are often reading Troy’s thoughts and personality. The way he writes it sounds like his has a true passion for the game of football. He seems very passionate about his writing. I would compare Tim Green’s writing style to that of Mike Lupica, one of my favorite authors.

“All the tendencies and formations that we study and plug into computers, his brain just calculates it all. Instantly. But he does it better than computers. He calculates it all. What yard line they’re on. The positions of the players…” (141).

As I am a huge football fan, I can really relate to this book and the writing of Tim Green. I have not read any of Green’s other books, but I plan too. I really enjoyed this book because I can relate to it. From reading this book, it makes me want to analyze a play more and think about why they ran it.


Sean Rondeau C Block