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wrenl's review against another edition
3.0
Special Report
Second Impact
David Klass and Perri Klass
Kendall is football town, and Jerry Downing is the high school's star quarterback, working to redeem himself after he nearly killed a girl in a drunk driving accident last year. Carla Jenson, lead reporter for the school newspaper's sports section, has recruited Jerry to co-author a blog chronicling the season from each of their perspectives. When Jerry's best friend on the team takes a hit too hard and gets hurt, Carla wonders publicly if injury in the game comes at too high a cost in a player's life—but not everyone in Kendall wants to hear it...
I liked Jerry's character. He was kind and caring. You could tell he cared for his friends and teammates. Stereotypically, you think quarterbacks are stuck-up jerks. In this case, Jerry is anything bit that. (The stuck-up one would be Carla really. I really don't like her.) Jerry cared for Danny. He made sure Danny didn't play when he had the signs of a concussion. That shows his kindness. You start to like Jerry. You feel for him. His rage. His delight.
The themes of this story was good. Teamwork. Sportsmanship. You read this book and feel those themes in the writing. I like those themes. People need to band together to be stronger. As one person, you can only do so much. You need to be together with other people. Also, there is the question of taking things too far. Not a theme but something I still wanted to mention. Carla takes things too far. Is her punishment just? Did she take it too far? What could she have done to stop?
There didn't seem to be much plot, though. There are only a few points. But then it's babbling for most of the beginning and middle. Only when we get Carla doing terrible things we have something. I feel like there could have been more changes. The plot seemed slow. And it wasn't very interesting. It could have been better.
I didn't like the drama. Ah. It was annoying. Carla was just too crazy. She took things too far. She forced drama to happen. When drama wasn't there. At all. Everyone in the book tried to avoid drama. But she just caused it left and right. I didn't like that. She could have left things. But she had to be nosy and find secrets.
And Carla was annoying. Really annoying. She was nosy. And spoiled. She stuck her head in things she shouldn't have. She was crazy. She was acting stupid. She didn't need to do that. She caused things. She acting very annoying. Whiny. She kept acting that way. She didn't change. Sure. She learned a lesson about pushing limits. I'm happy she learned a lesson. But she didn't change.
Weather:
Sunny with 50% chance of rain
3/5
Second Impact
David Klass and Perri Klass
Kendall is football town, and Jerry Downing is the high school's star quarterback, working to redeem himself after he nearly killed a girl in a drunk driving accident last year. Carla Jenson, lead reporter for the school newspaper's sports section, has recruited Jerry to co-author a blog chronicling the season from each of their perspectives. When Jerry's best friend on the team takes a hit too hard and gets hurt, Carla wonders publicly if injury in the game comes at too high a cost in a player's life—but not everyone in Kendall wants to hear it...
I liked Jerry's character. He was kind and caring. You could tell he cared for his friends and teammates. Stereotypically, you think quarterbacks are stuck-up jerks. In this case, Jerry is anything bit that. (The stuck-up one would be Carla really. I really don't like her.) Jerry cared for Danny. He made sure Danny didn't play when he had the signs of a concussion. That shows his kindness. You start to like Jerry. You feel for him. His rage. His delight.
The themes of this story was good. Teamwork. Sportsmanship. You read this book and feel those themes in the writing. I like those themes. People need to band together to be stronger. As one person, you can only do so much. You need to be together with other people. Also, there is the question of taking things too far. Not a theme but something I still wanted to mention. Carla takes things too far. Is her punishment just? Did she take it too far? What could she have done to stop?
There didn't seem to be much plot, though. There are only a few points. But then it's babbling for most of the beginning and middle. Only when we get Carla doing terrible things we have something. I feel like there could have been more changes. The plot seemed slow. And it wasn't very interesting. It could have been better.
I didn't like the drama. Ah. It was annoying. Carla was just too crazy. She took things too far. She forced drama to happen. When drama wasn't there. At all. Everyone in the book tried to avoid drama. But she just caused it left and right. I didn't like that. She could have left things. But she had to be nosy and find secrets.
And Carla was annoying. Really annoying. She was nosy. And spoiled. She stuck her head in things she shouldn't have. She was crazy. She was acting stupid. She didn't need to do that. She caused things. She acting very annoying. Whiny. She kept acting that way. She didn't change. Sure. She learned a lesson about pushing limits. I'm happy she learned a lesson. But she didn't change.
Weather:
Sunny with 50% chance of rain
3/5
jeanwk's review against another edition
4.0
Great YA sports book, which is rather hard to come by these days! Male and female main characters, with alternating stories, done through blogs.
beneatthetrees's review against another edition
2.0
I have a peculiar inability to enjoy a book when it doesn't sell me on its main characters. This was one of those times. The main premise of this story is that it's told from two SCHOOL bloggers' points of view, an aspiring journalist and a quarterback who has recently fallen from glory in a drunk driving incident- which could have been an amazing opportunity for character development and/or developing INTEREST in this character, but it was only mentioned two or three times with little gravity and no later effects besides the girl who got her face smashed in IGNORING him at a party! *gasps* Anyway, these two bloggers write with incredibly specific detail every fragment of an occasion as if it were currently happening and while I believe teenagers can write very well, I don't believe they would put so many trivial details into a blog for their school. What kind of blog is it anyway? Sports? Everyday life? It's just A Blog that I honestly feel would NOT interest fellow students! Teenagers don't care enough to read pages about how someone's visit to a friends house went!!! ESPECIALLY if it were part of their schools blog! Maybe that's just me personally, but I feel that a school blog would be written off unless someone was living an exceptional life, these two were not, at least not until the end, but those were deleted.
This book felt like it was going nowhere through the entire story. There was no central conflict, was it concussions? Is this a call to action? Is this just justifying football? It felt like one writer (as it's cowritten) hated football and the other felt very passionately about its importance, this led to a very dizzying and confusing story, there was no unity in opinions or direction for the story! I feel like they just decided "hey I'll start a book and you jump in for the next chapter!" "Okay! What are we covering?" "Football and stuff now roll with it!"
I disliked this book, however, it is two stars because it WAS well written if you could ignore the improbability of blog posts being so specific and the irritating quality and lack of depth in the lead characters. Unless you rabidly love football or are at least not a football importance skeptic I don't recommend it.
This book felt like it was going nowhere through the entire story. There was no central conflict, was it concussions? Is this a call to action? Is this just justifying football? It felt like one writer (as it's cowritten) hated football and the other felt very passionately about its importance, this led to a very dizzying and confusing story, there was no unity in opinions or direction for the story! I feel like they just decided "hey I'll start a book and you jump in for the next chapter!" "Okay! What are we covering?" "Football and stuff now roll with it!"
I disliked this book, however, it is two stars because it WAS well written if you could ignore the improbability of blog posts being so specific and the irritating quality and lack of depth in the lead characters. Unless you rabidly love football or are at least not a football importance skeptic I don't recommend it.
heykellyjensen's review against another edition
2.0
I didn't buy this at all, and because I didn't buy it, I can't appreciate what it was. The problem with the book is the set up and execution: it's told through two blogs written by a high school football player and a former high school soccer star, knocked out due to injury. While the premise sounds great -- high schoolers blogging for their school paper -- these are the lengthiest, most grammatically-proper, strangest blog posts. In other words, the blog convention fails big time.
Jerry has a second chance to make a name for himself. Last year, his big ego got to him and he got himself drunk at a party, got behind the wheel of a car, and hurt someone. But rather than be punished, he's given another opportunity to do well (football gets you privilege, is the message). He's at least VERY aware of this second chance and doesn't use it for evil. That's part of why he takes on blogging. He wants to share his experience.
Carla, our other blogger, has journalism in her future, especially now that a knee injury's sidelined her permanently. She blogs about the surgery she endures, and it's through this that she finds her passion in sports injuries and the sports recovery process. So much so that when a football player suffers a concussion at one of the early games, she reports on it. She reports on things she shouldn't be sharing, too.
This book explores not just sports culture, but it also explores ethics relating to journalism, medicine, and privacy of athletes to their own injuries. While it's interesting and sports enthusiasts will enjoy this, the convention and construct that add absolutely nothing to the story and make it inauthentic. These aren't real teen voices -- and yet, had the story not been told through these student blogs, it could have been a great pair of teen voices. Bonus points for NO ROMANCE in this book.
Give this to readers who want a more mature story after finishing Jordan Sonnenblick's Curveball (sports injuries and sports journalism are tie-ins) and those who enjoyed Bill Konigsburg's Out of the Pocket (football, the pressure of being a leader on the team, and the ethics of reporting and journalism).
Jerry has a second chance to make a name for himself. Last year, his big ego got to him and he got himself drunk at a party, got behind the wheel of a car, and hurt someone. But rather than be punished, he's given another opportunity to do well (football gets you privilege, is the message). He's at least VERY aware of this second chance and doesn't use it for evil. That's part of why he takes on blogging. He wants to share his experience.
Carla, our other blogger, has journalism in her future, especially now that a knee injury's sidelined her permanently. She blogs about the surgery she endures, and it's through this that she finds her passion in sports injuries and the sports recovery process. So much so that when a football player suffers a concussion at one of the early games, she reports on it. She reports on things she shouldn't be sharing, too.
This book explores not just sports culture, but it also explores ethics relating to journalism, medicine, and privacy of athletes to their own injuries. While it's interesting and sports enthusiasts will enjoy this, the convention and construct that add absolutely nothing to the story and make it inauthentic. These aren't real teen voices -- and yet, had the story not been told through these student blogs, it could have been a great pair of teen voices. Bonus points for NO ROMANCE in this book.
Give this to readers who want a more mature story after finishing Jordan Sonnenblick's Curveball (sports injuries and sports journalism are tie-ins) and those who enjoyed Bill Konigsburg's Out of the Pocket (football, the pressure of being a leader on the team, and the ethics of reporting and journalism).
mona_mona's review against another edition
5.0
I really liked this book. I thought it was just going to be another one of those sports books. And in a way I guess it was but it went deeper into what actually happens. And im proud of what happens in the end.
maidmarianlib's review
3.0
Interesting contrast between two points of view, blog and e-mail contain all information so the style is unique, a timely and important issue covered.
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