Game Change

My kiddo loves this book! It's hard to get him to read because he doesn't like doing it. He is actually invested in this book and does not give push back when it comes time to read. Perfect level for a 14-year-old and it is relatable.

An inspirational novel. Appealing characters, especially the protagonist. He's a fine young man who's had a pretty rough life. He gets an opportunity, and tries to make the most of it. It doesn't have a fairy tale ending, but still manages to be optimistic. Well worth the read.

Gave it away for Christmas gift

Although bench-warmer Zeb Holloway feels like his life (in regard to sports and otherwise) is stuck in neutral, he gets an unexpected gift when his high school football team's star player is severely injured (requiring surgery), and the coach picks him to sub as quarterback - with the prospect of playing in the state championship game within a week. Though his friend and fellow teammate, Hawny, is thrilled for him, other people's reactions are more complex, including that of Zeb's himself. The star's girlfriend is suddenly interested in him as perhaps more than a friend; his mother's guilt is triggered about not being a better parent when she realizes she won't be able to attend the big game; and for the first time, a college offers Zeb a shot at a higher education, something he can't consider without financial aid. Not to mention the new girl in town who's also interested in Zeb but for reasons more complex than his overnight fame. For the first time in his life, Zeb realizes that he may have more options than he realizes when it comes to his future, something that complicates his life, even as he tries to focus on the upcoming game. "Game Change," which takes place over the course of the week before the fateful event, portrays a town and school whose pride centers around their football team, but whose residents are drawn in more detail than one might expect of a book with this plot.Thoughts: I assumed that this young adult novel would follow a more predictable trajectory, especially when it came to the Big Game. Boy, was I wrong but delighted to be so. Though the book is short, the author manages to flesh out many of its central characters, as well as provide both philosophical questions about growing up and more juvenile humor. Zeb is easy to root for, as a character who realizes quickly that getting one's dearest wish may be just the start of more problems.

This beautifully written YA novel spans a week in a senior's life in a small town in New Hampshire. The first day is a Saturday. The star QB is injured and won't be able to play in the state championship game the following next Saturday. It will fall to Zeb Holloway, who has never been off the bench, to attempt to lead the team to victory on the upcoming Saturday.Zeb is a polite, intelligent, young man who hunts deer with his uncle and works in his uncle's garage. He lives with his mother, a waitress, in a camper hooked up to his uncle's house. His best friend Hawny is very funny. Shortly after the book begins he develops a beautifully expressed love interest.The excitement of the big game is always surrounding everyone in this small town, however because Zeb has come to his opportunity to grasp at the chance to be the star of the championship game far into the season, it is complicated for him to understand the implications of what it will mean to his future. The only things he know are that people from his side of town never give up, and that he personally has an excellent throwing arm.I particularly loved the author's use of the five senses which he wove expertly through the story to give the reader a feeling of what it is like to live in a small town in New Hampshire in the season of November.Joseph Monninger really wrote a lovely story. I enjoy recommending it to YAs and to anyone who loves insightful stories about sports as a metaphor for life.

Joseph Monninger is a master storyteller with an understated and cumulatively beautiful prose style. His latest, Game Change, is one of the best sports novels I’ve ever read. It’s one of the best young adult novels too—but I want to point out that it transcends both categories: it’s bigger than simply a sports novel or a young adult novel. It’s a gripping, profound, and deeply moving novel about friendship, family loyalty, and what it means to be alive.Game Change is a page-turner, but it’s also one that takes you by surprise in subtle ways. It serves up a vivid portrait of small-town New Hampshire peopled by characters as interesting and sympathetic as any you’ll find in fiction. Characters that feel like your friends. For me, this was one of those rare novels that I was sorry to finish. It left tears in my eyes and a lump in my throat, and at the same time it left me with the exhilarated sense of having been immeasurably enriched and enlarged by the reading experience. What more can you ask?If you’re expecting a straightforward novel of football triumph, you may be disappointed by this book. But if you allow yourself to read it with an open heart, you’ll reap rewards that can only be offered by great and enduring works of literature. Highly, highly recommended.