John D. Orsborn (Children's Literature)
Hampton Green can stop time. At least that’s how he describes his amazing abilities as a linebacker for the Kenisaw Knights football team. A local hero and star, Hampton is only comfortable on the football field. Dependent on his best friend and Knight’s star running back Blaine Keller, Hampton never thought about his future. That is, until he meets Sara Reynolds, better known at school as “Bush Girl.” For Hampton, she is a breath of fresh air. Yet he is reluctant to show who he really is, especially as Blaine’s promising football career is slowly disintegrating due to a knee injury from the previous season. A fifth straight undefeated season in Oklahoma high school football is at stake for the Knights. For Blaine and Hampton it is the chance to leave Kenisaw. Author Tim Tharp creates a believable, lovable character in Hampton Green. Like so many football tales, this is a story about the promise of release due to football success, and the emptiness of life without football. However, unlike many of the movies, Mr. Tharp has created realistic characters. Hampton is not particularly smart but can get by. He is not a complex character, but there is depth, which comes through in the interesting detail and dialogue. The character Sara, unlike many female characters in such stories, is not out to be a savior of the dumb jock, but rather sees value in Hampton. This is an excellent story with an amazing climax, and a good addition to any middle or high school library. 2006, Alfred A. Knopf, $16.95 and $18.99. Ages 12 to adult.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, July 1, 2006 (Vol. 74, No. 13))
The Kennishaw Knights personify Oklahoma hill country, where guys play football, drink beer, talk about sex (but not love), and players seek local immortality by achieving a fifth straight undefeated season. Tharp unveils the anger, frustration and uncertainty covered up by the Knights' swagger. Star linebacker Hampton Green is a force on the field but finds himself kowtowing to Blaine, the team's cocky running back. Narrating the story, Hampton feels like Blaine's henchman, someone there to carry out the boss's erratic orders. Loyalty prevents him from distancing himself from his lifelong friend. Blaine, desperately pursuing glory and playing George to Hampton's Lenny, charges into reckless decisions assuming Hampton will always have his back. Jealousy, rage and tenderness are wrapped around the story's core theme of self-discovery. An excess of down-home similes ("squirming like a bunch of copperheads on hot asphalt") is a minor drawback. However, this intriguing work demands an audience. 2006, Knopf, 240p, $16.95. Category: Fiction. Ages 13 up. Starred Review. © 2006 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Claire Rosser (KLIATT Review, July 2006 (Vol. 40, No. 4))
A football story from Oklahoma, set in a small town that lives for its high school team. The narrator is Hampton Green, the star linebacker, who is so humble it hurts. He and his mother have been barely functioning since Hamp’s father abandoned them; they live in a rental house on the poor side of town, and Hamp is totally dependent on the attention of Blaine’s family, who has nurtured his interest in football. Blaine is the quarterback, but an injury is keeping him from a college scholarship and his rage is hurting the team. So the story is as much about a friendship that is confining as it is about football. Hamp’s life is improving. His mother is dating an interesting, good man. But the town gossip is that this man once betrayed them when he quit the football team abruptly a generation ago. Finally Hamp gets the true story about that so-called betrayal, which gives him a new way to look at the traditions of his town. Hamp makes a new friend, Sara, which is evolving into a romance, even though Blaine ridicules her. Hamp is of course troubled when his loyalty to Sara conflicts with his closeness to his best friend. There is plenty of football action; but essentially the story is about an outgrown friendship and Hamp’s gradual belief in his own skills and intelligence. Category: Hardcover Fiction. KLIATT Codes: JS--Recommended for junior and senior high school students. 2006, Random House, Knopf, 233p., $16.95. Ages 12 to 18.

Lee D. Gordon (Library Media Connection, January 2007)
In a small town in Oklahoma, football history is about to be made. The Kennisaw Knights are undefeated for the fifth straight season. The quarterback, Blaine, is set on leading his team to victory. Blaine's good buddy and story narrator, Hampton Green, is an extraordinary linebacker with potential for a football scholarship. Blaine is a loud-mouthed, cocky, hot-tempered youth who influences the gentle, introspective, and loyal Hampton to do things he really isn't happy about. The big game is lost, and Blaine goes looking for the rival who he feels is responsible. Hampton is uneasy with the situation and saves the day by unloading the gun Blaine has brought with him. The two main characters show development. Hampton begins to question his relationship to Blaine and how it affects him, while Blaine's anger and disappointment leads him to self-destructive behavior. Hampton's grammar is that of a teen linebacker who hasn't paid much attention in school but is quite eloquent in the use of similes and metaphors. This is a true "guy" book and a good read. Recommended. 2006, Alfred A. Knopf (Random House), 240pp., $16.95 hc. Ages 14 to 18.

Elizabeth Bush (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, October 2006 (Vol. 60, No. 2))
Narrator Hampton is one of the good guys—gifted and determined on defense, shy and gentlemanly around girls, loyal in his friendship with fellow Kennisaw Knight, Blaine, who got him started in football back in grade school. Not that life is perfect—there’s no dad at home, Mom runs with a new man every month or so, and the pressure is on for the Kennisaw Knights to win their fifth straight undefeated season and match the record set decades ago in their football-crazed Oklahoma town. Just as Hamp’s star is on the rise, though, Blaine is struggling with a knee injury that threatens his college prospects, and he’s not taking the matter graciously. In fact, nearly all Blaine’s scarcely contained rage gets directed at Hamp. He insists that Hamp get a girlfriend worthy of a football player and sets him up on a disastrous date with a luscious man-eater. He impedes Hamp’s every attempt to get closer to Sara, the one girl with whom he’s comfortable. He attributes his own gridiron missteps and inabilities to Hamp’s lack of aggression. And, worst of all, he drags Hamp into his own violent confrontations with opponents he blames for ruining his career. Tharp’s somewhat old-fashioned take on high-school rivalries and rumbles could play out among Hinton’s Outsiders, and Hamp’s “Boy howdy” twang might set eyes rolling north of the Mason-Dixon line. There’s a reason this plot is a hardy perennial, though—high-school sport fortunes do rise and fall, lovable good girls and tempting bad girls do confuse the teen heart, and loyalty and stupidity do occasionally walk hand in hand. Hamp musters the sense and confidence to muddle his way through, and for that readers in the stands can raise a cheer. Review Code: R -- Recommended. (c) Copyright 2006, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2006, Knopf, 240p.; Reviewed from galleys, $18.99 and $16.95. Grades 6-10.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2007)
Hotshot Blaine thinks he's the star of the football team, but it's steadfast Hampton who makes the plays. Hampton's intellect and emotions have been hobbled by Blaine's friendship, but his honesty and humility steer him beyond blind loyalty. Well-written characters, thoughtful examination of such issues as institutionalized racism, and fast-paced action diminish any sense of narrative dTja vu. Category: Older Fiction. 2006, Knopf, 233pp, 16.95, 18.99. Ages 12 to 14. Rating: 3: Recommended, satisfactory in style, content, and/or illustration.