Muckers
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- $4.99
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
Former ESPN sportscaster Sandra Neil Wallace makes her young adult debut with a historical fiction novel that School Library Journal recommends to fans of Friday Night Lights in a starred review.
Felix “Red” O’Sullivan’s world is crumbling around him: the mine that employs most of town is on the brink of closing, threatening to shutter the entire town and his high school with it. But Red’s got his own burdens to bear: his older brother, Bobby, died in the war, and he’s been struggling to follow in his footsteps ever since. That means assuming Bobby’s old position as quarterback and leading the last-ever Muckers team to the championship.
But the only way for the hardscrabble Muckers to win State is to go undefeated and tackle their biggest rival, Phoenix United, which would be something of a miracle. Luckily, miracles can happen all the time on the field.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Former ESPN newscaster and Little Joe author Wallace presents an unsettling yet inspiring novel, based on true events, about a racially mixed high-school football team's last season. Set in the autumn of 1950 in the grim mining town of Hatley, Ariz., the story is narrated by quarterback Felix "Red" O'Sullivan, who carries too many burdens on his slight five-foot-seven frame: grief over his brother Bobby's death at Iwo Jima five years earlier; sorrow over his mother's resulting mental deterioration; resentment at his embittered father; and the weight of the "scrappy but undersized" Muckers' final chance to win the state championship. With the mine nearly barren, Red's graduating class will be the last for Hatley High. Wallace deftly depicts the atmosphere of an era when segregation in Hatley, between Mexicans and "Anglos" was standard, the Korean War had just begun, and anti-communism was on the rise. While football fans will savor the play-by play descriptions, Wallace provides enough emotional drama to create a rich work of historical fiction that will draw in even those without an interest in the sport. Ages 12 up.
