Name: Game Changer
ISBN: 9781419736971

Tommy Greenwald

Thirteen-year-old Teddy Youngblood is in a coma fighting for his life after an unspecified football injury at training camp. His family and friends flock to his bedside to support his recovery--and to discuss the events leading up to the tragic accident. Was this an inevitable result of playing a violent sport, or was something more sinister happening on the field that day? Told in an innovative, multimedia format combining dialogue, texts, newspaper articles, transcripts, an online forum, and Teddy's inner thoughts, Game Changer explores the joyous thrills and terrifying risks of America's most popular sport.

Game Changer

Lynn Braden

Teddy is in a coma from what appears to have been an accident during a preseason high school football practice.  As an incoming freshman, Teddy along with his fellow freshman teammates participate in a game called the Rookie Rumble that is coached by the seniors on the football team.  At the end of the game, Teddy passes out and is taken to the hospital.  Teddy's entire family converges on the hospital, including his estranged mother, to speak to him and give him positive words of encouragement.  In the meantime, online conversations and a therapist transcript with a player named Ethan hint at something more that may have happened during the Rookie Rumble.

Game Changer is told through online conversations, transcripts, and Teddy's thoughts.  This format actually enhances the story because it precipitates opportunities for the reader to make inferences about what may have happened to Teddy.  The characters are developed as their thoughts are outlined during these conversations.  Real issues of violence in football as well as hazing are addressed in this book. My only complaint is that the ending seems a little to pat to be believable, but overall, Game Changer is a very well written book that deals with timely topics surrounding youth football.