Like it...Love it...Hate it...?

Knights of Hill Country: Hated it

My first choice this summer could only be classified as a "boy book" and I chose it because I liked the idea of the theme it was supposed to convey: Sports do not have to be everything in your life and that teams are important, but so is listening to your own voice. The theme was there, but it was too hard to read to find it...

Knights of Hill Country by Tim Tharp was fairly awful and frankly, painful to read! It does express all the themes it said it would and I liked the main character, Hampton, who does find his own voice during the course of the story. He is a great football player (though for the life of me I can't recall what his position was) and many chapters focus on his game plays and could be exciting to read, if you play or like football. My main problem with this book is that the author chose to write it in the voice of a dumb southern jock- literally- and I couldn't stand reading it.

Sample Paragraph: "I had me this math teacher one time back in junior high, Mr. Moon, told me it was too bad they'd passed them child labor laws 'cause I'd do a lot more good hauling coal up out of a mine twelve hours a day than I done wasting desk space in his classroom. Big, redheaded dumb jock, that's all he seen, and he wasn't the only one probably neither. But none of them folks knew what went on in my head. Not one had the least idea who the real me was." (page 4)

SERIOUSLY- UGH! I get what the author was going for and I even liked the main character and the story is okay. Basically, Hampton has to deal with a best friend who is jealous of him, deciding if it's okay to like a sort of "geeky" girl instead of a cheerleader, and a mom who doesn't really pay attention to him. Everyone underestimates this boy and I like that he works to find his way through it all and figure out who he is, even though no one is willing to help him. My only real problem was the horrible grammar - I couldn't get over it. But maybe it's just the teacher in me! You all might like it better. If you like sports stories, this one has some heart, so give it a try, but let me know if the grammar kills you too!