By Tim Green
A sixth-grader who can predict football plays before they happen tries to prove his gift to a real NFL team, if the coach, the security guards, and the team bully will ever let him near the field.
Troy White has a gift nobody believes: he can read a football defense and call the next play before the ball is even snapped. When his single mom lands a public-relations job with the Atlanta Falcons, Troy figures it's his one shot to prove what he can do and maybe help his favorite team win. But getting past a suspicious coach, tight stadium security, and a nasty teammate who wants him gone is a whole game of its own, and Troy has to decide who to trust with a talent that sounds too good to be real. Written by former NFL defensive end Tim Green, the football here is the real thing.
This is catnip for the football-obsessed child who thinks books are for everyone else. The plays are described by a man who lined up in the NFL, so the strategy feels authentic instead of decorated. Troy is an underdog fighting to be believed, which is a feeling a lot of children know cold. It moves fast, it's the first of a long series, and it rewards the kind of reader who already watches the game closely with a hero who watches it even closer.