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A review by jenbsbooks
The Boys of Riverside: A Deaf Football Team and a Quest for Glory by Thomas Fuller
3.5
3.5 stars. I liked this. Interesting and informative. I would recommend it to others. It could be a tad on the dry/documentary side and didn't really have anything I wanted to stop and highlight and discuss. I have a little more background in deaf culture than I'd assume the average reader would have (my sister is an interpreter, I took several years of ASL/Interpreting classes). A lot of the background info on deafness and the deaf community was a tad redundant for me, but understandably essentially included for those without the background knowledge.
I'm NOT a football fan (I have enjoyed my son's basketball and some books featuring that sport) and hadn't ever heard of 8-man teams. I think I tuned out of some of the sports talk.
The prologue is 1st person, the author telling us(the reader) how he came about writing the book. It switches to 3rd person (past tense) for the book. 37 chapters, all with unique chapter headings. As I finished the book and looked back, the headings didn't really jog my memory of the contents as sometimes happens.
The book featured a few individuals. I struggled to really remember the individual names or stories. There was quite a bit of history of deaf culture along the way. As far as playing football, it was interesting to think about how the lack of hearing could be both a detriment, and an advantage at times. There was an almost deaf boy on one of my son's basketball teams, I remember as the crowds on the other side would make derogatory calls, the student body on our side would chant "he can't hear you" ... I laughed out loud when the deaf team in the book was playing another deaf team and was so excited because they could finally trash talk! I learned that the "huddle" came about with because of two deaf teams playing each other, attempting to hide the signs/conversation - and was adapted by all other football teams.
Covid got a mention, as the storyline/history overlaps that time. Interesting to think of the impact the isolation had on deaf students.
No proFanity. Completely clean. Other words I note - route (pronounced "rowt" in audio), and then there was "rout" being said also. Snuck. Scrum. Had to look up a couple of words: peripatetic and Pyrrhic, a couple other lesser used P words, prevaricate and prescience.
I got the audio and Kindle copy from the library. The text copy has some photos. v
I'm NOT a football fan (I have enjoyed my son's basketball and some books featuring that sport) and hadn't ever heard of 8-man teams. I think I tuned out of some of the sports talk.
The prologue is 1st person, the author telling us(the reader) how he came about writing the book. It switches to 3rd person (past tense) for the book. 37 chapters, all with unique chapter headings. As I finished the book and looked back, the headings didn't really jog my memory of the contents as sometimes happens.
The book featured a few individuals. I struggled to really remember the individual names or stories. There was quite a bit of history of deaf culture along the way. As far as playing football, it was interesting to think about how the lack of hearing could be both a detriment, and an advantage at times. There was an almost deaf boy on one of my son's basketball teams, I remember as the crowds on the other side would make derogatory calls, the student body on our side would chant "he can't hear you" ... I laughed out loud when the deaf team in the book was playing another deaf team and was so excited because they could finally trash talk! I learned that the "huddle" came about with because of two deaf teams playing each other, attempting to hide the signs/conversation - and was adapted by all other football teams.
Covid got a mention, as the storyline/history overlaps that time. Interesting to think of the impact the isolation had on deaf students.
No proFanity. Completely clean. Other words I note - route (pronounced "rowt" in audio), and then there was "rout" being said also. Snuck. Scrum. Had to look up a couple of words: peripatetic and Pyrrhic, a couple other lesser used P words, prevaricate and prescience.
I got the audio and Kindle copy from the library. The text copy has some photos. v