The Underdogs

by Mike Lupica

#1 New York Times bestseller Mike Lupica tackles football!

Will Tyler can fly on a football field. He may not be the biggest running back around, but no one can touch him when it comes to hitting the hole and finding the end zone. And no one can match his love of the game. When Will has a football in hand, he may as well be flying for real because life can't touch him - his dad isn't so defeated, his town isn't so poor, and everyone has something to cheer for. All of which does him no good if the football season is canceled. With no funding for things like uniforms and a cared-for playing field, with seemingly every other family moving to find jobs, there simply isn't enough money or players for a season. Unless one kid can rally an entire town and give everyone a reason to believe . . .

For fans of his bestselling novels Travel Team and Million-Dollar Throw, Mike Lupica delivers a feel-good sports story that will have readers cheering where they sit.

“There's plenty of action for sports fans, and readers will root for Will and his teammates till the very last page.” –School Library Journal
 
“[F]ootball fans will…respond to the detailed and exciting game action once the season gets rolling and find inspiration in Will and his teammates' tenacity.” –Publisher’s Weekly
 
“Will's ingenuity and loyalty are encouraging, causing readers to want to cheer him on as he makes his dream come true.” –VOYA

 

Genres: Sports, Realistic Fiction, Fiction, Young Adult, Football, Middle Grade, Childrens

280 pages, Hardcover

Published September 20, 2011

About the author

Michael Lupica is an author and American newspaper columnist, best known for his provocative commentary on sports in the New York Daily News and his appearances on ESPN.

Reviews

[Jeffrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

No coach, no money for uniforms, not enough boys to play football. No problem. Will Tyler, the likeable hero of The Underdogs will find a way to solve the problems facing his team.

Mike Lupica, the New York Daily News columnist, has penned several sport books about kids in baseball and basketball. Typically the kids have to overcome obstacles on the field, but also off of the field. I grew up reading a lot of sports books for kids and have read other Lupica novels. They are high quality entertaining novels for kids, who like to read about sports.

In this novel, Will Tyler is a star halfback, who fumbled the ball last year in the league championship game. A year later, he dreams of going back to the championship game and winning. However, Lupica skillfully places this novel squarely in the economic times we live in today. Tyler’s town, Forbes, Pennsylvania, is in economic decline. The sneaker factory has closed leaving half the town unemployed. Will's father is delivering the mail and going to school at night to try to learn new skills. The town is trying to scrape by with limited resources so it decides to cancel the football program for middle school. The team Tyler played for has no coach and no uniforms. It needs $10,000 just to play.

Tyler finds a way to get a sponsor to put up the money to allow the school to field a team. Now he has to find a coach and 10 other kids to play football. He convinces his father, who used to be a star high school football star that he needs football and should coach the team. Tyler finds only 9 other boys to play.

The problem is that one of the boy’s from last year’s team has an ex football star father who loudly ridicules his son from the sidelines. The boy, Troy, will not play. Tyler knows a girl Hannah who has game. He convinces his father, the coach, and then the rest of the team to let her join. This is not a novel about girls playing football. Lupica has Hannah join the team, but its Tyler's story and Hannah playing football is just one of the subplots in the story.

Now that the team has 11 players and a coach it has to play the games. Lupica doesn’t bore young readers with a lot of sports vernacular. The prose is readable and easily accessible.

Tyler’s team faces more obstacles along the way to the big game including the loss of a star player to injury and the loss of Tyler's best friend, who has to move away mid season, but the team gets help from an unexpected quarter and Tyler gets to once again go for the winning score in the big game.

It’s a fun book for fans of juvenile sports books.

[Zach · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the book The Underdogs written by Mike Lupica. The book is about a boy named Will who is trying to save his school’s football team. Will is the main character in this story. He is a kid that likes football and plays for his school. His dad is a secondary character. He loves football and he played sever since he was a kid. He hurt his knee which had happened during his last game in high school. His knee was so bad that he never played again. Ben Clark, Hannah, and Toby Keenan are other secondary kids in the story.
His school was poor and does not have enough money for the seventh grade football team that Will plays on. Will decides to take a chance and write to New Balance Shoe Company to see if they will sponsor them. The man wrote back to Will and said how touched he was by his letter. He loved football and knew how he felt because he played football when he was his age. So he sent ten thousand dollars of sponsorship money and said he will be glad to see him play soon. Will received a check from New Balance and he kept it under his bed so his dad would not find out because he wanted to surprise him. But then he had to get a team, coaches, equipment, and permission from the school to start a football team. So he completed all of them except a coach.

[S · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5/5

[Jude Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

Decent book, very interesting idea of them constantly having to face challenges, that threaten there chance at a football season. Got a bit redundant, but I loved the struggle the main character faced with his father. I won't specify to avoid spoilers, but an amazing idea to include. Also, its hinted at through out the entire book, building up a lot of curiosity in the background, while not being the main subject of the book. Very clever writing.

[Drew Seifert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mike Lupica is highly regarded sports author in the writing community. Writing about almost any sport you could think of. Giving very realistic scenarios and teaching the readers hidden life lessons. ”The Underdogs” continues on with that trend. It’s is a very suspenseful book that ropes you in, making you never want to put it down. The main character Will Tyler a 12 year old all-star running back and is on the brink of losing his football season because everyone has left his city due to local shoe factory closing down, leaving his city and school with no money and barely any kids to support the football program. Though the odds are stacked against Will he manages a way to get enough money and kids to have a team. This book teaches young kids to never give up on something you dream about and shows them that no matter what you should always take matters into your own hands in a way that interest them. Because of the message this book sends out I would recommend it to anyone, even someone who doesn’t like football.

[Rafael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Underdogs: Book Review


The Underdogs by Mike Lupica is about a young boy named Will Tyler which is trying to save the football team in Forbes Pennsylvania. Will Tyler was a great football player “ nobody can match his love for the game” this is how the author describes him. Forbes was a very small town in Pennsylvania, before the Forbes Flyers factory left it was a nice, peaceful town. Now it is a very poor and sad place. I can describe this book as mediocre, I consider the story great but I think it's not written good.
The setting of the book is one of the keys of the story. Maybe one of its only bright spot. The setting is Forbes, Pennsylvania a poor town next to a richer town named Castle Rock. The author describes it as: “We were poor, our town was poor”. It describes how the characters see their town, people were leaving as a result of jobs leaving. This makes the challenge harder for Will as he tries to find player to join the team. He figures that everyone was leaving and that made it a harder challenge for him. If this town wasn't poor the story would lose it’s only good thing. In context the setting was great for the story. One of its key bases and made the story a little bit better.
The characters in this book were terrible, Lupica only describes fully one character, Will the main character was a good player but he was a little bit of a narcissist. You could consider him trying to get all the attention of the world. He was a great player but he just showed of. Him being a narcissist made him a sexist, Hannah the only girl in the team was the eleventh player they needed to be able to compete. With this Will decides to let her in at the last moment. He created excuses for her not to get in, she was better than him that also bothered him. “ Give the ball to me, I can make things happen” This says that he didn't trust his team, he wanted to do everything. I do not consider Will a hero but more of a villain. It was a very bad part of the book, not great for the overall review.
The conflict, a very plain, boring and not interesting conflict. The base of the story was great but a good conflict might raise it grade. This conflict about a poor team trying to beat their rivals is a bad, boring conflict. The author could have done better and made it a deeper conflict. “If we don't beat them, this will be for nothing”.
You could have wrote something that actually meant something and was good.
In context the setting and story are the things that attach you to the story and it is just terrible. If the conflict was better maybe someone could read the book.
In overall review you could consider this book as a bad one but maybe some people do like it. Maybe a 10 year old who is really into football. He has to like to read and to be patient. They also have to be good readers and understand words that are a little hard. 3 stars is what this book deserves, a great story that gets your attention for almost all the book. It is totally readable. Once you get deeper in the book you get a little bored because it does get a little boring. A bad book that can keep you hooked in.

[5sagun_adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a good book about how when the odds are stacked against you like they were against the protagonist Will Tyler and his town of Forbes Pennsylvania you may still be able to achieve greatness with the help of others. Will Tyler had to go a long way to bring a football season to his team, starting by finding $10,000 to cover equipment. He tested his luck by emailing the owner of new balance athletic apparel seeing if the company would sponsor the team. The unlikely chance somehow worked in Will's favor as new balance also redo the field. Now all that's left for Will is finding 11 people to field a team. He has a struggle finding a tenth player until a girl by the name of Hannah says she wants to try out for the team. Needin a player the rest of the team had to allow it. She becomes the kicker and plays a key roll to the team. The next problem Will faces is finding a coach. The old coach was moving so that wasn't an option. Will had to go to his dad for help. Will was still worried about finding a 12th man in case of an injury. Will goes to his old friend Toby with the crazy dad. After a long discussion between them Toby turns it down because he can't take another year of his dad yelling at him. Forbes would have to go with 11. They were expected to meet their rivals in championship this year so they had high expectations. Midway into the year Toby changed his mind and gave the team 12 players. About 5 games into the season Toby's dad had done enough criticizing. Will's dad had only one way to deal with that, he told him if he had so much advice he should coach. So he did. The only problems in between them and the championship was overcoming an injury and a player moving in the semifinals. That put the with 10 players in the championship against their rivals. Will Tyler asked the whole town of Forbes to support them and act as their 11th man. The game was close until the end with all of Forbes behind Will and his team. A last minute touchdown won the game for Forbes and won the rivalry. All in all this was a great book about how to overcome adversity

[Diego · Rating 2 out of 5]

The UnderDogs Book Review.
This book is about a kid named Will Tyler; Will lives in a small, poor town called Forbes. The biggest problem in Underdogs is that Will doesn't have equipment nor players to play in the tournament. My honest review is that this book is mediocre.
First off this is a slow book. For example, it's on page 140 and the season hasn’t even started, and they’re still talking about if Hanna should join the team. Example: “If he had to hang up and tell the Grayson's that their daughter isn't playing” (140) How is the book halfway done and they’re still making the teams, by this point, you’d expect things to move quicker. Something that was annoying was that the story was too predictable. From the beginning, we knew that (Spoiler alert) the Bulldogs would win the final and that Hannah would join the team. If you read a book that is too predictable, then what's the point of even reading in. This made it boring since you know what will happen most of the story. And you could see that the author knew this since he tried to make unexpected things to happen, like Will’s best friend leaving Forbes or Toby’s dad would become a coach too.
Something I will give the author is that it did have exceptional dialogue that helped the plot to move smoother. For example “Yeah it was, put it this way ‘if this was a punt, pass and kick contest and you needed a kick to stay alive, well, you lose thrill.” This shows how well the author made the characters express themselves without sounding awkward or weird which helped the boring book go a by a little quicker.
I would recommend this book to young football fanatics; no one else would honestly enjoy or be interested in this book at all. This book deserves two stars, a slow, boring book but thanks to how well described the author made the characters, and it made it pretty easy to read through.

[Dj Bynum · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about a 12 year old runningback named Will Tyler that has the passion to play football and fight for his team. The Book the Underdogs is a great book for football lovers and a inspiration for people that dont believe in miracles.I liked this book because it tells people to never give up on your dream and that they also come true.This book is a great book for children, parents, teachers, and coaches because it tells people my age or even if an adult is struggling with a job or finance that there are good days and bad days and not to quit when it is a bad day.This book is also good for people that lost a family member because Will lost his mother at a very young age.

Will lives in a town called Forbes,Pa.Since the team doesnt have anymore money and they need 10,000 just for uniforms Will writes to the National Company and aprooves then the team was back in business. The team still needed a coach so they decided to hire Will father.During this Will meets a girl named Hannah that is very athletic. She is very interested in playing football. Their relationship is starting to get closer. Will wins the championship game against the best team by scoring the final touchdown.This is a great ending to this book because Will team finally a championship and that he made up for his mistake which he tripped into a ditch last year. This is also good because Will football team prooved to the town that dreams come true.


The things I didnt like about the book was that it more than it shouldve been so Mike Lipuca really got in to something. But as I said this is a great book for children and for adults.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book and I like the author. Mike Lupica has written a lot of sports books that I plan on reading. This was my first book from the author so plan on reading the others. Even though this book did not have an around the world adventure, it was about a small adventure that one boys team had. I do not know a lot about football and I like to learn, so I did like learning new things in this book.
The Underdogs is a story about boy and his team that love to play football but do nit have enough money and players to go through the season. Will Tyler has his heart set on playing this season. The city does not have enough money to pay for the team. So Will writes a letter to the new balance company saying how much this matters to him and what his problem is. New balance becomes inspired and sponsors Will's team. They then have a team and play a guy short to win the little league championship.
It is hard to connect to this book because I live in a wealthy/ well supported neighborhood. But there was a time when I did not live in Highland Park and my family did not have enough money to pay for the things we wanted. We did not go skiing or do gymnastics as little kids because there was not enough money. My parents did not ask for money but earned it by taking on other jobs and hours.
4TH QUARTER!!!!! THIS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED A SPORTS BOOK.

[Tammi Peterman]

This is an intermediate chapter book suited for grades 4-7. This is a great independent read-though it may be challenging, the content and play by play action will keep the student motivated to keep reading.

I selected this book because the students interest inventory indicated he enjoys playing football. The student also indicated that he enjoys adventure stories and while this is not a traditional adventure story the struggle Will Tyler experiences to fund and build a place to play and build a team even after many of the players are forced to leave the town because of the poor local economy are real life adventures. The piece has plenty of play by play football action which I think the student will enjoy and keep him motivated to read. The amount of play by play action and football references will make this a fast read for the student. The book touches on a lot of social issues kids in the age group face including family tragedy, financial hardships and fitting in which are woven nicely into a story about football.

Hook for student: This book was written by a very well known sports writer and ESPN commentator. This book is about a boy your age who loses his football team but he does everything he can to put a team together so he can play again. Will deals with a lot of obstacles to play football but he proves when you really love something you will find a way to make it work just as Will has to find a way to make his team work.

[Noah Urness · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is Underdogs, by Mike Lupica, and is the best book I’ve ever read. This book was absolutely outstanding, with quite a bit of suspense, and there are some hard hitting spots in the book.

A brief description of this book is... The main character named Jackson is the QB for his football team in Houston, Texas, which is a big football community. His football team comes from a small town just on the outside of Texas, but it turns out in this book that it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog, and that line really took place in this book, because SPOILER ALERT- Jackson carried his team to a state championship! Jackson is the star player/QB of his team, but don’t be fooled, he’s got to have a little help from his team, with another star player named Griff, who is the running back, those to together are trouble. These two main characters are both 13 years old, and I really like them because of how positive they are.

I think the theme is... no matter how big, or small you are you can always accomplish anything if you work hard at it, this sentence goes along with my favorite quote in the book, and that quote is... it’s not the size of the dog in the fight, it’s the size of the fight in the dog. This sentence means basically to never give up.

[Caden · Rating 4 out of 5]

A 12-year-old halfback with a huge passion for football fights to keep his team on the field.
Will Tyler keeps reliving the final play of the previous year’s championship, when his team came so close before his fumble caused the loss to their rivals across the river. Unfortunately, budget cuts may keep the town from fielding his team this year. Like other manufacturing towns, Forbes, Pennsylvania has lost jobs and businesses that might sponsor a sports team. Will takes a chance, writes to a national company and comes up with the funds to keep the team going. That was almost the easy part: The team no longer has a coach, former players are not interested and skepticism abounds. One of the few who want to play is Hannah, a new girl in town with great ability and as much grit as Will. For Will’s dad, who has agreed to coach, and his teammates, this is nearly a deal-breaker. Sports-loving readers will identify with Will, whose heart and determination leap off the page. His budding friendship with Hannah rings true and contributes to his growth on and off the field. The relationship between Will and his widowed dad provides an emotional touchstone, while the desperation of a small town trying to hang on permeates the story.

[Joe Gerard · Rating 4 out of 5]

How would you like it if you came within a few yards of beating the football team you despise the most? Will Tyler didn't like it, and I'm pretty sure, if you were in his shoes, you wouldn't either. The Underdogs, by Mike Lupica is about how Will Tyler came within a few yards of beating his rival football team in the championship. Plus, his football team he played on wasn't able to play anymore, because the business that funded it, went out of business. After he hears the bad news, Will goes to the park, and meets a girl named Hannah who is the best football player he has ever seen. She can kick, she can pass, she can catch. After that, Will writes a letter to the CEO of new balance, seeing if they can fund Will's team. Will they? Read and find out.

I thought the book was good. The main reason, the plot was realistic and believable. Like it was an actual, true story. The book had good imagery, it was like I was actually watching a movie. The characters were believable. I would recommend this book to anyone who is into realistic fiction, or sports.

[Exander · Rating 4 out of 5]

Personal Response:
I really liked this book, it relates to me because we have a small team at our school. I can also relate to this book because I have a love for football and the main character also has a love for football. This book shows the hardships that some people have to go through like getting people out for a sport or even trying to love a thing that you loved but got taken away from you.
Plot Summary:
Will Tyler is a boy from Forbes who can fly on the field. The thing is he might not have another season because his school says there's not enough money in the budget to have a team. Will will try anything to get a season and he tries the hail mary pass. Will writes a letter to New Balance hoping to get sponsored by them.
Recommendations:
I would recommend this book to anyone who has a love for sports even if it isn't football because you can then relate to the character through that. I would also recommend it to anyone who cant read well or doesn't like to read because it is a very easy read. I would also recommend it to anyone who wants to read a good book

[Luke_C1 · Rating 5 out of 5]

This Mike Lupica book, the Underdogs is about Will Tyler, who lives in a bankrupt town and plays football. When his more than 1/2 his team leaves Forbes to find another job opportunity, Will struggles to field enough players for a team.
I really enjoyed this book because it shows an important theme never to quit and to always believe you can reach the finish line. I loved the book because I'm a lacrosse player that is trying to field a team in China. While not everyone can relate as closely as I can, the theme still is strong enough. This is a book that from the start you won't want to put down. Mike Lupica writes it in a way that you can find yourself inside Will Tyler and can feel the emotion in him.
If you're a football fan and don't like to read fantasy as much, this is a must read for you, if you are not a sporty person, you will still find connections and understand the book well.

[Troy Butler · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think how Forbese shoe factory shut down and everyone lost their jobs was a huge let down by the Flyers. Will's dad now works as a mail man for a dying town. The city council didn't have enough money for a 12 year old football team. That must've been bad for Will and his friends. Will wrote a letter to a new shoe company who put the Flyers out of business, ironic I think. The shoe company put everything they need to have a football team so Will got his season back. Will's team went 4-2 in the regular season and were in the championship game against Castle Rock. The coach was Will's dad and the Defensive coach was Toby's dad. During their season Will's best friend, Tim, moved to Arizona and their quarterback got hurt. They had nine boys on the team, and one girl, I think it'd be weird to have a girl on the boys football team. They played Castle Rock and won 22-16, I think that was cool to see the Underdogs, figuratively and literally, to beat the best team of their conference.

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great book because it shows how a team that had nothing, and worked it way up to the top to win their league championship. Despite all of there disadvantages, the bulldogs pulled off becoming a true underdog team. I also really liked this book because the coach of the team, who was a former star football player before his dreams were shattered when he severely injured his knee, got the chance to get back on the field and coach the team to victory. In this book it also shows how Will Tyler, who blew the championship game the year before because of a fumble, got a chance to redeem himself to become the key culprit of the team by intercepting the ball and running it back for a pick 6 to win the championship game in overtime. This book is a great book because it teaches morals of great teamwork and to believe that you can do all things.

[Spencer]

Readers will feel the hardships of Will Tyler's football team, and his great passion for football. A twelve year old can only do so much, when it comes to funding the whole team with money so they can have equipment to play. Will did everything considering the circumstances, he even mailed a letter to a factory to see if they could sponsor the team to get money. In this book mike lupica really shows you how much Will loves the game of football and what he will do not only for him but for his team as well. Mike also puts together both serious and uplifting moments throughout this book. The constant conflict between will and trying to get his team back on track keeps you reading to see what he will do next. I think most teens that enjoy sports and have passion for sports will enjoy this book because it shows how much one person can do for something he/she loves.

[Cole Syring]

This was a really good book to read about. One of the main reasons I wanted to read this book is because it had to deal with football. I like to read books that deal with football. I thought it was cool how they started the book with the main character running for a touchdown on a field by himself. Through out the book he would always act like it was just him on the field and nobody else. That was cool how he could picture that and score a touchdown almost every time. How he would be with friends was different because they would not stop asking him about football because he was super good at it. They always wanted to talk about it with him. When the final game came he was nervous but stayed calm and just did what he loved to do, play football. It was awesome that he knew he could do good as long as he stayed focused and was ready for the ball to come to him.

[Bronson · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was about a football team that had no money. Will tried to find a way to get a coach uniforms and players. He wrote a letter to New balance. The owner decided he would sponsor there team. New Balance bought them cleats helmets pads and jerseys.
I didn't like it because Will sounded selfish at some points. Will was selfish when he wouldn't let a girl play with them at first. Will's dad wouldn't help his son at football. Will couldn't get Toby to play at first but he had to talk to him for a long time before got convinced.
I liked it because it had sports involved in the book. I liked how the underdog team with ten players ended up being good. They didn't seem good at first. They eventually played good. They went on to win the championship.

[Jake Delossantos · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Underdogs, one of my favorite sports books of all time. Mike Lupica captures many athletes dream of being those who rise to the top and win, overcoming any challenges that stand in the way. In Underdogs, many of those challenges arise from off the field, rather than on. From the ground-up, Will Tyler does not let anything stop him. Embarassment, is what Will fears more than injury. Through his mistakes, Will only finds himself getting better and better. This inspirational story is one that all athletes should read. While it is enjoyable, it could also teach discipline and that you have to make mistakes, to succeed.

[Samuel Gerend · Rating 2 out of 5]

In the book, "The Underdogs" there is a lot of fight from kids. They show how they want to be champions and want to win everything. I thought this was different because in middle school I would think it would be for fun.

This book to me wasn't very interesting because it is shown toward the audience of middle schoolers. However, the book shows that kids love to play football. I like how it really gets into the minds of the players and shows what they think about the game, their life, or football in general. I didn't like how it is childish, to me it was. Overall, I didn't find the book very good, but it was okay.

I would recommend this book to younger audiences, lower than high school.

[Nick Bruns · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rate this as a 4 star book. The main character lives a small town that the main business, and this kid trys to make a hail Mary pass by trying to get football back in the town. Then there are some ups and down in the path but I won't spoil the ending, but I think this is a very good book. I thought this book was a fairly easy to follow. I would recommend this book to any sports fan because everybody likes underdogs.

[Jeren · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Underdogs is a good book if the reader is in middle school and if the reader likes football. The book did not have an expansive use of vocab words. It did, however, have good descriptions of character and the environment around them. I would not recommend this book to anyone in high school or older unless the reader has a lower reading level. I would recommend this book to any middle school aged boy that either enjoys playing football or is interested in the sport.

[Stephanie | Books_and_Steph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Star Rating:4
Book Rating: PG
Note: Middle Grade Read

This book was more enjoyable than I thought it was going to be. I read this along with my 10 year old son....who's obsessed with football. Not only did this book teach him about sportsmanship, friendship, dedication, and striving for what you believe in, it also taught him a little about gender equality. Great read!

[DeAnna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm neither a teenage boy nor a sports fan, but for some reason I really love Mike Lupica's books about kids who play sports. They make me feel the camaraderie of a really good sports team without actually making me join one!

[Brian Kirkham]

I really like the book and how much love for the game will has and desire to play the game of football. He sacrifices a lot play even when there looks like there is no support he is determined to find a way.

[Brogan Bennett · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story is about a kid in a collapsed town who loves football and is trying to get 11 kids to join the team in order for them to have a team. He is struggling with past failures and just wants to win.

[Darrion Lucas · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book is very interesting . I t made it better because I love sports . This book shows how if you got a dream follow it never give up and you can succeed . If you like sports this book is perfect for you and i recommend it SPOILER ALERT!!! They win the championship .