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Dinged
A star football player watches his father deteriorate from injuries he suffered playing the very same sport
Caleb Springer is the up-and-coming star freshman quarterback on the high school football team, which isn't a surprise considering his dad, Sammy Springer, was an NFL superstar and is now the town celebrity. College scouts are already snooping around Caleb, and his future seems set.
But just as Caleb’s glory days begin, his dad starts to change. He’s forgetting things and getting angry at random times. Caleb is forced to confront a bleak possibility: The sport that gives him so much status and self-worth might be the cause of his dad’s strange behavior. Will Caleb keep playing the sport of his dreams, even if he knows how dangerous it can be?
Caleb Springer is the up-and-coming star freshman quarterback on the high school football team, which isn't a surprise considering his dad, Sammy Springer, was an NFL superstar and is now the town celebrity. College scouts are already snooping around Caleb, and his future seems set.
But just as Caleb’s glory days begin, his dad starts to change. He’s forgetting things and getting angry at random times. Caleb is forced to confront a bleak possibility: The sport that gives him so much status and self-worth might be the cause of his dad’s strange behavior. Will Caleb keep playing the sport of his dreams, even if he knows how dangerous it can be?
288 pages, Hardcover
First published September 6, 2022
60 people are currently reading
330 people want to read
About the author
Tommy Greenwald
50 books191 followersTommy Greenwald's book GAME CHANGER has been named an Amazon Best Book Of The Month, a 2019 YALSA Top Ten Pick for Reluctant Readers, and a Junior Library Guild Premier Selection. Tommy is also the author of the CRIMEBITERS, CHARLIE JOE JACKSON and PROJECT Z series, among many other books for children.
Day-job-wise, Tommy is the Co-Founder of Spotco Advertising, an entertainment advertising agency in New York City, and the lyricist and co-bookwriter of JOHN & JEN, an off-Broadway musical.
To read woefully outdated information about Tommy, visit tommygreenwald.com. (To send an email telling him how much you liked whatever book it was that you just read, holla at tommy@tommygreenwald.com.)
Day-job-wise, Tommy is the Co-Founder of Spotco Advertising, an entertainment advertising agency in New York City, and the lyricist and co-bookwriter of JOHN & JEN, an off-Broadway musical.
To read woefully outdated information about Tommy, visit tommygreenwald.com. (To send an email telling him how much you liked whatever book it was that you just read, holla at tommy@tommygreenwald.com.)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 118 reviews
December 22, 2022
Ok, so I loved this story for two reasons: it's a story within a story, and it's about as accurate a depiction of Alzheimer's (albeit the athlete concussion caused kind) I've seen in lower YA lit to date.
Ostensibly, the story is about the MC – Caleb Springer, 14yo son of NFL 7-year star, Sam Springer, aka "Dinger."
Now, to get "dinged" in football is to get a concussion, but not one bad enough to actually knock a player out of the game. They often recover and are back on their feet within seconds. The damage, however, is not as fleeting.
Dings, or repeated concussions, are now known to cause a form of early-onset Alzheimer's or dementia. And in the case of NFL football players (and younger players, too, potentially many more we never hear about because they never achieve fame and fortune), this can set in in their 40s.
Caleb is "dinged" in the opening of the book, knocked hard and he can't remember what happened, or how he got to the where he is, but he stays in the game and leads the team to a win. He's an up-and-coming quarterback star, his father's pride and joy, the only freshman starting on the varsity team, already being courted by his state university football team coach. (This was an eerily familiar scenario, but from my son's incident with a concussion in basketball.)
But your attention is taken away from that when his dad starts acting… downright weird.
And this depiction really struck home, because it mirrored almost exactly my mother's 20-year decline into the depths of Alzheimer's.
All the actions described in the story – the angry, sudden outbursts over aggravations or obstacles that previously would've been dealt with in a totally different manner – rang true.
And it's a vital portrayal of dementia and Alzheimer's (which can still only be diagnosed post-mortem – that's after death, folks, after the brain has been excised and weighed and studied under a microscope) that is too often mis-characterized in middle grade and young adult literature. Far too often Alzheimer's is shown as a gentle fading of the person into unthreatening nothingness, and that's not what happens for many, many dementia sufferers, nor does it show what this does to their families.
The decline can be a violent process, one that's acutely embarrassing and heart-breaking at the same time, and potentially dangerous to caregivers.
In Caleb's father's case, his father's in terrific physical shape, stronger and faster than most men, so when he bangs the table in anger or lunges at an obnoxious fan in a restaurant, the potential danger is *real.* And real frightening, in a way that you only really recognize if you've been through this agonizing process.
As Caleb takes the team to the championship game, he struggles with watching his father's decline and learning about the risks of repeated concussions. On the eve of the big game, his father takes off. Disappears. And as the police tell Caleb's mom, there's really nothing they can do when an adult with early-onset dementia wanders off.
They're presumed to be adults in the eyes of the law, capable of making their own decisions – except those closest to them know, they're not.
In the end, the story is as much Caleb's father's story, as it is Caleb's. His father recognizes, belatedly, what he must do – protect his son from what he's experiencing. And there's only one way to do that. But in his dementia, concussion-riddled brain, the way he expresses it is… well, I won't ruin it. Just know, that felt totally spot-on, too.
In the end, we want to believe that who we are is set, not something subject to change. When in fact we are only the sum of our brain's chemistry, and if you mess with that too many times, you struggle to hold onto …yourself.
Pull up a box of tissues. This one hits in the gut, and it hits hard.
I can't say enjoy, but please do read and as the author urges, think about the game and what we expect of its players.
Looking for more book suggestions for your 7th/8th grade classroom and students?
Visit my blog, The Fabric of Words, for more great middle grade book recommendations, free teaching materials and fiction writing tips: https://amb.mystrikingly.com/
Ostensibly, the story is about the MC – Caleb Springer, 14yo son of NFL 7-year star, Sam Springer, aka "Dinger."
Now, to get "dinged" in football is to get a concussion, but not one bad enough to actually knock a player out of the game. They often recover and are back on their feet within seconds. The damage, however, is not as fleeting.
Dings, or repeated concussions, are now known to cause a form of early-onset Alzheimer's or dementia. And in the case of NFL football players (and younger players, too, potentially many more we never hear about because they never achieve fame and fortune), this can set in in their 40s.
Caleb is "dinged" in the opening of the book, knocked hard and he can't remember what happened, or how he got to the where he is, but he stays in the game and leads the team to a win. He's an up-and-coming quarterback star, his father's pride and joy, the only freshman starting on the varsity team, already being courted by his state university football team coach. (This was an eerily familiar scenario, but from my son's incident with a concussion in basketball.)
But your attention is taken away from that when his dad starts acting… downright weird.
And this depiction really struck home, because it mirrored almost exactly my mother's 20-year decline into the depths of Alzheimer's.
All the actions described in the story – the angry, sudden outbursts over aggravations or obstacles that previously would've been dealt with in a totally different manner – rang true.
And it's a vital portrayal of dementia and Alzheimer's (which can still only be diagnosed post-mortem – that's after death, folks, after the brain has been excised and weighed and studied under a microscope) that is too often mis-characterized in middle grade and young adult literature. Far too often Alzheimer's is shown as a gentle fading of the person into unthreatening nothingness, and that's not what happens for many, many dementia sufferers, nor does it show what this does to their families.
The decline can be a violent process, one that's acutely embarrassing and heart-breaking at the same time, and potentially dangerous to caregivers.
In Caleb's father's case, his father's in terrific physical shape, stronger and faster than most men, so when he bangs the table in anger or lunges at an obnoxious fan in a restaurant, the potential danger is *real.* And real frightening, in a way that you only really recognize if you've been through this agonizing process.
As Caleb takes the team to the championship game, he struggles with watching his father's decline and learning about the risks of repeated concussions. On the eve of the big game, his father takes off. Disappears. And as the police tell Caleb's mom, there's really nothing they can do when an adult with early-onset dementia wanders off.
They're presumed to be adults in the eyes of the law, capable of making their own decisions – except those closest to them know, they're not.
In the end, the story is as much Caleb's father's story, as it is Caleb's. His father recognizes, belatedly, what he must do – protect his son from what he's experiencing. And there's only one way to do that. But in his dementia, concussion-riddled brain, the way he expresses it is… well, I won't ruin it. Just know, that felt totally spot-on, too.
In the end, we want to believe that who we are is set, not something subject to change. When in fact we are only the sum of our brain's chemistry, and if you mess with that too many times, you struggle to hold onto …yourself.
Pull up a box of tissues. This one hits in the gut, and it hits hard.
I can't say enjoy, but please do read and as the author urges, think about the game and what we expect of its players.
Looking for more book suggestions for your 7th/8th grade classroom and students?
Visit my blog, The Fabric of Words, for more great middle grade book recommendations, free teaching materials and fiction writing tips: https://amb.mystrikingly.com/
October 6, 2022
Great stuff! Greenwald's novel approaches a complex issue from the perspectives of a player, his parents, a girlfriend, sports fans, and news journalists, and the result is nuanced and emotionally satisfying. I especially appreciated the scene where Caleb, the football star, attends a music event and is outside his normal status circle. His insecurity shows a very thoughtful, self-aware character, and he's fascinating to follow. I keep thinking about how your teammates need you in the moment, but your loved ones need you always. Powerful. The novel prompted me to dig a bit into recent research on CTE, and that is terrifying. Highly recommend.
September 26, 2023
The book is good until Caleb becomes an idiot and quits. Don't read it if you don't want to be stabbed in the back. Bad book.
February 25, 2026
Dear Mr Greenwald.
I politely ask you to never write a shitty book again. I cannot tell you how strong the urge to rip my eyes out was when I was reading this abomination. This book is a flaming pile of dogshit wrapped in paper and sold like it deserves respect. I don’t know what possessed me to keep reading after the first few pages, but every chapter felt like I was actively choosing to get my time stolen by some dumbass words on a page. The urge to rip my own fucking eyes out wasn’t even dramatic—it was logical self-defense. This wasn’t reading; this was me being held hostage by garbage writing.
The plot is non-existent. It stumbles around like it’s drunk, lost, and allergic to having a point. Nothing connects, nothing matters, and nothing goes anywhere. It’s like watching someone try to build a house with wet cardboard and then act proud when it collapses. I’ve seen more structure in a pile of laundry. Whatever this book was trying to say got lost somewhere between terrible pacing and even worse ideas. Every chapter felt like the story itself was apologizing to me for existing, begging me to stop reading, and I almost listened—but morbid curiosity kept dragging me through this hell.
The characters are absolute dogwater. No personality, no depth, no reason to give a single fuck about any of them. They exist purely to move the plot that doesn’t exist and say lines that make you question whether human conversation was ever witnessed by the person who wrote this. I’ve had more emotional connection with loading screens in video games. These characters aren’t just boring—they’re aggressively uninteresting. They actively make the book worse every time they open their mouths. I wanted to slap every single one of them into next week. The fact that they have names doesn’t mean they’re characters; it just means there are labels for this nonsense.
And the dialogue? Holy shit, the dialogue is some of the worst garbage I’ve ever had the misfortune of reading. Nobody talks like this. Nobody thinks like this. Every line feels like it was written by a malfunctioning AI that learned English from YouTube comments, Twitter fights, and Facebook arguments. It’s awkward, unnatural, and so painfully cringe that I had to take breaks just to recover from secondhand embarrassment. I kept asking myself, “Did a real human say this or did a cat walk across a keyboard?” And somehow, somehow, the answer is probably the cat.
This book has the audacity to think it’s deep, meaningful, or intelligent, when in reality it’s just a loud, empty pile of bullshit pretending to be profound. It throws around big ideas and then does absolutely nothing with them. It’s all fake depth, no substance, no payoff, no brain behind it. It’s the literary version of someone who talks nonstop and says nothing, but expects everyone to nod in awe at their nonsense. I kept reading, and all I could feel was my soul slowly peeling itself from my body page by page.
Finishing this book didn’t feel rewarding. It felt like finally being released from a mental prison. I didn’t close the book feeling entertained—I closed it feeling relieved that the suffering was over. This wasn’t an experience; it was a chore. A miserable, time-wasting, patience-draining chore. Every single second spent on this book was a second stolen from my life that I will never get back. I would have gained more from watching a bucket of sand pour out in real time.
If you’re thinking about reading this, don’t. Save your time. Save your brain cells. Do literally anything else with your life—stare at a wall, watch paint dry, scroll through the same three memes on your phone. All of that is a better use of your time than this absolute dumpster fire of a book. If a book could be charged with a crime, this one would be doing life without parole for assaulting readers’ patience, dignity, and basic intelligence.
This book isn’t just bad. It’s aggressively, insultingly, offensively bad. A complete waste of ink, paper, and oxygen.
To the author’s spouse: I don’t know you, you didn’t ask for this, and you sure as hell didn’t write this trash—but damn, you’re married to someone whose writing is absolute fucking ass. I just finished his book and I’m convinced creativity filed a restraining order against him. I’ve seen plain crackers with more flavor than whatever the hell he put on these pages. This wasn’t bland in a neutral way—it was aggressively flavorless, like he went out of his way to remove seasoning from the English language.
I’m not exaggerating when I say this book reads like someone discovered words yesterday and decided to stack them until a “novel” fell out. There’s no spark, no voice, no edge—just page after page of dry, lifeless bullshit that pretends it has something to say. It doesn’t. It says nothing. Loudly. The plot wanders around like it lost its keys, the characters feel like placeholders that never got replaced, and the dialogue sounds like it was written by someone who’s never listened to two humans talk without subtitles.
You didn’t do this. You don’t deserve to be associated with this disaster. But since your partner put this out into the world, congratulations—you’re now adjacent to one of the blandest reading experiences I’ve ever had. If this book were food, it’d be a plate of unseasoned cardboard served cold with a side of disappointment. I had to fight the urge to skim, then to quit, then to question my life choices for even opening the damn thing.
This isn’t a “rough draft.” This is a full-on failure to understand what makes stories worth reading. It’s the literary equivalent of a shrug. If writing had a personality test, this book would come back as “none.” I don’t know how anyone can sit there and pretend this is an accomplishment, because from the reader’s side, it feels like being trapped in a room with someone explaining a boring dream in painful detail and expecting applause at the end.
Holy shit, this book is actively testing my sanity. Reading it felt like being psychologically tortured and mentally tested. Every single sentence made me question why I haven’t thrown the book into a bonfire yet. It’s the literary equivalent of being waterboarded with mediocrity, left to drown in plotless chaos, and slowly suffocated by the sheer weight of bad writing. I swear I could feel my brain cells combusting with each page.
This book reads like it was written by a baby octopus with autism bashing a keyboard and waiting for a steaming pile of shit to come out—and somehow, somehow, that exact steaming pile of shit ended up in my hands. Every word is a slap in the face. Every chapter is a new form of torture. If I were required to rate this book on the Richter scale of literary offenses, it would register as a 10.0, obliterating all nearby sanity. I’ve seen paint dry with more narrative tension. I’ve seen leaves blow in the wind with more plot complexity.
Even the “moments of drama” are laughable. Nothing lands. Nothing matters. You could delete half the pages, and it wouldn’t improve the book—it would probably improve the book. The author’s idea of character development is apparently “insert a person, make them say something slightly stupid, then move on,” and that’s it. Emotional arcs? Joke. Themes? Joke. Effort? Nonexistent. Reading this is like being force-fed mushy oatmeal mixed with cardboard while someone laughs at your suffering.
And let’s circle back to the horror of finishing it. You don’t close this book feeling accomplished. You don’t close it feeling entertained. You close it feeling like you’ve survived a hostage situation designed to torment your soul. Every minute spent reading this abomination is a minute stolen from your life. You could have spent that time staring at walls, watching grass grow, listening to nails scrape a chalkboard—and it would have been a vastly superior experience.
Even the author’s attempts at “depth” are pathetic. Big ideas, philosophical musings, emotional beats—they’re all presented without substance, context, or any actual insight. This is not thoughtful writing. It’s loud, empty posturing. The book pretends to be profound but delivers nothing but hollow, meaningless words strung together like garbage beads on a string. It is all style without substance, all noise with zero signal. It’s embarrassing to witness.
To the author’s spouse again: seriously, I’m impressed you survived this without throwing it across the room. You’re married to someone whose imagination peaked at rearranging words in the dumbest order possible. Plain crackers have more personality than this man’s prose. I don’t know how you don’t have PTSD from witnessing this level of creative failure. Every page screams, “I hate readers. I hate them all.” And somehow, you have to live with him. My condolences.
If books could physically harm you, this one would. Reading it is a brutal exercise in endurance, patience, and self-inflicted mental masochism. I have never been so simultaneously enraged and bored in my life. I laughed, I cried, I cursed, I questioned the universe, and I still finished it—mostly out of disbelief. I can’t describe the horror accurately without it sounding like exaggeration, but it’s not. This book is literally that bad.
It actively destroys any joy or hope you had about reading. It’s a cognitive assault, a patience assassin, a literary black hole that sucks all happiness and leaves only frustration in its wake. I’ve contemplated burning my bookshelf just to ensure this book never contaminates another human soul. Words fail me. Rage fills me. If the author thought this was clever, funny, deep, or moving, then clearly he has no grasp on reality whatsoever.
Every chapter feels like a new form of punishment. The writing assaults your brain like a jackhammer on a skull, relentless and merciless. Every sentence makes you question why you ever trusted the cover to promise anything resembling a story. This book is a violation of what reading should be: immersive, thoughtful, meaningful. None of that exists here. And yet, somehow, despite all the warnings, the agony, and my desperate attempts to flee, I kept going. Why? Because curiosity is a cruel bitch, and she wanted me to see just how far this trainwreck could plunge before it completely collapsed under the weight of its own incompetence. And plunge it did. Every page, every sentence, every goddamn word screamed incompetence so loudly that I thought I might start hallucinating just to escape the noise. The author’s idea of tension is apparently “throw a bunch of words in a paragraph and hope something sticks.” Spoiler alert: nothing sticks. Not a single thing. Not the plot, not the dialogue, not the characters, not even the paper it’s printed on.
Speaking of paper, I’ve held wet cardboard in my hands that was more coherent than this book. Wet cardboard has structure. Wet cardboard has purpose. Wet cardboard does not insult the intelligence of the person who touches it. This book does all three. It’s a cruel parody of literature. If Kafka and a blender full of broken keyboards had a love child, it would still be more coherent than this. It’s so bad that I started imagining each page as a physical entity and wanted to take a flamethrower to it just to end its suffering—both mine and the book’s.
And the pacing! Oh, the pacing! Reading this felt like being strapped to a rollercoaster that never moves, while someone stands behind me screaming about plot twists and character arcs that will “shock me,” except they never arrive, because there are no plot twists and no arcs. Only the endless monotony of meaningless events strung together like a necklace made entirely of rusty nails. Every page is a meditation on despair. Every chapter is a seminar on incompetence. And by the time I reached the midpoint, I realized that the only narrative momentum in this entire book comes from my own anger building to levels I didn’t think were humanly possible.
And let’s not forget the utter disaster of the “scenes.” Scenes are supposed to have purpose, tension, conflict, or beauty. This book’s scenes? They exist purely to torture the reader. Characters stand around, talk nonsense, walk somewhere, then vanish, leaving no impression. Nothing builds. Nothing resolves. It is as if someone took the dictionary, flipped it open randomly, and then hammered words together with a mallet to “create a story.” A story about what? I have no idea, and I don’t want to. The author does not care whether the reader knows or cares. That’s the whole point. This is literary cruelty, pure and simple.
Dialogue is, of course, a horror show of epic proportions. People don’t talk like this. Animals don’t talk like this. Even if the author were attempting to write in a secret, undiscovered alien language, it would still be more coherent than this. Each line makes you question the very concept of human communication. I found myself shouting at the book, “Do you understand what a sentence is? Do you know how words work?!” and yet the book remained unrepentant, silent, and mocking. It’s the literary equivalent of a slap to the face while simultaneously being shoved into a pit of despair.
Characters, if we can even call them that, are hollow, lifeless husks, seemingly constructed with zero attention to detail, empathy, or logic. They act without motivation, speak without reason, and exist solely to remind the reader that everything about this book is wrong. Their “personalities” are nonexistent; their “arcs” are invisible; their “emotions” are fabricated like cheap Halloween decorations. I’ve seen more believable emotions from CGI side characters in mid-tier video games. They do not grow, they do not evolve, they do not breathe. They exist purely to occupy space and to make the reader scream silently in rage.
And the so-called “themes” of this book? Don’t make me laugh. There are no themes. There are no ideas. There is no depth. Any attempt at meaning is as fake and hollow as the dialogue is awkward. Big ideas are dropped like cheap confetti at a parade, then left to rot in the gutter of the narrative. The book pretends to be meaningful but it’s actually a cruel joke, and we, the readers, are the punchline. If philosophy, art, and storytelling were alive, they would collectively storm into the room, glare at this book, and punch it into oblivion for daring to exist.
Finishing the book is no triumph. There is no catharsis. There is no satisfaction. Only relief that it’s over and fury at having been subjected to such monumental incompetence. It’s like surviving a natural disaster that isn’t physical but mental—the aftermath leaves you shaken, hollowed out, and vaguely nauseous at having lived through it. I closed the book and stared at the wall, questioning everything. How could this be considered writing? How could anyone publish this? How could someone actually call this a novel without a single shred of irony?
To the author’s spouse, again: I am truly sorry you had to be married to the mind responsible for this atrocity. I don’t know how you live with the knowledge that this is your partner’s creative output. I don’t know how you see them sit down at a keyboard without experiencing existential dread for yourself and humanity. If you have pride, it is a completely irrational pride. If you have hope, it is a completely delusional hope. The book is so offensive to intelligence and taste that I almost feel guilty for surviving it while others might not. You, dear spouse, are an unwilling participant in this atrocity by proximity, and I offer my condolences.
The book is relentless in its awfulness. Scenes end before they begin. Plotlines vanish before they start. Dialogue is tortured into nonexistence. Characters are absent-minded, absent-hearted, and absent in every conceivable way that matters. The narrative doesn’t move—it doesn’t even breathe. And yet, despite all this, the book has a certain sinister charisma: it convinces you that you must suffer through it, that you must continue, that you must endure every single second of its existence. And you do. Because, unfortunately, you are human and cannot look away from absolute horror when it is printed on paper.
Even attempts at description are horrifying. The author’s idea of setting a scene is to string together random adjectives in a sad attempt to trick the reader into imagining something coherent. Instead, the scenes feel like hallucinations produced by a brain on fire. They are disjointed, confusing, and often contradict themselves within a single paragraph. One sentence might describe a house, the next the inside of a car, and by the end, I can’t even remember if we were in a forest, a city, or hell itself—which, frankly, feels more appropriate than anywhere else.
Every chapter I turned was an exercise in mental endurance, a test of how much a human mind can take before it finally gives up. The author does not guide, does not lead, does not assist. They hurl words at you like jagged rocks in the hopes that something will stick. Nothing sticks. Only resentment sticks. Only rage sticks. Only the knowledge that you have wasted hours of your life sticks, and that is the gift this book gives you: suffering in exchange for paper and ink. And let me make one thing absolutely clear: this book does not just fail at being entertaining. It fails at being coherent. It fails at being readable. It fails at being sane. It’s the literary equivalent of being trapped in a room with someone muttering nonsense for hours while they spray glitter in your eyes and insult your intelligence. I’ve felt more emotional weight from a single soggy napkin than from the sum total of this book’s entire “story.” If words were weapons, this book would be classified as a WMD. Every chapter assaults your brain, every paragraph assaults your patience, and every sentence assaults your very sense of existence.
The author has somehow achieved the impossible: creating something that is simultaneously boring, confusing, infuriating, and meaningless all at once. I’ve experienced rollercoasters that were easier to follow. I’ve had conversations with toddlers that were more insightful. I’ve watched paint dry with more narrative tension. And yet, somehow, this book exists, proudly, boldly, and unapologetically, like a monument to incompetence.
The worst part? There’s no relief. No moments of levity. No glimpses of sanity. Just endless, grinding, mind-numbing agony from start to finish. I am convinced that this book could be used in psychological experiments to measure human tolerance for absurdity. It’s that powerful. It is, in every sense, an instrument of mental torture masquerading as literature. So, Mr. Greenwald, seek God because you need him. Idiot
I politely ask you to never write a shitty book again. I cannot tell you how strong the urge to rip my eyes out was when I was reading this abomination. This book is a flaming pile of dogshit wrapped in paper and sold like it deserves respect. I don’t know what possessed me to keep reading after the first few pages, but every chapter felt like I was actively choosing to get my time stolen by some dumbass words on a page. The urge to rip my own fucking eyes out wasn’t even dramatic—it was logical self-defense. This wasn’t reading; this was me being held hostage by garbage writing.
The plot is non-existent. It stumbles around like it’s drunk, lost, and allergic to having a point. Nothing connects, nothing matters, and nothing goes anywhere. It’s like watching someone try to build a house with wet cardboard and then act proud when it collapses. I’ve seen more structure in a pile of laundry. Whatever this book was trying to say got lost somewhere between terrible pacing and even worse ideas. Every chapter felt like the story itself was apologizing to me for existing, begging me to stop reading, and I almost listened—but morbid curiosity kept dragging me through this hell.
The characters are absolute dogwater. No personality, no depth, no reason to give a single fuck about any of them. They exist purely to move the plot that doesn’t exist and say lines that make you question whether human conversation was ever witnessed by the person who wrote this. I’ve had more emotional connection with loading screens in video games. These characters aren’t just boring—they’re aggressively uninteresting. They actively make the book worse every time they open their mouths. I wanted to slap every single one of them into next week. The fact that they have names doesn’t mean they’re characters; it just means there are labels for this nonsense.
And the dialogue? Holy shit, the dialogue is some of the worst garbage I’ve ever had the misfortune of reading. Nobody talks like this. Nobody thinks like this. Every line feels like it was written by a malfunctioning AI that learned English from YouTube comments, Twitter fights, and Facebook arguments. It’s awkward, unnatural, and so painfully cringe that I had to take breaks just to recover from secondhand embarrassment. I kept asking myself, “Did a real human say this or did a cat walk across a keyboard?” And somehow, somehow, the answer is probably the cat.
This book has the audacity to think it’s deep, meaningful, or intelligent, when in reality it’s just a loud, empty pile of bullshit pretending to be profound. It throws around big ideas and then does absolutely nothing with them. It’s all fake depth, no substance, no payoff, no brain behind it. It’s the literary version of someone who talks nonstop and says nothing, but expects everyone to nod in awe at their nonsense. I kept reading, and all I could feel was my soul slowly peeling itself from my body page by page.
Finishing this book didn’t feel rewarding. It felt like finally being released from a mental prison. I didn’t close the book feeling entertained—I closed it feeling relieved that the suffering was over. This wasn’t an experience; it was a chore. A miserable, time-wasting, patience-draining chore. Every single second spent on this book was a second stolen from my life that I will never get back. I would have gained more from watching a bucket of sand pour out in real time.
If you’re thinking about reading this, don’t. Save your time. Save your brain cells. Do literally anything else with your life—stare at a wall, watch paint dry, scroll through the same three memes on your phone. All of that is a better use of your time than this absolute dumpster fire of a book. If a book could be charged with a crime, this one would be doing life without parole for assaulting readers’ patience, dignity, and basic intelligence.
This book isn’t just bad. It’s aggressively, insultingly, offensively bad. A complete waste of ink, paper, and oxygen.
To the author’s spouse: I don’t know you, you didn’t ask for this, and you sure as hell didn’t write this trash—but damn, you’re married to someone whose writing is absolute fucking ass. I just finished his book and I’m convinced creativity filed a restraining order against him. I’ve seen plain crackers with more flavor than whatever the hell he put on these pages. This wasn’t bland in a neutral way—it was aggressively flavorless, like he went out of his way to remove seasoning from the English language.
I’m not exaggerating when I say this book reads like someone discovered words yesterday and decided to stack them until a “novel” fell out. There’s no spark, no voice, no edge—just page after page of dry, lifeless bullshit that pretends it has something to say. It doesn’t. It says nothing. Loudly. The plot wanders around like it lost its keys, the characters feel like placeholders that never got replaced, and the dialogue sounds like it was written by someone who’s never listened to two humans talk without subtitles.
You didn’t do this. You don’t deserve to be associated with this disaster. But since your partner put this out into the world, congratulations—you’re now adjacent to one of the blandest reading experiences I’ve ever had. If this book were food, it’d be a plate of unseasoned cardboard served cold with a side of disappointment. I had to fight the urge to skim, then to quit, then to question my life choices for even opening the damn thing.
This isn’t a “rough draft.” This is a full-on failure to understand what makes stories worth reading. It’s the literary equivalent of a shrug. If writing had a personality test, this book would come back as “none.” I don’t know how anyone can sit there and pretend this is an accomplishment, because from the reader’s side, it feels like being trapped in a room with someone explaining a boring dream in painful detail and expecting applause at the end.
Holy shit, this book is actively testing my sanity. Reading it felt like being psychologically tortured and mentally tested. Every single sentence made me question why I haven’t thrown the book into a bonfire yet. It’s the literary equivalent of being waterboarded with mediocrity, left to drown in plotless chaos, and slowly suffocated by the sheer weight of bad writing. I swear I could feel my brain cells combusting with each page.
This book reads like it was written by a baby octopus with autism bashing a keyboard and waiting for a steaming pile of shit to come out—and somehow, somehow, that exact steaming pile of shit ended up in my hands. Every word is a slap in the face. Every chapter is a new form of torture. If I were required to rate this book on the Richter scale of literary offenses, it would register as a 10.0, obliterating all nearby sanity. I’ve seen paint dry with more narrative tension. I’ve seen leaves blow in the wind with more plot complexity.
Even the “moments of drama” are laughable. Nothing lands. Nothing matters. You could delete half the pages, and it wouldn’t improve the book—it would probably improve the book. The author’s idea of character development is apparently “insert a person, make them say something slightly stupid, then move on,” and that’s it. Emotional arcs? Joke. Themes? Joke. Effort? Nonexistent. Reading this is like being force-fed mushy oatmeal mixed with cardboard while someone laughs at your suffering.
And let’s circle back to the horror of finishing it. You don’t close this book feeling accomplished. You don’t close it feeling entertained. You close it feeling like you’ve survived a hostage situation designed to torment your soul. Every minute spent reading this abomination is a minute stolen from your life. You could have spent that time staring at walls, watching grass grow, listening to nails scrape a chalkboard—and it would have been a vastly superior experience.
Even the author’s attempts at “depth” are pathetic. Big ideas, philosophical musings, emotional beats—they’re all presented without substance, context, or any actual insight. This is not thoughtful writing. It’s loud, empty posturing. The book pretends to be profound but delivers nothing but hollow, meaningless words strung together like garbage beads on a string. It is all style without substance, all noise with zero signal. It’s embarrassing to witness.
To the author’s spouse again: seriously, I’m impressed you survived this without throwing it across the room. You’re married to someone whose imagination peaked at rearranging words in the dumbest order possible. Plain crackers have more personality than this man’s prose. I don’t know how you don’t have PTSD from witnessing this level of creative failure. Every page screams, “I hate readers. I hate them all.” And somehow, you have to live with him. My condolences.
If books could physically harm you, this one would. Reading it is a brutal exercise in endurance, patience, and self-inflicted mental masochism. I have never been so simultaneously enraged and bored in my life. I laughed, I cried, I cursed, I questioned the universe, and I still finished it—mostly out of disbelief. I can’t describe the horror accurately without it sounding like exaggeration, but it’s not. This book is literally that bad.
It actively destroys any joy or hope you had about reading. It’s a cognitive assault, a patience assassin, a literary black hole that sucks all happiness and leaves only frustration in its wake. I’ve contemplated burning my bookshelf just to ensure this book never contaminates another human soul. Words fail me. Rage fills me. If the author thought this was clever, funny, deep, or moving, then clearly he has no grasp on reality whatsoever.
Every chapter feels like a new form of punishment. The writing assaults your brain like a jackhammer on a skull, relentless and merciless. Every sentence makes you question why you ever trusted the cover to promise anything resembling a story. This book is a violation of what reading should be: immersive, thoughtful, meaningful. None of that exists here. And yet, somehow, despite all the warnings, the agony, and my desperate attempts to flee, I kept going. Why? Because curiosity is a cruel bitch, and she wanted me to see just how far this trainwreck could plunge before it completely collapsed under the weight of its own incompetence. And plunge it did. Every page, every sentence, every goddamn word screamed incompetence so loudly that I thought I might start hallucinating just to escape the noise. The author’s idea of tension is apparently “throw a bunch of words in a paragraph and hope something sticks.” Spoiler alert: nothing sticks. Not a single thing. Not the plot, not the dialogue, not the characters, not even the paper it’s printed on.
Speaking of paper, I’ve held wet cardboard in my hands that was more coherent than this book. Wet cardboard has structure. Wet cardboard has purpose. Wet cardboard does not insult the intelligence of the person who touches it. This book does all three. It’s a cruel parody of literature. If Kafka and a blender full of broken keyboards had a love child, it would still be more coherent than this. It’s so bad that I started imagining each page as a physical entity and wanted to take a flamethrower to it just to end its suffering—both mine and the book’s.
And the pacing! Oh, the pacing! Reading this felt like being strapped to a rollercoaster that never moves, while someone stands behind me screaming about plot twists and character arcs that will “shock me,” except they never arrive, because there are no plot twists and no arcs. Only the endless monotony of meaningless events strung together like a necklace made entirely of rusty nails. Every page is a meditation on despair. Every chapter is a seminar on incompetence. And by the time I reached the midpoint, I realized that the only narrative momentum in this entire book comes from my own anger building to levels I didn’t think were humanly possible.
And let’s not forget the utter disaster of the “scenes.” Scenes are supposed to have purpose, tension, conflict, or beauty. This book’s scenes? They exist purely to torture the reader. Characters stand around, talk nonsense, walk somewhere, then vanish, leaving no impression. Nothing builds. Nothing resolves. It is as if someone took the dictionary, flipped it open randomly, and then hammered words together with a mallet to “create a story.” A story about what? I have no idea, and I don’t want to. The author does not care whether the reader knows or cares. That’s the whole point. This is literary cruelty, pure and simple.
Dialogue is, of course, a horror show of epic proportions. People don’t talk like this. Animals don’t talk like this. Even if the author were attempting to write in a secret, undiscovered alien language, it would still be more coherent than this. Each line makes you question the very concept of human communication. I found myself shouting at the book, “Do you understand what a sentence is? Do you know how words work?!” and yet the book remained unrepentant, silent, and mocking. It’s the literary equivalent of a slap to the face while simultaneously being shoved into a pit of despair.
Characters, if we can even call them that, are hollow, lifeless husks, seemingly constructed with zero attention to detail, empathy, or logic. They act without motivation, speak without reason, and exist solely to remind the reader that everything about this book is wrong. Their “personalities” are nonexistent; their “arcs” are invisible; their “emotions” are fabricated like cheap Halloween decorations. I’ve seen more believable emotions from CGI side characters in mid-tier video games. They do not grow, they do not evolve, they do not breathe. They exist purely to occupy space and to make the reader scream silently in rage.
And the so-called “themes” of this book? Don’t make me laugh. There are no themes. There are no ideas. There is no depth. Any attempt at meaning is as fake and hollow as the dialogue is awkward. Big ideas are dropped like cheap confetti at a parade, then left to rot in the gutter of the narrative. The book pretends to be meaningful but it’s actually a cruel joke, and we, the readers, are the punchline. If philosophy, art, and storytelling were alive, they would collectively storm into the room, glare at this book, and punch it into oblivion for daring to exist.
Finishing the book is no triumph. There is no catharsis. There is no satisfaction. Only relief that it’s over and fury at having been subjected to such monumental incompetence. It’s like surviving a natural disaster that isn’t physical but mental—the aftermath leaves you shaken, hollowed out, and vaguely nauseous at having lived through it. I closed the book and stared at the wall, questioning everything. How could this be considered writing? How could anyone publish this? How could someone actually call this a novel without a single shred of irony?
To the author’s spouse, again: I am truly sorry you had to be married to the mind responsible for this atrocity. I don’t know how you live with the knowledge that this is your partner’s creative output. I don’t know how you see them sit down at a keyboard without experiencing existential dread for yourself and humanity. If you have pride, it is a completely irrational pride. If you have hope, it is a completely delusional hope. The book is so offensive to intelligence and taste that I almost feel guilty for surviving it while others might not. You, dear spouse, are an unwilling participant in this atrocity by proximity, and I offer my condolences.
The book is relentless in its awfulness. Scenes end before they begin. Plotlines vanish before they start. Dialogue is tortured into nonexistence. Characters are absent-minded, absent-hearted, and absent in every conceivable way that matters. The narrative doesn’t move—it doesn’t even breathe. And yet, despite all this, the book has a certain sinister charisma: it convinces you that you must suffer through it, that you must continue, that you must endure every single second of its existence. And you do. Because, unfortunately, you are human and cannot look away from absolute horror when it is printed on paper.
Even attempts at description are horrifying. The author’s idea of setting a scene is to string together random adjectives in a sad attempt to trick the reader into imagining something coherent. Instead, the scenes feel like hallucinations produced by a brain on fire. They are disjointed, confusing, and often contradict themselves within a single paragraph. One sentence might describe a house, the next the inside of a car, and by the end, I can’t even remember if we were in a forest, a city, or hell itself—which, frankly, feels more appropriate than anywhere else.
Every chapter I turned was an exercise in mental endurance, a test of how much a human mind can take before it finally gives up. The author does not guide, does not lead, does not assist. They hurl words at you like jagged rocks in the hopes that something will stick. Nothing sticks. Only resentment sticks. Only rage sticks. Only the knowledge that you have wasted hours of your life sticks, and that is the gift this book gives you: suffering in exchange for paper and ink. And let me make one thing absolutely clear: this book does not just fail at being entertaining. It fails at being coherent. It fails at being readable. It fails at being sane. It’s the literary equivalent of being trapped in a room with someone muttering nonsense for hours while they spray glitter in your eyes and insult your intelligence. I’ve felt more emotional weight from a single soggy napkin than from the sum total of this book’s entire “story.” If words were weapons, this book would be classified as a WMD. Every chapter assaults your brain, every paragraph assaults your patience, and every sentence assaults your very sense of existence.
The author has somehow achieved the impossible: creating something that is simultaneously boring, confusing, infuriating, and meaningless all at once. I’ve experienced rollercoasters that were easier to follow. I’ve had conversations with toddlers that were more insightful. I’ve watched paint dry with more narrative tension. And yet, somehow, this book exists, proudly, boldly, and unapologetically, like a monument to incompetence.
The worst part? There’s no relief. No moments of levity. No glimpses of sanity. Just endless, grinding, mind-numbing agony from start to finish. I am convinced that this book could be used in psychological experiments to measure human tolerance for absurdity. It’s that powerful. It is, in every sense, an instrument of mental torture masquerading as literature. So, Mr. Greenwald, seek God because you need him. Idiot
September 22, 2025
Friday Night Lights meets Before the Ever After in this YA sports book about concussions in football.
🏈
In this companion #book to Game Changer, we follow Caleb Springer, an up-and-coming freshman starting quarterback taking after his former-NFL father. Caleb gets “dinged” early in the season, meaning he gets hit, has a concussion, but they don’t pull him from the game. At the same time Caleb’s father starts acting weird: lashing out in anger and forgetting things. He is diagnosed with early onset dementia because of how many hits he took to the head playing football. Caleb continues to play, leading his team to the playoffs, but if this is his future, is it worth it?
🧠
This was such a great lower YA novel that is written in a unique style of prose, radio transcripts, blogs, texts and more. This mixed media style had me blowing through this title in one sitting. Fans of Game Changer by @tommygreeenwald will love this companion title. It’s great for middle school bookclubs as it will bring up a lot of discussions.
CW: anger issues, dementia/Alzheimers, concussion, medical content, injury, bullying, alcohol
🏈
In this companion #book to Game Changer, we follow Caleb Springer, an up-and-coming freshman starting quarterback taking after his former-NFL father. Caleb gets “dinged” early in the season, meaning he gets hit, has a concussion, but they don’t pull him from the game. At the same time Caleb’s father starts acting weird: lashing out in anger and forgetting things. He is diagnosed with early onset dementia because of how many hits he took to the head playing football. Caleb continues to play, leading his team to the playoffs, but if this is his future, is it worth it?
🧠
This was such a great lower YA novel that is written in a unique style of prose, radio transcripts, blogs, texts and more. This mixed media style had me blowing through this title in one sitting. Fans of Game Changer by @tommygreeenwald will love this companion title. It’s great for middle school bookclubs as it will bring up a lot of discussions.
CW: anger issues, dementia/Alzheimers, concussion, medical content, injury, bullying, alcohol
April 26, 2024
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5. Caleb is a freshman quarterback phenom. The son of a former NFL wide receiver, he is starting on varsity and having a great first season. But at home, his dad is starting to forget things and have mood swings. Caleb’s new girlfriend is not the least bit interested in football, and keeps talking to him about quitting in light of all the new research around brain injuries and the sport. As the season progresses and his dad’s memory worsens, Caleb wonders if football - his true passion - is worth the risk. Deeper than I thought it would be, but I didn’t love the audio version. Recommended for grades 6+.
July 26, 2025
I love the different formats this book was written in (prose, radio transcripts, blogs, texts, etc). I thought it raised important questions as why do we love football so much in America even when we know that it’s not exactly a safe game? It really encourages the reader to think about the implications of traumatic head injuries that results from playing football and the risk that accompanies the game. I will be recommending this to my middle school student athletes!
June 18, 2022
What a great companion book to Game Changer! Greenwald still explores high school football culture, but focuses in a more substantive way on the danger of concussions and the long-term brain damage that aging college and NFL players find themselves dealing with. I enjoyed the change in viewpoints and voices throughout the novel, and I'm sure my students will like this book as much as they like Game Changer.
August 26, 2023
Really really compelling. I loved the format and Caleb was a great narrator. This would pair well with Before the Ever After.
Grades 6 and up.
Grades 6 and up.
August 4, 2024
Middle grade sports fiction deals with CTE in football
December 15, 2024
I flew through this book. The story was very captivating and easy to read. I feel like high schoolers can relate to this story. It also touches on important issues regarding football.
October 5, 2024
This is a YA book but I really enjoyed it. It is written in a variety of styles and makes you ponder the pros and cons of football and potential injuries.
January 19, 2026
This is a very thought provoking book. I'm not a sports fiction book gal, but this book really changed the way I see sports fiction. you have Caleb Springer an amazing freshman quarterback for his high school team. Caleb's father is a NFL superstar and a celebrity for their home town. Caleb loves football, but at what cost? meanwhile his dad is changing. His dad is forgetting things and his angry is getting out of control. This book made me really open my eyes to the reality of what football may mean to some and what it might mean to others. This book also brings up some great points about football's safety protocols. It also has you gripping on how a father and son's bond can heal or break all for the love of the sport.
November 19, 2022
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
I loved #GameChanger and knew I needed to read Dinged!
Caleb loves football🏈 and so does his Dad as he was an NFL player! Caleb notices differences in his dad as he is forgetting things and becoming angry randomly. Caleb worries about Dad, the risks of football, his future and his family’s future. So many lessons are learned on and off the field!!
Students will love this one! In my classes the last few years, #BeforetheEverAfter by @jacqueline_woodson was a #litcircle choice. #Dinged would pair perfectly and open great small group discussions!!
I loved #GameChanger and knew I needed to read Dinged!
Caleb loves football🏈 and so does his Dad as he was an NFL player! Caleb notices differences in his dad as he is forgetting things and becoming angry randomly. Caleb worries about Dad, the risks of football, his future and his family’s future. So many lessons are learned on and off the field!!
Students will love this one! In my classes the last few years, #BeforetheEverAfter by @jacqueline_woodson was a #litcircle choice. #Dinged would pair perfectly and open great small group discussions!!
November 12, 2022
E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus
Back in the world of Walthorne football originally visited in Game Changer (2018) and Rivals, which covered basketball) we meet Caleb Springer, a freshman whose skills are good enough that he's on the varsity team. Some of the older players, like Ron, resent him a little bit, but he's a good team player, recognizing things like "the sag" that can cause a team to lose, and bolstering his teammates when he sees this happen. His father, "Dinger" Springer is a local celebrity who runs a car dealership, and trades heavily on his NFL career. He has some friends at local colleges who are interested in Caleb. Caleb understands how important his football career is to his dad, as well as to his entire school, but has some doubts about the safety of the game. He's taken a couple of blows that have left his ears ringing and his head pounding, and is torn between wanting to shrug these off and taking them seriously. The balance tips a bit when he starts to notice that his father is becoming forgetful and is often easily angered. Caleb's girlfriend, Nina, who is very supportive but has her own interests in her rock band, Fluffy Pillow, is concerned about both Caleb and his father, when he confides in her. Caleb isn't quite ready to acknowledge that his father's memory is failing, and both he and his mother are willing to make excuses, even when they are called by the police to come to the dealership and retrieve Dinger, who has decided to sleep on top of one of the cars. Caleb knows that he could probably have a good high school career, enjoys being the subject of adulation, and knows that getting a football scholarship to college would help out his family. What is increasingly unsure is whether the perks of continuing to play football are worth occasionally suffering hits to the head. As his father's conditions continues to deteriorate, Caleb knows he has a choice to make. Along with the narrative of Caleb's story, we have interviews from school journalist Alfie, text messages between Caleb and Nina, and even some of Nina's original rock lyrics.
Strengths: As with any football book, there are the things that I enjoyed, and the things that my students want to read. This is a great mix of both. I liked the structure of the chapters, broken down into "Clouds", "Storms", and "Sun", and the flow of the storyline went very smoothly. Nina was a fantastic character, and her relationship with Caleb rivaled that of Tessa and Caleb in Heldring's The Football Girl, which is my favorite sports book of all time. They were both supportive of each other even though they had very different interests, and they really talked to each other in a meaningful way. Caleb's family dynamic is also good, with both parents being involved in his games and team life while also having concerns of their own. What my readers will enjoy is the details of Caleb's games (I haven't seen a football game since about 1976, so I'm not the best judge of this facet), the interplay between teammates, and Caleb's glimpse at college football. Not only that, but the cover is really appealing. Hopefully, young readers will think long and hard about how and why they play football after reading Caleb's story, although I doubt very much that they will tear up the way I did at the final scene!
Weaknesses: None with the book, but a lot with society's view of football, as Greenwald discusses in an afterword. Gordon Korman's Pop came out in 2009, Klass's Second Impact and McClafferty's Fourth Down and Inches in 2013, Steve Almond's adult nonfiction, The Case Against Football in 2014, Lupica's Lone Stars in 2017, and Herbach's YA Cracking the Bell in 2019. Why are young people still playing football? I hope that the updated helmet technology helps, and I did have one student who played football in middle school because he loved it so much, but switched to cross country in high school, but I still worry about the impact of Traumatic Brain Injury on these young people.
What I really think: Basketball and football are definitely the most popular sports with my students, and I am always thrilled when I get a well written sports book that not only entertains, but also causes readers to think. I've long been a fan of Greenwald's Charlie Joe Jackson series, and have been very impressed by the 25 books he's written in eleven years. I have to say, though, that his sports books are particularly well crafted, and this third entry into the realm of upper middle grade sports literature makes me think that he has really found his calling in this genre. Purchasing two copies right away, and well probably add a third if I have money in the spring.
Back in the world of Walthorne football originally visited in Game Changer (2018) and Rivals, which covered basketball) we meet Caleb Springer, a freshman whose skills are good enough that he's on the varsity team. Some of the older players, like Ron, resent him a little bit, but he's a good team player, recognizing things like "the sag" that can cause a team to lose, and bolstering his teammates when he sees this happen. His father, "Dinger" Springer is a local celebrity who runs a car dealership, and trades heavily on his NFL career. He has some friends at local colleges who are interested in Caleb. Caleb understands how important his football career is to his dad, as well as to his entire school, but has some doubts about the safety of the game. He's taken a couple of blows that have left his ears ringing and his head pounding, and is torn between wanting to shrug these off and taking them seriously. The balance tips a bit when he starts to notice that his father is becoming forgetful and is often easily angered. Caleb's girlfriend, Nina, who is very supportive but has her own interests in her rock band, Fluffy Pillow, is concerned about both Caleb and his father, when he confides in her. Caleb isn't quite ready to acknowledge that his father's memory is failing, and both he and his mother are willing to make excuses, even when they are called by the police to come to the dealership and retrieve Dinger, who has decided to sleep on top of one of the cars. Caleb knows that he could probably have a good high school career, enjoys being the subject of adulation, and knows that getting a football scholarship to college would help out his family. What is increasingly unsure is whether the perks of continuing to play football are worth occasionally suffering hits to the head. As his father's conditions continues to deteriorate, Caleb knows he has a choice to make. Along with the narrative of Caleb's story, we have interviews from school journalist Alfie, text messages between Caleb and Nina, and even some of Nina's original rock lyrics.
Strengths: As with any football book, there are the things that I enjoyed, and the things that my students want to read. This is a great mix of both. I liked the structure of the chapters, broken down into "Clouds", "Storms", and "Sun", and the flow of the storyline went very smoothly. Nina was a fantastic character, and her relationship with Caleb rivaled that of Tessa and Caleb in Heldring's The Football Girl, which is my favorite sports book of all time. They were both supportive of each other even though they had very different interests, and they really talked to each other in a meaningful way. Caleb's family dynamic is also good, with both parents being involved in his games and team life while also having concerns of their own. What my readers will enjoy is the details of Caleb's games (I haven't seen a football game since about 1976, so I'm not the best judge of this facet), the interplay between teammates, and Caleb's glimpse at college football. Not only that, but the cover is really appealing. Hopefully, young readers will think long and hard about how and why they play football after reading Caleb's story, although I doubt very much that they will tear up the way I did at the final scene!
Weaknesses: None with the book, but a lot with society's view of football, as Greenwald discusses in an afterword. Gordon Korman's Pop came out in 2009, Klass's Second Impact and McClafferty's Fourth Down and Inches in 2013, Steve Almond's adult nonfiction, The Case Against Football in 2014, Lupica's Lone Stars in 2017, and Herbach's YA Cracking the Bell in 2019. Why are young people still playing football? I hope that the updated helmet technology helps, and I did have one student who played football in middle school because he loved it so much, but switched to cross country in high school, but I still worry about the impact of Traumatic Brain Injury on these young people.
What I really think: Basketball and football are definitely the most popular sports with my students, and I am always thrilled when I get a well written sports book that not only entertains, but also causes readers to think. I've long been a fan of Greenwald's Charlie Joe Jackson series, and have been very impressed by the 25 books he's written in eleven years. I have to say, though, that his sports books are particularly well crafted, and this third entry into the realm of upper middle grade sports literature makes me think that he has really found his calling in this genre. Purchasing two copies right away, and well probably add a third if I have money in the spring.
October 31, 2024
Have you ever felt pressured in a sport that you’ve played when it was a close game or even a game winning play? Well the book “Dinged” by Tommy Greenwald is the book for you! The theme of the book is to never give up, even when things are hard or confusing.
This book is about a freshman quarterback named Caleb Springer and his dad, Sammy Springer, a NFL superstar. It tells the story of how Caleb is about to lead Walthorne High School to a National Championship. In the first game Caleb got hit hard or “his bell got rung” is what his dad called it. Then after one of their games Caleb’s dad had to deal with a guy at a restaurant who was saying that Caleb’s dad was a bad NFL player and made Caleb afraid of his dad. Caleb’s dad then started to forget some things a lot and Caleb thought it was from his dad concussions from football. Caleb was asked to watch a college football game with his dad and his NFL friend, who was a college scout and thought Caleb would be a good quarterback for his college. Another thing is that his girlfriend doesn’t want him to play football because she thinks that Caleb will get a bad concussion from playing the game.
So if you're an athlete that enjoys sports, mostly football, you would like this book. There are many strengths of this book. One strength about this book is how it describes the character's look for you because you can tell you what their face looks like from all the specific and detailed wording. Another strength is that the author makes sure that you don’t get bored from reading the book because there are so many thrills in this book. One weakness of the book is that there are really no pictures in the book. I personally like when there are pictures so that I know where they are in the book and what the place looks like. Another weakness is that there is some confusion with the characters in the book and what had happened to them. For example his dad’s friend was also at the college game and it said his hands were shaking when he was eating his food and had trouble remembering names and things that happened in his life and it didn’t tell why.
But even with all that, my overall opinion about this book is that it’s a very good book to read if you like sports or play sports especially if you play football. I recommend this book because it has lots of thrills and the author describes the characters very well. I’ve read a lot of sports books in my day but by far this book is my favorite!
This book is about a freshman quarterback named Caleb Springer and his dad, Sammy Springer, a NFL superstar. It tells the story of how Caleb is about to lead Walthorne High School to a National Championship. In the first game Caleb got hit hard or “his bell got rung” is what his dad called it. Then after one of their games Caleb’s dad had to deal with a guy at a restaurant who was saying that Caleb’s dad was a bad NFL player and made Caleb afraid of his dad. Caleb’s dad then started to forget some things a lot and Caleb thought it was from his dad concussions from football. Caleb was asked to watch a college football game with his dad and his NFL friend, who was a college scout and thought Caleb would be a good quarterback for his college. Another thing is that his girlfriend doesn’t want him to play football because she thinks that Caleb will get a bad concussion from playing the game.
So if you're an athlete that enjoys sports, mostly football, you would like this book. There are many strengths of this book. One strength about this book is how it describes the character's look for you because you can tell you what their face looks like from all the specific and detailed wording. Another strength is that the author makes sure that you don’t get bored from reading the book because there are so many thrills in this book. One weakness of the book is that there are really no pictures in the book. I personally like when there are pictures so that I know where they are in the book and what the place looks like. Another weakness is that there is some confusion with the characters in the book and what had happened to them. For example his dad’s friend was also at the college game and it said his hands were shaking when he was eating his food and had trouble remembering names and things that happened in his life and it didn’t tell why.
But even with all that, my overall opinion about this book is that it’s a very good book to read if you like sports or play sports especially if you play football. I recommend this book because it has lots of thrills and the author describes the characters very well. I’ve read a lot of sports books in my day but by far this book is my favorite!
December 8, 2023
Do you like football? Because if you do, you should read this book. Dinged is a very eventful and exciting book. Caleb Springer is the starting quarterback on the varsity football team at his high school. Caleb Springer's dad was a former NFL star that deals with brain trauma to this day. Caleb Springer’s dad runs away for some unusual reason and Caleb's mom calls the police. Caleb’s dad starts running away for unusual reasons daily and starts to act really weird. Caleb’s football team hasn't lost a single game and he’s trying to lead his team to a state championship.
SPOILER ALERT!
In my opinion, Dinged is probably the best football book I have ever read. Caleb Springer is the main character in the story that is trying to lead his highschool football team to a state championship. Caleb’s dad is starting to run away more often and act really weird. I think the story is really exciting because at the end of the story Caleb’s dad doesn’t go to the highschool football state championship game. Caleb’s dad shows up and watches his son play football like him, possibly even better. Caleb starts training as hard as he can every day. Finally it’s the day of the state championship. Everybody is super excited for the game and ready. Caleb's dad starts to act weird and gets all mad for some reason. Caleb’s dad runs away again and it is getting close to the game. The game has started and it is already halftime. The 3rd quarter goes by. It’s the 4th quarter and seconds to go on 4th down. Caleb looks up in the stands and sees his dad smiling. They end up winning the state championship, and Caleb’s dad's brain starts to function better and he stops acting weird. It’s a really exciting and happy ending in the book, Dinged.
May 18, 2025
This book was alright. It exceeded my original expectations (I read this book as more of a joke because I’m not into sports at all).
Starting off with the good things, I have to say the book felt very realistic to how people that age are and how sports is treated in society. The main character had a fleshed out personality, even though he was quite self centered and annoying at times. His girlfriend was probably the most likable character in the book for me. I also appreciate how much this book taught about the dangers of football and the head injuries that come with it. I feel as if I learned a lot and it brings about an interesting subject for discussion.
Now for the bad things about this book. First off, there were many parts of the book that I felt were unnecessary, such as the texting bits and the excessive commentary during the games. I don’t dislike the commentary, but I do dislike how it would often distract from the actual story with meaningless bits of commentary. Secondly, I wish this book didnt try so hard to be PG. Usually, I like when books pull back on the cursing, but for this book it felt like unnecessary censorship. The author would often follow up a clean sentence with a line like “But he said something much worse.” It just felt silly and out of place. I understand trying to make this book more appropriate for all ages, but I feel as if this book relates much more to middle and high schoolers anyways, who don’t mind cursing in books. Lastly, the writing was a bit sloppy and all over the place, though I can be picky when it comes to that.
Overall, this book is a solid three stars. Worth the read if you like football or are interested in how football affects one’s health. Otherwise, I wouldn’t waste your time.
Starting off with the good things, I have to say the book felt very realistic to how people that age are and how sports is treated in society. The main character had a fleshed out personality, even though he was quite self centered and annoying at times. His girlfriend was probably the most likable character in the book for me. I also appreciate how much this book taught about the dangers of football and the head injuries that come with it. I feel as if I learned a lot and it brings about an interesting subject for discussion.
Now for the bad things about this book. First off, there were many parts of the book that I felt were unnecessary, such as the texting bits and the excessive commentary during the games. I don’t dislike the commentary, but I do dislike how it would often distract from the actual story with meaningless bits of commentary. Secondly, I wish this book didnt try so hard to be PG. Usually, I like when books pull back on the cursing, but for this book it felt like unnecessary censorship. The author would often follow up a clean sentence with a line like “But he said something much worse.” It just felt silly and out of place. I understand trying to make this book more appropriate for all ages, but I feel as if this book relates much more to middle and high schoolers anyways, who don’t mind cursing in books. Lastly, the writing was a bit sloppy and all over the place, though I can be picky when it comes to that.
Overall, this book is a solid three stars. Worth the read if you like football or are interested in how football affects one’s health. Otherwise, I wouldn’t waste your time.
January 9, 2023
Dinged by Tommy Greenwald
Pair this novel with : Before the Ever After- Jacqueline Woodson and non-fiction Action article.
Prologue starts with lots of statistics about concussions in football.
Caleb Springer is a natural football freshman quarterback. His helmets name is Buck.
His dad was a college and pro player as well. Sammy Dinger Springer receiver.
Did you get rung up a little bit? Dinged is the term used for getting knocked down and feeling a little dizzy.
Girlfriend Nina is not a football fan. She is a bass player.
Alice Jenks- sports editor. Interviews the players throughout the story. Posts a blog about concussion and brain damage in college and NFL.
Coach Williams invites Caleb to State to see the team play and possibly recruit Caleb for college.
Caleb sees his Dad forget things here and there. He meets Thunder Lewis and sees him forget names within seconds. Caleb is concerned for his Dad. He watches YouTube videos of his Dad and sees hits after hit as well as highlight reels. One says Sammy Dinger Springer Weebles but he don’t fall down.
Football ethics: keeping injured players in the game. Players body be truthful about symptoms or pain. Peer pressure to be tough and pop back into the play. Football is so much safer these days.
Early onset dementia at 46 due to multiple hits while play ring football for several years.
This story comes at a time when professional football injuries have been first and foremost in many people's mind when a player collapsed during a game and after EMT support, the game was cancelled.
Topics: concussion effects short and long term, football, family, relationships, telling the hard truths
Recommended: grades 5 +
Pair this novel with : Before the Ever After- Jacqueline Woodson and non-fiction Action article.
Prologue starts with lots of statistics about concussions in football.
Caleb Springer is a natural football freshman quarterback. His helmets name is Buck.
His dad was a college and pro player as well. Sammy Dinger Springer receiver.
Did you get rung up a little bit? Dinged is the term used for getting knocked down and feeling a little dizzy.
Girlfriend Nina is not a football fan. She is a bass player.
Alice Jenks- sports editor. Interviews the players throughout the story. Posts a blog about concussion and brain damage in college and NFL.
Coach Williams invites Caleb to State to see the team play and possibly recruit Caleb for college.
Caleb sees his Dad forget things here and there. He meets Thunder Lewis and sees him forget names within seconds. Caleb is concerned for his Dad. He watches YouTube videos of his Dad and sees hits after hit as well as highlight reels. One says Sammy Dinger Springer Weebles but he don’t fall down.
Football ethics: keeping injured players in the game. Players body be truthful about symptoms or pain. Peer pressure to be tough and pop back into the play. Football is so much safer these days.
Early onset dementia at 46 due to multiple hits while play ring football for several years.
This story comes at a time when professional football injuries have been first and foremost in many people's mind when a player collapsed during a game and after EMT support, the game was cancelled.
Topics: concussion effects short and long term, football, family, relationships, telling the hard truths
Recommended: grades 5 +
May 30, 2023
Real talk: I was NOT expecting to like this one. I do not like football at all. I don't understand it, I don't understand the fans, and I don't understand the culture of American football either. I'm more of a baseball person if I have to watch a sportsball game at all.
But this. You don't need to understand how football works for you to get this book. Yes, Caleb is passionate about the game and there are plenty of games that happen in the story, but the best part about this story is the close look at what happens to so many professional players after they retire. You can only get knocked around so many times before your body can't recooperate anymore.
I do think this book can be fairly triggering. Sammy Springer's neurological issues are incredibly realistic, and though he did not have cancer, his behavioral changes were eerily similar to my dad's when he was diagnosed with glioblastoma. Caleb's dad ends up getting into some pretty scary situations as his health continues to decline, and the worst part is how realistic those situations are.
I think there are also triggering aspects in how vividly Caleb describes his coaches taking out their anger on his team. Yelling and screaming and swearing and ranting on and on for minutes at a time. For an adult to instinctually want to tear down children when they are angry absolutely sickens me. It is not okay and it isn't shown as okay here.
Overall, this book was 10/10 a dark horse I did not see expect to like, but I thoroughly enjoyed the surprise! Once again I am reminded of how many good books are out there in the world that I might never read because of my own biases and preferences.
But this. You don't need to understand how football works for you to get this book. Yes, Caleb is passionate about the game and there are plenty of games that happen in the story, but the best part about this story is the close look at what happens to so many professional players after they retire. You can only get knocked around so many times before your body can't recooperate anymore.
I do think this book can be fairly triggering. Sammy Springer's neurological issues are incredibly realistic, and though he did not have cancer, his behavioral changes were eerily similar to my dad's when he was diagnosed with glioblastoma. Caleb's dad ends up getting into some pretty scary situations as his health continues to decline, and the worst part is how realistic those situations are.
I think there are also triggering aspects in how vividly Caleb describes his coaches taking out their anger on his team. Yelling and screaming and swearing and ranting on and on for minutes at a time. For an adult to instinctually want to tear down children when they are angry absolutely sickens me. It is not okay and it isn't shown as okay here.
Overall, this book was 10/10 a dark horse I did not see expect to like, but I thoroughly enjoyed the surprise! Once again I am reminded of how many good books are out there in the world that I might never read because of my own biases and preferences.
July 25, 2022
Tommy Greenwald needs to keep writing sports fiction. There are so many kids in sports today who flat out don't like to read. They come into the library complaining about a book assignment and when I tell them I have a book they're going to love, they don't believe me. They always take it begrudgingly. When they return it, all they can say is, "You were right." There's never been a better time to be a sports fan when it comes to books. Between Mike Lupica, John Feinstien, and now Tommy Greenwald, these kids are covered.
Dinged is another book about the health hazards of football. It's a miracle if a guy makes it past his thirties with all his bones, muscles, joints, and brains, intact. Caleb Springer is a freshman football sensation. He's so good that he's earned the coveted first string quarterback position as a freshman. Pretty much unheard of. His dad a former NFL quarterback, couldn't be prouder. His girlfriend, however, isn't as enthusiastic. Everybody knows it's a rough sport. As the book progresses, Caleb and his mom begin to see a change in his dad. He's becoming more and more forgetful. Caleb must take a hard look at the potential harm to his body and decide if he should keep playing.
Love everything about the book except all the dating stuff. The characters are realistically more like juniors. Not that freshmen don't date, they just aren't this mature about it. No questionable content, but it still knocks it out of contention for my middle grade library (4-6 grades). Perfect for grades 7 and up.
Dinged is another book about the health hazards of football. It's a miracle if a guy makes it past his thirties with all his bones, muscles, joints, and brains, intact. Caleb Springer is a freshman football sensation. He's so good that he's earned the coveted first string quarterback position as a freshman. Pretty much unheard of. His dad a former NFL quarterback, couldn't be prouder. His girlfriend, however, isn't as enthusiastic. Everybody knows it's a rough sport. As the book progresses, Caleb and his mom begin to see a change in his dad. He's becoming more and more forgetful. Caleb must take a hard look at the potential harm to his body and decide if he should keep playing.
Love everything about the book except all the dating stuff. The characters are realistically more like juniors. Not that freshmen don't date, they just aren't this mature about it. No questionable content, but it still knocks it out of contention for my middle grade library (4-6 grades). Perfect for grades 7 and up.
March 8, 2023
Caleb Springer is the starting quarterback for his high school football team. He is only a freshman but he has been singled out as the best person to start the season at that position. Caleb is really talented and everyone believes his talent comes from his father, Sam Springer. Sam Springer was a professional football player. Caleb’s future is almost set in front of him. He has the talent but every time he gets hit in the head, it is harder for him to recover from the hits. He realizes that every time the coaches tell the team to shake it off that the coaches are doing a disservice to the players that have gotten dinged. Caleb finds out that as a professional football player his father has been dinged many times. Sam Springer loses his temper frequently and he behaves irrationally by changing his demeanor from calm to brutal outbursts. Caleb realizes that his father’s behavior is do to the number of concussions that he received while playing professionally. Sam’s diagnosis is early on set dementia.
Caleb doesn’t want himself or any of his teammates to suffer as his father has so if while he is on the field and member of his squad gets dinged, he will tell them to sit out the next plays. How Caleb deals with the love he has for his father and his teammates makes this an excellent read for 5th grade on up. With the wake of knowing how concussions affect players, this should be a must read for players and coaches of any contact sport!!! It brings the conversation of concussions out in the open for players to be concerned about before they put a helmet on.
Caleb doesn’t want himself or any of his teammates to suffer as his father has so if while he is on the field and member of his squad gets dinged, he will tell them to sit out the next plays. How Caleb deals with the love he has for his father and his teammates makes this an excellent read for 5th grade on up. With the wake of knowing how concussions affect players, this should be a must read for players and coaches of any contact sport!!! It brings the conversation of concussions out in the open for players to be concerned about before they put a helmet on.
September 23, 2024
In this companion novel to the acclaimed hit Game Changer, Caleb Springer is the up-and-coming star freshman quarterback on the high school football team, which isn’t a surprise considering his dad, Sammy "Dinger" Springer, was an NFL superstar and is now the town celebrity. Some of the older players resent Caleb a little bit, but he's a good team player, recognizing things like "the sag" that can cause a team to lose, and bolstering his teammates when he sees this happen.
College scouts are already snooping around Caleb, and his future seems set. Caleb understands how important his football career is to his dad, as well as to his entire school, but has some doubts about the safety of the game. He's taken a couple of blows that have left his ears ringing and his head pounding, and is torn between wanting to shrug these off and taking them seriously. The balance tips a bit when he starts to notice that his father is becoming forgetful and is often easily angered. Caleb is soon forced to confront a bleak possibility: The sport that gives him so much status and self-worth might be the cause of his dad’s strange behavior.
I liked Caleb’s girlfriend Nina who liked him and not the fact that he was a football star. In fact, she had no love at all for his sport. They were supportive of each other even though they had very different interests. Caleb's family dynamic is also good, with both parents being involved in his games and team life while also having concerns of their own.
The story is a powerful cautionary tale that it is based on current CTE research. It is highly recommended for students who love sports, even those who are reluctant readers. 3.5
College scouts are already snooping around Caleb, and his future seems set. Caleb understands how important his football career is to his dad, as well as to his entire school, but has some doubts about the safety of the game. He's taken a couple of blows that have left his ears ringing and his head pounding, and is torn between wanting to shrug these off and taking them seriously. The balance tips a bit when he starts to notice that his father is becoming forgetful and is often easily angered. Caleb is soon forced to confront a bleak possibility: The sport that gives him so much status and self-worth might be the cause of his dad’s strange behavior.
I liked Caleb’s girlfriend Nina who liked him and not the fact that he was a football star. In fact, she had no love at all for his sport. They were supportive of each other even though they had very different interests. Caleb's family dynamic is also good, with both parents being involved in his games and team life while also having concerns of their own.
The story is a powerful cautionary tale that it is based on current CTE research. It is highly recommended for students who love sports, even those who are reluctant readers. 3.5
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November 22, 2022Back with another great sports novel by Tommy Greenwald! Once again Greenwald combines a variety of text structures to tell this action-packed football story.
Caleb Springer is just a freshman, but as his father states, he is full of natural talent. As a young QB, much is expected of Caleb and he delivers. He will be leading the Walthorne Wildcats to victory this season and, hopefully, a state championship. It doesn't take long for the older players and the community to embrace this young QB. Once they see him in action, he's all everyone is talking about.
Being the son of a well-known NFL player means Caleb has been emersed in football since he could hold a ball. He and his father discuss the game and plan strategies constantly. Recently, Caleb has been noticing that his dad is forgetful and sometimes quick to show his temper. It doesn't seem like that big a deal, but Caleb has also noticed his mother stays close to his dad and often steers him back to the subject of a conversation or reminds him about something he has forgotten. As the big game draws closer, Caleb starts to get even more concerned about his dad, but he keeps it to himself.
DINGED focuses on the dangers of football and the threats of head injuries and the long-lasting effects. As the story mentions, there have been huge advancements in the safety of the game, but players and families still need to carefully weight the risks when players hit the field.
Caleb Springer is just a freshman, but as his father states, he is full of natural talent. As a young QB, much is expected of Caleb and he delivers. He will be leading the Walthorne Wildcats to victory this season and, hopefully, a state championship. It doesn't take long for the older players and the community to embrace this young QB. Once they see him in action, he's all everyone is talking about.
Being the son of a well-known NFL player means Caleb has been emersed in football since he could hold a ball. He and his father discuss the game and plan strategies constantly. Recently, Caleb has been noticing that his dad is forgetful and sometimes quick to show his temper. It doesn't seem like that big a deal, but Caleb has also noticed his mother stays close to his dad and often steers him back to the subject of a conversation or reminds him about something he has forgotten. As the big game draws closer, Caleb starts to get even more concerned about his dad, but he keeps it to himself.
DINGED focuses on the dangers of football and the threats of head injuries and the long-lasting effects. As the story mentions, there have been huge advancements in the safety of the game, but players and families still need to carefully weight the risks when players hit the field.
November 21, 2023
I read the book Dinged by Tommy Greenwald. The book is about Caleb who is a star freshman quarterback for Walthorne High School. His dad is a former NFL receiver. His dad’s received the nickname Dinger from his playing days. This year Caleb is trying to lead his team to the state championship. I liked how the book is fairly realistic about how teenagers act compared to real life. Another thing I like about the book is that it keeps you guessing because there is always something new happening. One thing I don’t like about the book is how much they focus on Nina’s ( Caleb’s Girlfriend) music career because I feel as though the book should be more focused on their relationship than her career. Another thing I don’t like about the book is that Caleb’s recruitment is unrealistic because if you are a freshman quarterback leading your team to state in real life you will be getting a lot more college attention than one school bringing you to games because a coach knows your dad. I do despite all these things I don’t like think it is a good book overall. The book is kind of a drama so I think even nonsports fans could enjoy it but it is not a book for adults they will think everything but the part about his dad getting dementia from all the hits he took is childish. I give this book a four-star rating out of five stars.
January 1, 2025
I enjoyed reading this book even though I'm not really into sports fiction. I read it because it was on our state list for middle grade. I think the book might be a hard sell for some of the football-obsessed sports fiction readers at that grade level, though. Adults like me like it, but kids who don't believe that anything bad will every happen to them won't like the message. CTE and the neurological problems associated with it are a primary storyline and that is unattractive to a stream of boys who believe that playing on the football team is the only thing they love. Caleb's story is one of choice. Given all the information and statistics and options, Caleb has an impossible decision to make. And how many of us would make the same choice he did? I doubt many.
The toxic football culture of 'shake it off' and not being free to admit you were hurt is something that is a problem that no new helmets and concussion protocols can help.
The domestic abuse tag is added because some of his father's explosive temper kind of skirts the abuse label. Living in fear of setting your father off is not a nice way to be. And I feel for Caleb's mom, with her physically fit, but mentally declining husband and a son who might be heading the same way.
There's no way I'm telling the captain of the team I'm not okay. You don't do that in football.
The toxic football culture of 'shake it off' and not being free to admit you were hurt is something that is a problem that no new helmets and concussion protocols can help.
The domestic abuse tag is added because some of his father's explosive temper kind of skirts the abuse label. Living in fear of setting your father off is not a nice way to be. And I feel for Caleb's mom, with her physically fit, but mentally declining husband and a son who might be heading the same way.
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May 9, 2023The book i'm reading is Dinged By Tommy Greenwald
The book is about a kid that is a quarterback and a wide receiver. When he was in a game he took a pretty hard hit and he didn't bother it. His dad met a guy that is like a scout for a team and said he looked pretty good and should check out his team.
The theme or the central idea of the book is at his school where he study’s or the field where he plays football and his house where he sleeps. His dad is a main character, he doesn't like to sit by people he lets them come to him he doesn't do the cheering he sits there and watches with his wife. Caleb’s girlfriend was a weak person. She didn't like him playing football or she doesn't even like football. She waits till the end of the game to take pictures with him. I Can't remember what part of the book it was but when his friends came up to Caleb and his girlfriend was like who is this bird you're talking to was probably my favorite part of the book.
This book was okay. I liked it pretty good. It was about football obviously, the book wasn't confusing at all and pretty easy to read. One of my favorite books already mentioned my favorite part. Couldn't really make my connections my first tom reading a football book.
The book is about a kid that is a quarterback and a wide receiver. When he was in a game he took a pretty hard hit and he didn't bother it. His dad met a guy that is like a scout for a team and said he looked pretty good and should check out his team.
The theme or the central idea of the book is at his school where he study’s or the field where he plays football and his house where he sleeps. His dad is a main character, he doesn't like to sit by people he lets them come to him he doesn't do the cheering he sits there and watches with his wife. Caleb’s girlfriend was a weak person. She didn't like him playing football or she doesn't even like football. She waits till the end of the game to take pictures with him. I Can't remember what part of the book it was but when his friends came up to Caleb and his girlfriend was like who is this bird you're talking to was probably my favorite part of the book.
This book was okay. I liked it pretty good. It was about football obviously, the book wasn't confusing at all and pretty easy to read. One of my favorite books already mentioned my favorite part. Couldn't really make my connections my first tom reading a football book.
June 23, 2023
Caleb Springer is a freshman who plays football as a Varsity quarterback for the Walthorne Wildcats. His father is an ex-NFL star who is ready for Caleb to follow in his footsteps, but things might not go as he wants. His father begins having lapses in memory, anger issues uncommon to him, and acts odd at times, giving the family concerns. Caleb's girlfriend, Nine Rojas, hates football, and fears the injuries, especially head injuries that occur, but she will come watch Caleb and support him in his achievements. Caleb begins to see how dangerous the head injuries can be, even with the safer helmets, and that coaches are supposed to keep a better watch on their players when they get "dinged". Though I am not a football fun (I know, living in Texas how dare I), the light getting shed on how dangerous the sport can be, even for younger players, and how coaches and teammates handle what they witness keep the story flowing. The characters were fully fleshed out and vivid and the decline of Caleb's dad's mental health is heart wrenching. Though this is a companion novel to Game Changer, I did not feel like I need to read that book to understand this one. Sports fans and those looking for a quick read might enjoy this book.
April 16, 2023
The multimedia experience of this book is one of it's strengths. Greenwald uses transcripts from interviews, newspaper clippings, texts, and a few other forms to tell the story of Caleb Springer (whose father was a professional football player with the nickname Dinger), but it's not just that dinger and springer rhyme, it's the amount of hits or dings that he wracked up and now it's messing with his head as an adult-- is the same thing going to start happening to Caleb now that he's the freshman starting quarterback?
He's got some newfound fame and of course his girlfriend tolerates it though he's getting plenty of other looks from girls (I like that there's a relationship in this story) and provides perspectives from others around the football field about what's happening, including the cringe-worthy ending.
It leaves a lot to think about and would be perfect coupled with Love, Zac: Small-Town Football and the Life and Death of an American Boy.
He's got some newfound fame and of course his girlfriend tolerates it though he's getting plenty of other looks from girls (I like that there's a relationship in this story) and provides perspectives from others around the football field about what's happening, including the cringe-worthy ending.
It leaves a lot to think about and would be perfect coupled with Love, Zac: Small-Town Football and the Life and Death of an American Boy.
January 29, 2023
I absolutely loved game changer by the same author and wasn’t sure how he would right such a similar story and make it feel distinct, but boy does it ever. The former is a book about football culture and how it damages young players- a searing commentary on all of the toxic adults that fuel a system of violence, hazing, and silencing concerns. This book is also about youth football but focuses explicitly on and the physical dangers of the sport, specifically head injuries. I cried several times and would recommend this to adults and youths alike. It has such a powerful message, told in a compassionate way. Greenwald says in his authors note that he doesn’t want to tell you want to think, he just encourages you to think about the subject. I was nervous I wouldn’t like this after not being as moved by his second book Rivals, but I needn’t have worried- this and game changer are all time favorites. I read this whole book in one sitting, and would have happily read more.
PS: how does this book have so few ratings???? Everyone should be reading this!!!!
PS: how does this book have so few ratings???? Everyone should be reading this!!!!
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