Fantasy League
by Mike Lupica (Author)
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School Library Journal
Gr 5 Up—Charlie "The Brain" Gaines may be an average seventh grader in most respects, but he possesses an uncanny knowledge about football teams and a sixth sense about game strategy. A so-so linebacker for his own Pop Warner team, the Culver City Cardinals, Charlie would much rather be on the sidelines, calling plays along with the coach. Best friend Anna Bretton shares Charlie's passion for football, as it is in her blood—her grandfather and uncle own and manage the Los Angeles Bulldogs. She invites Charlie to meet Grandpa Joe and Uncle Matt at a game, and it isn't long before Gramps is captivated by Charlie's commentary. His advice to replace the quarterback with an older and relatively unknown player named Tom Pinkett helps to turn around their losing record. Signing Pinkett to the team turns out to be a winning idea, and when word gets out that the call was made by a 12-year-old, Charlie is hounded by the media and thrust into a spotlight he isn't sure how to handle. Nearly losing his friendship with Anna, Charlie learns a lesson about fame and valuing relationships. Tension soars when Joe Warren falls ill, and readers will be alternately cheering and reaching for a tissue during the final playoff-deciding game for the Bulldogs. This will be devoured by young football fans, who appreciate intricate game details and won't mind a touch of heartwarming sentiment.—Vicki Reutter, State University of New York at Cortland
Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.Review quotes
Gr 5 Up- Charlie "The Brain" Gaines may be an average seventh grader in most respects, but he possesses an uncanny knowledge about football teams and a sixth sense about game strategy. A so-so linebacker for his own Pop Warner team, the Culver City Cardinals, Charlie would much rather be on the sidelines, calling plays along with the coach. Best friend Anna Bretton shares Charlie's passion for football, as it is in her blood—her grandfather and uncle own and manage the Los Angeles Bulldogs. She invites Charlie to meet Grandpa Joe and Uncle Matt at a game, and it isn't long before Gramps is captivated by Charlie's commentary. His advice to replace the quarterback with an older and relatively unknown player named Tom Pinkett helps to turn around their losing record. Signing Pinkett to the team turns out to be a winning idea, and when word gets out that the call was made by a 12-year-old, Charlie is hounded by the media and thrust into a spotlight he isn't sure how to handle. Nearly losing his friendship with Anna, Charlie learns a lesson about fame and valuing relationships. Tension soars when Joe Warren falls ill, and readers will be alternately cheering and reaching for a tissue during the final playoff-deciding game for the Bulldogs. This will be devoured by young football fans, who appreciate intricate game details and won't mind a touch of heartwarming sentiment.—School Library Journal Usually a football book is about whether or not the kid makes the team—and the problems that follow. So
it's refreshing that those issues are only a part of 12-year-old Charlie Gains' story. See, Charlie is known
as the Brain, because he is a football stats genius. He understands which players should be playing where
and why. This makes him great at fantasy football; then reality comes center stage. His best friend, Anna,
is the granddaughter of Joe Warren, the man who has brought NFL football back to Los Angeles. But the
team, the Bulldogs, haven't done much, and Joe's son, the GM, is being blamed. Enter Charlie, who loves
the team and soon comes to love Joe Warren as the father and grandfather he never had. Charlie shares his
massive football knowledge with Joe, and soon players are being recruited at Charlie's suggestion. Couple
this with the fact Anna has turned Charlie into something of a podcast celebrity, and suddenly Charlie is
catnip for the media. That's great until things start to go wrong. There's a lot of football here: pro and
fantasy teams and Charlie's own Pop Warner career. Veteran sportswriter Lupica handles it all very well.
However, it's the heart and depth he adds to the story depicting Charlie's relationships with a sterling cast
of characters that make this unique. This Moneyball story with kids is on the money.
— Ilene Cooper Praise for FANTASY LEAGUE: * "This Moneyball story with kids is on the money."-Booklist, starred review
"Fantasy League . . . is the feel good book of the year."-VOYA
Lupica, Mike. Fantasy League. Philomel/Penguin, 2014. 304p. $17.99. 978-0-399-25607-3. Twelve-year-old Charlie Gaines, nicknamed the "Brain," knows everything about football. He watches the games, studies the stats, and sees things professionals seem to miss. His best friend, Anna's, grandfather, Joe Warren, owns the L.A. Bulldogs, an expansion team with a history of losing. Anna knows almost as much about football as Charlie and they love watching games and talking football, especially how they would turn the Bulldogs around. At Anna's urging Charlie suggests to Warren that he draft an older quarterback who will probably be dropped by his current team. He is astonished when Warren takes this advice. Word gets out that Warren is taking suggestions from a twelve-year-old and both Charlie and Warren take considerable grief from the media. When Warren acts a second time on Charlie's advice, the media has a field day. Will these choices prove positive for the Bulldogs? Throughout this, Charlie is also player/assistant coach in a Pop Warner league, not confident that he is talented enough.
Fantasy League by Lupica is the feel good book of the year. Charlie and Anna are truly best friends. It is heartwarming to see a friendship develop between septuagenarian Warren and Charlie, whose father left when he was young. Warren becomes friend/father/grandfather rolled into one. Lupica touches on family, illness, self-confidence, and more in an easy-reading, enjoyable way. While the plot is predictable, the action and characters make Fantasy League a fun read. Primarily geared to boys, female sports fans might enjoy this as well.—Ed Goldberg.
He began his newspaper career covering the New York Knicks for the New York Post at age 23. He became the youngest columnist ever at a New York paper with the New York Daily News, which he joined in 1977. For more than 30 years, Lupica has added magazines, novels, sports biographies, other non-fiction books on sports, as well as television to his professional resume. For the past fifteen years, he has been a TV anchor for ESPN's The Sports Reporters. He also hosted his own program, The Mike Lupica Show on ESPN2.
In 1987, Lupica launched "The Sporting Life" column in Esquire magazine. He has published articles in other magazines, including Sport, World Tennis, Tennis, Golf Digest, Playboy, Sports Illustrated, ESPN: The Magazine, Men's Journal and Parade. He has received numerous honors, including the 2003 Jim Murray Award from the National Football Foundation.
Mike Lupica co-wrote autobiographies with Reggie Jackson and Bill Parcells, collaborated with noted author and screenwriter, William Goldman on Wait 'Till Next Year, and wrote The Summer of '98, Mad as Hell: How Sports Got Away from the Fans and How We Get It Back and Shooting From the Lip, a collection of columns. In addition, he has written a number of novels, including Dead Air, Extra Credits, Limited Partner, Jump, Full Court Press, Red Zone, Too Far and national bestsellers Wild Pitch and Bump and Run. Dead Air was nominated for the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best First Mystery and became a CBS television move, "Money, Power, Murder" to which Lupica contributed the teleplay. Over the years he has been a regular on the CBS Morning News, Good Morning America and The MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour. On the radio, he has made frequent appearances on Imus in the Morning since the early 1980s.
His previous young adult novels, Travel Team, Heat, Miracle on 49th Street, and the summer hit for 2007, Summer Ball, have shot up the New York Times bestseller list. Lupica is also what he describes as a "serial Little League coach," a youth basketball coach, and a soccer coach for his four children, three sons and a daughter. He and his family live in Connecticut.
JUV032030 - Juvenile Fiction | Sports & Recreation | Football
