Tim Green Knows Football and Baseball!

Today is the release for Tim Green's newest baseball book, Best of the Best: A Baseball Great Novel! 

I was thrilled to meet Tim Green at Anderson's Children's Literature Breakfast last month.  Listening to him speak about his experience playing in the NFL, his books, and his family clearly showed how passionate he is about all of them.  I was excited to interview him and now he has a new book out today in his baseball series.  The book is called Best of the Best: A Baseball Great Novel. 


I've decided to change to a more abbreviated book review when it comes to chapter books/novels that I read and review here.  Of Tim Green's books, I have read Football Genius.  My husband is a physical education teacher and an overall sports fan, which, in turn, has made me more of a sports fan than I was when I met him.  We've been watching March Madness all weekend!  I've been on the lookout for good sports-related books and have read books by Lupica, Feinstein, Gutman, and Crutcher.  I was excited to add another sporty book to my list of "read" books.


Football Genius did not let me down when it comes to football books.  I listened to it on audio and Tim Green told me his kids did voices for Troy and Tate!  As a fan, I could totally relate to Troy wanting to sneak in and see a real NFL football player's house and his excitement at meeting a football player and then getting to be on the field for a Falcons game.  I would have felt as excited as Troy did throughout the book.  I found myself wanting to get back to listening to the book to find out what would happen next.  Green does an amazing job of building the energy and excitement throughout the book.  When he talked at the Breakfast, he told how he read the book to kids and judged their eagerness to hear what would happen next in the story.  I got the impression that he was diligent about keeping his readers - kids - in mind while writing and it was especially evident in Football Genius.


I would recommend this to any reader - boy or girl - who loves football or any sport for that matter.  My husband loves to meet athletes and collect autographs as much as I love to meet authors.  He uses a website that sends him notifications of where and when athletes will be signing autographs in our area.  I'm sure you could find a website similar if you have a professional sports team near you.  You could even team up with the P.E. teacher at your school to promote these books and host Tim Green on Skype.  (I love the idea of getting everyone in the school involved in promoting reading and I know my husband's students adore him and would read a book that he recommends.)


You could easily work on personal narrative and ask students to talk about a sporting event that they attended - whether it was for a professional team or even their sister's soccer game!  To work on some expository writing, they could explain how to play a sport. how to do something sports related - like how to shoot a free-throw, or even research and write about their favorite athletes.  


Tim Green has a great website and some videos on YouTube.  He is even available for FREE Skype visits through Anderson's Bookshop!  I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the Football Genius series and then reading the Baseball Great series!  Have you read any of Tim Green's books?  A colleague told me she has read all of his adult novels.  Does anyone have a favorite Tim Green book?