Million-Dollar Throw

November 16, 2009
In 2005, an army veteran won $1 million by throwing a football through a target during a halftime show at a college football game. Lupica (The Big Field
) inserts a 13-year-old in the contestant role and moves the action to Massachusetts, where QB Nate Brodie stars for his eighth-grade team and idolizes the New England Patriots' Tom Brady. The pressure to win is intense—Nate's father has lost his job, the house is close to foreclosure, and his best friend, Abby, needs money to go to a special school since she is rapidly going blind. Though the entire cast is a bit too perfect, many kids will relate to Nate's fears about his family's finances: “You were going along, having what felt like a pretty cool life, and then all of a sudden came the economy
trying to wreck everything.” The ups and downs of Nate's peewee football team provide sports play-by-play, but the thread that will pull readers through is whether Nate can save his and Abby's families with one well-aimed spiral on Thanksgiving night. Ages 10–up.

December 1, 2009
Gr 6-8-Lupica delivers another smooth, well-paced, character-driven novel. Thirteen-year-old Nate Brodie's life would seem to be the stuff of adolescent boys' dreams: he is the star quarterback of his school football team and has a great relationship with his best friend and soulmate, Abby McCall. However, all is not smooth sailing. The Brodies are in danger of losing their home in the economic downturn, and Abby's eyesight is failing due to a rare congenital disease. Nate thinks he may have the opportunity to solve all of his problems when he wins the chance to make a million dollars by throwing a football through a small target during halftime at a pro football game. Unfortunately, his quarterbacking skills suddenly and mysteriously desert him just as he is preparing for his big moment. With the support of his family and friends, he fights his way back and regains the confidence he needs to face the challenges in his life. While the serious issues raised about the effects of economic uncertainty on families are resolved a tad too easily, youngsters are likely to accept this as just a good, entertaining read."Richard Luzer, Fair Haven Union High School, VT"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2009
Grades 5-8 Conflicts between head and heart trouble an eighth-grade football star in Lupicas latest smoothly crafted sports tale. No sooner is quarterback Nate picked in a drawing to try for a million-dollar prize on national TV by tossing a football through a small target than his erstwhile-brilliant passing game goes down the tubes. Knowing that his parents are both working multiple jobs to make ends meet, and also that Abby, his very best friend, girlfriend, and a gifted artist, is losing her eyesight, Nate realizes that he should be putting his own problems in perspectivebut still, as his team finds itself locked in a series of unnecessarily close gridiron contests, he sinks into a steady state of confused dejection. Will his arm come around in time, and if it does, what will he do with the money? Lupica injects plenty of suspenseful sports action into the plot and creates a cast of uniformly likable characters whose faith in teamwork and in each other ultimately earns handsome rewards for all. A natural for graduates of Matt Christophers sports stories.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)