Lupica, Mike.
QB 1
New York : Philomel Books, 2013
IL 5-8, RL 4.9
ISBN 0399252282

(2 booktalks)

Booktalk #1

Everyone in the town of Granger, Texas, eats, sleeps, and drinks football. If you’re looking for someone on a Friday night, you can find them at the high school stadium whether they have a kid who plays or not and every other day is spent analyzing and discussing the team. I think that’s what they call “obsessed.” Jake Cullen is a freshman quarterbacking the team that his brother Wyatt took all the way to the Texas State championship game just the season before. As you can imagine, big things are expected of Jake. If standing in the shadow of his amazingly-talented brother isn’t enough, Jake is also compared to his father, Troy Cullen, a local celebrity because of his success in the NFL. But Jake wants to do things his own way. He wants to be a great teammate; he wants his team to be successful; and he wants his dad to stand up and take notice that maybe there’s more than one way to be successful.  (Prepared by: Christy Brown, Blythewood Middle School, Michelle King, Kennedy Middle School, South Carolina Junior Book Award)

Booktalk #2

Jake Cullen has big shoes to fill if he wants to follow the football legacy of his father and brother, both successful quarterbacks and celebrities in their hometown. Jake enjoys football like the other men in his family, and he has the talent and leadership skills to be great. At the same time though, he’s still just a high school kid. He feels that he must fight the extra pressure of living up to his family’s reputation in order to be himself and make his own name. 
(Booktalk by Louisiana Young Readers' Choice Committee, 2016)