Dear Ms. Monaco,
The book that I just finished was The Long Snapper by Jeffrey Marx. This was a great book. It had a very unique storyline, about a man winning a super bowl after coming out of retirement to help the league’s best team in its last couple games of the regular season.
This book was a great book choice for me. I would give it ten out of ten stars, because it was well rounded, and also entertaining. I eccpessuaily liked how the circumstances were so unique. Brian, the main character in the book, went from being a LSU graduate to become a NFL player. After being a veteran in the National Football League Brian became a teacher for a bible school. From there he went on to win a super bowl after helping the Patriots with the last couple games of the season. To me that was an incredible part in the story. This man also had 3 kids and a wife to take care of, which made me give this story a ten out of ten.
The plot chart for this book was unlike other books that I have read. It starts out with a flash back. That flashback starts with how he and his wife got married and then tells about his college career at LSU. That is the first part of rising action. The next part tells about his good and long career as a NFL player. All along hinting on the fact that he wants to win a super bowl, but he never does. Next on the rising action chart he starts to teach. He teaches about the bible at the junior high. Close to the end of the first semester Brian gets a call. It’s from his long time friend Scott Pioli asking if he could come help the Patriots out with the last bit of the season. Brian accepts. Now we are getting close to the climax. It is the last game of the season and everything is on the line. As you probably guessed it is the super bowl. Brian is so nervous that his long snaps keep getting worse. The climax of the book comes with about 9 pages left in the book. It happens after Brian wins the super bowl. Now his dream is finished. The falling action is rather short. Brian comes home and gets surprised with a party. Next he receives his ring. Then he gives a ton of speeches about how awesome his journey had been, and how GOD had impacted it. Finally Brian goes back to teaches and everything starts to settle down. The resolution of this book is that if you try hard enough and do your best in life everything will turn out good.
I wonder why Brian had been having trouble with his long snaps during the game. The book made this a big deal towards the end of the book and they gave ideas as to why this was happening, but never came out and told us the real reason. For example they said that he was nervous but never told us that this was the reason he was snapping the ball so bad.
The structure of the main character was based off his family. In the book Brian was very smart on the choices he made and how those choices would impact him and his family. This tells me that he was raised well and is structured well mentally.
I was surprised that the book was about a resent happening. Most nonfiction books are from a long time ago, but this book takes place in early January of 2003. That was the year Brian and the Patriots won the super bowl against the Carolina Panthers. The funny thing is that the game came down to a field goal for the Patriots. The only thing Brian had to do was snap the ball.
The resolution of this book for Brian was trust in GOD and everything will be alright. I thought that this resolution was good for this book. All Brian needed was to trust someone than he would have the confidence that he needed to play through the game. Brian was very nervous throughout the game which just hyped him up. It also caused him to throw a bad snap during the game.
This book was a great book. I really enjoyed reading this book. It made me want to read. I think that this book made me start to read for fun. I will definitely read another book by this author.
Your Student,
Ben Mardis
