Author Fred Bowen not only writes great sports stories for middle grade readers but he also pens a sports column for kids in the Washington Post. Books in his sport series cover baseball, basketball, football, and soccer. Fred’s web page has a full title list of more than twenty books.
SPEED DEMON is his fourth book with football as the focus. The story is fast paced and centers around fourteen-year-old Tim as he begins classes at an elite school. Tim is fast, faster than any other student. After he breaks the school record in the fifty yard dash, coaches take notice and convince him to try out for football. But is this what he really wants? Tim’s mother, who was a doctor before she passed away, thought football was too dangerous. His Dad just wants to support him in whatever he chooses to do.
Football wins out and Tim’s journey the first season as a wide receiver on the Junior Varsity team brings surprising results. Although Tim is older than most MG characters, his story is all about football and perfect for kids either playing or wanting to play. The 144 pages are an easy read for ages 7-12 and have no no romantic elements or language. In the back of the book is a summary of some of football and track’s greatest speed demons.
Football season is upon us and Speed Demon will for sure keep your budding superstar reading long after watching or playing America’s wildly popular pastime. What they’ll find is a honest look at the sport in today’s world. Bravo, Fred Bowen, keep them coming!
Peachtree Publishing supplied an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
Coming up this Monday is another edition of…
Always in the Middle... 
Wish I had his series when my grandsons were teens. I like that the author touches on the risk involved with football — any sport really. This sounds like a great read!
Although I am not a great fan of football, I worked with lots of students who were! This sounds like a high-interest story written by a knowledgable author. I followed your link to his web page and found he has 10 baseball books, including a biography of Ted Williams. I’m going to look for some of his these stories since I am a longtime fan of baseball. Thanks for sharing this title with us here, Greg.