Book Review: Harriers by Joseph and Paul Shivers
A few weeks ago I received an e-mail from Lora White who is working with a couple high school seniors who wrote a book about their quest for an Ohio state cross country championship. She stated that since this was a high school project with limited funds, the authors are hoping to generate some buzz in the blogosphere about the book. She asked if I could find time to read the book and then offer a review on my blog.
Now, I was never involved with cross country, but my own curiosity as a runner got the best of me and I decided to check it out. Although she offered to send me a free review copy, I figured she didn’t realize that I lived in Germany, so I decided to just order the $5.95 book from Amazon myself.
When the book arrived from Amazon Germany a couple days later I honestly was not expecting much more than a Hardy Boys tale of a cross country team. The description of the book written on the back cover left me unimpressed, I’ll repeat it here to introduce the books central theme:
“The young cross country team of Salem High School places in the State Meet, only to have the state athletic association eliminate them from the competition after a scoring error. Told from the perspective of two members of the team, Harriers details how Coach Mike Almond brought his team back to pursue the state title the following year. This book tells the boys’ story of teamwork, dedication and overcoming the odds.”
As I began to read through HARRIERS I felt the prose was a bit pompous, but when I considered the age of the authors, this is not surprisingly. As I read on I found myself totally drawn into their true story and had trouble putting the book down.
HARRIERS is a story about high school runners told by high school runners. The book captures the hardships, pain and eventual jubilation of a cross country team that had the rug pulled out from under them due to a scoring error at the state championships, but fought their way back to the top the following year. I found myself experiencing the ups and downs of the team, as I lived their journey through the authors.
I highly recommend buying the book because it is simply a good read and a great way to support young writers. The authors Joseph and Paul Shivers were mentored by the Fresh Writers Writing Program of which the Shivers’ were 2005 Award winners.
Buy the book, I bet you will feel the heat of enthusiasm through this well told story.
HARRIERS
By Joseph and Paul Shivers
Paperback,181 pages
Fresh Writers Books
PO Box 82
Uniontown OH,44685
Fax:707-220-4510