QB1

Gr 6 Up—In Granger, TX, everyone eats, sleeps, and breathes high school football, and the Cullen family is pigskin royalty. Jake Cullen is the youngest member of the Cullen "triad" that started with his superstar father and continued with his unbeatable brother. Now the quarterback legacy pressure is sitting squarely on his shoulders. Fast-paced sports action is mixed skillfully with a realistic coming-of-age story that unfolds easily in the audio format. Fans of sports radio will be especially captivated by the blow-by-blow descriptions of football plays. Even listeners with little interest in the sport will find themselves rooting for straight-A student and born leader Jake, largely owing to Nicolas Tecosky's convincing voicing that conveys both humility and insecurity through his soft, slightly drawn out Texas twang and his thoughtful pauses. Tecosky lowers and thickens his Texas accent for Jake's football-obsessed father, and is able to take it to the higher, lighter range for his tough but tender mother. This is sure to be a hit with sports-loving teens.—Shari Fesko, Southfield Public Library, MI