"Our Boys" Review

Right off the bat, this book was fantastic. I read it in a matter of a week; I could not put it down. This was a book that was on my list of "to reads" before this class because I grew up 45 miles away from Smith Center, not even an hour's drive away. For my first three years of high school football I played 8-man but my senior season we played 11-man but never had to face Smith Center. We knew we were lucky, we knew the legend of the Redmen.

Joe Drape captured that legend perfectly. Everything Smith Center stands for was in this book. It's the way that most small towns in Kansas strive to live but few succeed. As Drape reveals, Smith Center succeeds without a doubt. This book has that "Friday Night Lights" feel to it but I think it's better. The divides that exist in the community in "Friday Night Lights" aren't there in "Our Boys". The whole town gets along and the football team is that rallying point.

I loved Drape's writing style. He drops himself in and out of the story perfectly. Most of the time you forget he's narrating but when he does go into first person, he doesn't dominate the story like writers have a tendency to do when using this style.

I would love to see or hear from Joe Drape to find out how he feels about the follow up season after this book was written. As everyone may already know, Smith Center posted a 12-0 record before their winning streak came to an end in the 2-1A state championship game against Centralia this past fall.

In conclusion, I recommend "Our Boys" highly. I consider it to be the state of Kansas version of "Friday Night Lights" except it doesn't need a movie. It's already perfectly done.