The Greatest Game Ever Played

by Phil Bildner

Book Overview

The heartwarming story of an estranged father and son brought together by the 1958 NFL championship game, known in football history as the Greatest Game Ever Played. The 1958 NFL championship game is... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 039924171X
• ISBN13: 9780399241710
• Release Date: January 1
• Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers
• Length: 40 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 11.3" x 8.8"
• Age Range: 5 to 8 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 3

Customer Reviews

"Game" is Great!

Once again Zakary Pullen with his illustrations hits the target! What great pictures to look at while reading a fun story!

Great Book for Kids Who Love Sports

With my nephew's birthday coming up tomorrow, and the Superbowl on the horizon, I was able to find this beautiful football picture book centered around the "Greatest Game Ever Played", the 1958 NFL championship game at Yankee Stadium between the New York Giants and the Baltimore Colts. It's also the story of a father and his son finding the time to have fun together. Sam and his Pop have had a tough summer. Pop had to change jobs, and he can no longer take Sam to watch the baseball games at the Polo Grounds. To make matters worse, their beloved Giants have announced plans to leave town for San Francisco. Pop grew up hating the Yankees and he's vowed that he'd never set foot in Yankee Stadium for a baseball game. Meanwhile, Sam has a job selling sno-cones at Casey's Corner and he's discovered a new sport on the radio: Football, and the NFL's New York Giants. When sam gets two tickets to the championship game, can he convince his Pop to take him? And can it possibly be like old times cheering for baseball? With this classic early football matchup, as the backdrop, and with future Hall-of-Famers like Johnny Unitas and Sam Huff on the field, author Phil Bildner weaves a sweet story about fathers, sons, and sports while he captures the feel of New York City in the 1950's. An afterword by the author gives the history of the 1958 NFL championship game and its importance to the growing popularity of professional football. As good as the story is, it's the work of caricature artist Zachary Pullen that gives this book its true charm. Pullen has a knack for conveying a world of emotion and a touch of humor in every face. My nephews probably like sports more than they like reading, but I think this is a story that they will relate to and get excited about.

4 1/2* Bildner Tells a Great Story, but the Pictures Don't Quite Capture It.

Football finally gets its kids' book due in this recounting of the 1957 NFL championship game between the New York Giants and the Baltimore Colts. As is often the case in sports stories, Dad has lost his job in a unforgiving economy. To make matter worse, he's even lost his beloved New York Giants baseball team to the West Coast. His son Sam (who narrates this story) even loses his newspaper gig, but at least his employer gives him some football tickets as a kind of severance pay (unrealistic, given that it's a title game, but no one will notice). Sam practically has to drag his father to the game, but once there he beings to enjoy it. Readers will also, as author Phil Bildner's enthusiasm will excite young readers who have never heard of the impressive roster on that freezing cold day. Vince Lombardi and Tom Landry were assistant coaches (!), and their best players included Frank Gifford, Pat Summerall, and Sam Huff. The Colts weren't too shabby themselves, with great Johnny Unitas, Raymond Berry, and Alan "The Horse" Ameche. As "Pop" gets more excited, he begins talking defense and personnel to his kid; it turns out he's been a closet Giants fan all season. Referring to Johnny U., he says: "I tell ya, Sam, in some ways he reminds me of myself. He lost his job just like I did. Got cut by the Steelers and found himself playing for six bucks a game in a semipro league. Now take a look at him." THe teams march up and down the field, and UNitas and Berry go to work. Illustrator Zachary Pullen doesn't capture the onfield play, he focuses on the faces and emotions of players and fans. THat's a problem for two reasons. ON a page where Bildner artfully describes three straight Unitas to Berry passes, we see Johnny U. and others on the sidelines. Pullen also depicts the characters as a fairly loutish bunch, big-boned gallumphs with oversized facial features, even the handsome, graceful Johnny Unitas looks thick-headed, and the memories that Pullen tries so hard to retrieve get a rude treatment. That an often violent game is sanitized for younsters is ok, but the pictures feel colorized and airbrushed. I wanted to see mud and snow and players flying, instead we get a colorful but somewhat static portrait of Ameche's final touchdown plunge. Phil Bildner's fascinating afterward discusses the game and its impact upon football, eventually transforming the game into our most popular sport. Aside from the Super Bowl, however, football retains some some of its second tier status. Baseball fans know their heroes' stats, and develop fierce loyalties and warm (or caustic) memories. The scarcity of football books for kids is yet more evidence that while the gridiron rules the tube, the baseball diamond touches our hearts. Bildner's book is a 10-yard leap in the right direction.