Hints About Writing a Review of Friday Night Lights  

 

Be sure you read the Book Review Guidelines for this course, available on Canvas (the Modules link), before writing your review.

 

The guidelines ask you to address six elements of the book in your review. Try to write a paragraph on each element. The elements are:

 

1. Topic, Theme, Scope. In this element you need to discuss the subject of the book. What is the book about? What does it cover in terms of time period/years? H. G. Bissinger’s book is titled Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream. What does he mean by “Friday Night Lights?” What town is the book about? What team? What dream? What year? Was the dream accomplished?
2. What do you think is the main idea that the author argues in the book? The answer to these questions may help you figure it out. What does this book tell us about high school football in Texas cities like Odessa (and Dallas for that matter) in the late-1980s? What does it tell us about race, the status of athletes, the desire to win at all costs, and the toll this takes on the players? What about our priorities? Do you think the author depicted Odessa in a positive or negative light?
3. Organization and Content. Take a look at the Table of Contents at the front of the book. You will see that the book is organized into a Preface, Prologue, four main sections (with each divided into chapters), Epilogue, and Afterword (and maybe even other sections depending on what edition of the book you have). Discuss the book’s organization, focusing more on the main sections and the arc of the story Bissinger is telling. Is the book organized chronologically? What does each section cover?
4. This is not the kind of book that you usually read in a history class, and I struggled with myself on whether to assign it or not. I finally concluded that the book is too important to ignore and has a great deal to say about misguided high school priorities (not just high school…really!) and our adulation of athletes, celebrities, musicians, etc. It is not written by a historian, but it is filled with facts, critical analysis, observations, and attitude. The book was controversial when it was released and remains controversial to this day. In talking about sources, then, you will have to talk about how Bissinger gathered the information for the book. What did he do in order to write the book?
5. Do a little research about the author H. G. Bissinger. Who is he? What is his background? What else has he written? Has he won any awards for his writings?
6. Address a few questions here. For what audience do you think the book was intended (professional historians, general public, high school students, other)? Did you like the book? Why/why not? As you probably know, the book was the basis of a major motion picture and a television program that ran for several years. It also prompted debates about the role of athletics in high school.

 

At the top of the first page as a header, place a bibliographic entry for the specific edition that you have. There are a lot of different editions that have been released for this book (it has been that popular!). My book’s entry would look like this:

 

Bissinger, H. G. Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2004. 371 pp.

 

After that then leave a space and begin your review. Use Times New Roman 12 point font and also leave some space between each sentence (1.5 line spacing will do). Go back to the Book Review Guidelines to see how to include your name, course, etc., at the end of your review. There is also a rubric there that will tell you how I plan to grade your reviews.

 

Finally, make sure you have also read the Grammar/Spelling Help link, just under the Book Review Guidelines link in Canvas. The grammar link discusses some typical problems I find in reviews and other assignments. Try to avoid these issues…and make sure you proofread your paper carefully (getting rid of typos, spelling issues, awkward or incorrect grammar, etc.).

 

Good luck!