The League by Thatcher Heldring (review)

Wyatt Parker’s having a difficult time standing up for himself. Dad is pressuring him to take golfing more seriously, when Wyatt would rather play football. The class thug, Spencer, is bullying him. He can’t quite make his true feelings known to his close female friend, Evan, who’s gone all moon-eyed over a high school football god, for whom she’s not even a blip on the radar. All this changes when Wyatt’s older brother Aaron, who’s concerned about losing face when his dorky-ish younger sib shows up at high school in fall, challenges Wyatt to skip out on pre-arranged golf camp sessions and join the older guys in a clandestine football series, the League of Pain—few rules, no protective gear. Spencer shows up at the games, too, as well as some other kids from Wyatt’s eighth grade class, and it’s throw down or get eaten alive by the bruisers on the Morons and the Idiots teams. Wyatt takes his lumps, and by the time he has to confront his parents about disobeying their strict orders against football, he’s developed the nerve to stand his ground. This is pretty standard middle-grade aspirational fare, but Heldring doesn’t take the obvious path of injury teaching Wyatt a valuable lesson to mind his parents. In fact, Wyatt comes through the League of Pain all the sturdier for a little scuffing up, and it’s his determined disobedience that actually allows him to grow. While this isn’t quite as deftly crafted as most Mike Lupica offerings, middle-grade kids who require a ball prominently featured in their cover art will pick this up and run with it.