The Option

Red Zone #3

by Herman Brown

On any other team, Gary Jayo would be a starting quarterback. But because he plays for the Troy Central High Trojans, he lives his life in the shadow of Shane Hunter. Shane is a high school football superstar, and he doesn't mind rubbing it in Gary's face.

After Gary records a video of Shane driving drunk, he decides that even a star QB isn't scandal-proof. He hatches a plan to expose Shane and take the starter's spot. But will Troy's head coach try to protect his top player? And when Gary discovers the cause of Shane's dangerous behavior, will he change his mind?

104 pages, Library Binding

First published September 1, 2014

Reviews

[Josue Rojas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Personal Response

Personally, The Option had many great chapters. The reason it was a good book was that it talked about football and it dealt with problems with friendship and family. Gary, a Trojan student and football player, dealt with a couple of problems like being a starter for the football team. I can relate to Gary because I remember working on being starter too. I had to work really hard to be a starter.

Plot

The book is manly about football and a student named Gary who plays football and attends Trojan High School. Gary is facing problems with his dad and football. Gary stays with his dad so he can take care of him. Gary’s dad pushes Gary a lot because he wants him to be the starting quarterback. Gary faces a lot of trouble with Shane who is the starting quarterback. Shane is starting quarterback and he does things that can kick him off the team. The head coach makes sure that he is protected and that no one knows he drinks or wrecks people's property. Gary take videos of Shane doing all these bad things and he shows Coach; however, Coach doesn’t care because all he wants is to continue winning games.

Characterization

The main character is Gary, and it is really important that he play football. He learns a lot through football that will help him out with his own life. At first, Gary’s main goal is to get Shane in trouble since he picks on him and is always the starter for the football team. The book continues with Gary noticing that Shane needs to be a part of football. He needs all the scholarships he can get since he lives in a really bad part of the town, and he is struggling with his family.

Shane starts out with being a kid who is drinking, always partying, and is always causing trouble. Throughout the book, Shane notices that Gary is trying to shine in a game and he remembers also that they were actually friends back then, but he messed it up. Shane takes himself out by getting hurt in a game so Gary could have his time to shine.

Setting
The book takes place at Trojan High School. The book is also in the modern day. Trojan is the place where football is the most important thing. Gary is the shadow of Shane and all he wants is to be a starter. It is important that the book takes place at Trojan because that is where Gary learns how to deal with his problems in football and with his parents since they got a divorce.

Recommendation
I would recommend this book to people who enjoy football. This book would mostly be for middle schoolers and older since there are a few things that wouldn’t be appropriate to some readers. It is a nice book because it also deals with a friendship the isn’t working out.

[Wes Flease · Rating 5 out of 5]

Personal Response: I think this book could use a little more detail when they are talking about the games because sometimes I did not get what was going on. For the most part this book was pretty good because it had lots of action which keeps the reader into the book. I also thought this book was very right about what actually goes on in high school football. The best part about this book is that the characters are fighting a lot so you have conflict throughout the book with makes it interesting. I think this book was good overall because it was about football which I like to read about.

Recommendation: I would recommend this book to ninth and tenth grade boys because it has lots of action with all the football games and people fighting. Lots of the boys in highschool also play football so they would like to read this book. They would also like this book because it is easy to understand what is going on most of the time. Any one could actually read this bo0k because it is interesting to read about the games.

Plot Summery: This book is about a boy who is living with his dad and sometime has a harder life because of a choice his dad made. He also cant always go see his mom because he needs to take car of his dad. The boy loves to play football though so his mom decided to come watch him play. So the boy now thinks he has to fight hard for a first string quarterback position to make his mom proud. It is very hard for him to get the position though because the starting quarterback is already very good. Even no the challenge will be a hard one to beat he steps up his game and takes first string.

[Corey Stevens · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book I read was called The Option, by Herman Brown. This story takes place in a town called Troy, on Friday, September 20th in present times. The main character Gary is a back up QB for the Troy Center High Trojans. The starting QB, Shane has been screwing off, drinking and driving, showing up late to practice, and going to parties. Gary caught Shane driving drunk and decided to record his behavior to try to get him in trouble with the coach, so Gary can be the starting QB in the next game. When Gary tells the coach about it the coach didn't really seem to care, since Shane gets away with everything. Gary decides to send the video to the principle at school to get him in trouble that way. But then he decides to change his mind because he doesn't want to ruin whats left of his and Shane's Friendship. In the end Shane gets hurt and Gary gets to win the game for the team.

[Nich · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this book was well put together in how it lets the reader visualize what's happening. I enjoyed reading it because it was about football, which I like to play and watch. I also enjoyed reading it because it was easy to understand what was going on. Even though it wasn't a long story, it was still a good read.

[Blease Campbell · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this book was a fairly good book. It had many life lessons but not a lot of plot. It could have been longer but for it's length, it was a good book. If you like sports, this book would be a good read.

[Mason Koons · Rating 4 out of 5]

The series is getting better as it gets I can't wait to read the next book it's a great series and I love sports books

[Elijah A · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the option by Herman Brown this book was very good it was about Gary Jayo who would be starting for any other team in there league but has to deal with Shane hunter who is the star of there team. Gary and Shane use to be good friends the drifted apart then he showed up to practice and couldn't go thru the reps because he was hungover and everyone knew it and he still had the starting spot but that was one of the golden rules that his coach always said

my opinion on the book is 5 stars it was very intense and i hope to read the series

[Matthew Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title of my book is called THE OPTION. The authors name is Herman Brown. The release date for the option is 2014. The genre is sports. This book is part of a series that has 6 books and the series is called the red zone. In the book the option there is 61 pages. The publisher of the book is Darby creek. The book is just starting out the football season and it gave some background information about the first and second string quarterbacks.
The second string quarterback name is Gary. Gary’s parents are divorced he lives with his dad because his dad is really sick. He would live with his mom if his dad wasn’t sick because he could be the starting quarterback of the team where his mom lives. They asked him to be it but he turned them down so he could take care of his dad. The first string quarterback’s name is Shane. Shane has a rough life at home so he decided to start drinking a lot. No one has ever stood up to him so if you did he would feel offended but he’d also get really mad.
When Shane gets in trouble from drinking or something else the coach gets him out of trouble. Gary got sick of him thinking he can do what he wants so he recorded a video of his drinking and driving and sent it to the principal just so he could be the starting quarterback. After Gary sent the video Gary went to see Shane at his house because the coach told him to go check out his house before he made the decision.
When I read the book I read it really slow, I think the book was very good because it was about football. The author didn’t have any pictures but that was fine because when you read the book you could imagine everything you read. When I read the book I would imagine the football field during the game and when Gary went to go visit the Shane quarterback I could imagine his house. I could also imagine the party Shane, and Gary went too.
If I had to pick two words to describe this story I would pick exciting and amazing. After you read the book it makes you think about not judging people on how they act or how they look because you don’t know their life outside of school/at home. People that would like this book would be boys, teens, and football lovers.
The book is trying to teach you a lesson that not everyone might have a good life that they may act a certain way because of the way they their household is at home. This book is for sports lovers. This book series is specifically for football lovers. I think this book is so good that is better than pizza. You have the option to go and buy the best book you’ll ever read.

By: Matthew Morgan

[Jack Keefe · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Option by Herman Brown. The setting of this book was in Apple valley Florida. The main character of this book is Gary. Gary play football for Apple Valley. But Gary is the back up quarterback for Shane. The conflict is that Gray want to be the starting quarterback but Shane is the coaches favorite. Shane was missing practice because he was tired from partying. The next week Shane was in jail for drunk driving and he missed practice. Gary told the coach and the coach did not care. During the game Shane got hurt and it was Garry's time to step up and he became the new starter and led his team to the state championship. I gave this book a five start rating because every part of the book was great there were no boring parts. It has a great start middle and end of the book.

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The third in the Red Zone series, Gary is the focus of the story as a second string QB. He's generally invisible, except when he wants to start causing trouble because he's second string, wanting to one-up Shane, the QB, by catching him red-handed violating the school and team's code of conduct. And it's serious enough as he first engages Shane in a fight (Gary gets his jaw dislocated), but then Shane drives off drunk. I liked the 'aha' moment when Shane's girlfriend gets mad at Gary, not for recording a video to catch him, but for not stopping him driving drunk. Gary had to stop and think about his actions for a moment and hopefully that resonates with readers.

While I get the need for the coach to tell Gary to go see how Shane lives because he doesn't really know/get Shane, I felt it a bit unnecessary. Why must we need to pity Shane for his dysfunctional family situation? Why can't he be a bit of a douche for no-good reason but have someone not call him out for his behavior, calling it what it is?

This one plays with issues of social media, where ultimately, Gary does not decide to share the video with their principal, and Gary never gets to use it over Coach Z's head because he gets threatened right back. There's also a very non-issue storyline and that's that Gary's father has HIV and though his parents are divorced because of his father's philandering, there are some very real snapshots of a family situation that's not an 'issue book' but simply weaved in to the story.

[Grant Moody]

I liked this book a lot it caught my attention right away. I Redmond this book to younger kids. I thought this book was interesting because it talks about people struggling then growing there way back up