The Boys in the Boat

April 15, 2013
Doughty rowers heave against hard times and Nazis in this rousing sports adventure. Brown (Under a Flaming Sky) follows the exploits of the University of Washington’s eight-man crew, whose national dynasty culminated in a gold medal at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Brown tells it as an all-American story of humble working-class boys squaring off against a series of increasingly odious class and political foes: their West Coast rivals at Berkeley; the East Coast snobs at the Poughkeepsie championship regatta; and ultimately the German team, backed by Goebbels and his sinisterly choreographed Olympic propaganda. The narrative’s affecting center is Joe Rantz, a young every-oarsman who wrestles with the psychic wounds inflicted on him by poverty and abandonment during the Great Depression. For this nautical version of Chariots of Fire, Brown crafts an evocative, cinematic prose (“their white blades flashed above the water like the wings of sea birds flying in formation”) studded with engrossing explanations of rowing technique and strategy, exciting come-from-behind race scenes, and the requisite hymns to “mystic bands of trust and affection” forged on the water. Brown lays on the aura of embattled national aspiration good and thick, but he makes his heroes’ struggle as fascinating as the best Olympic sagas. Photos. Agent: Dorian Karchman, WME.

July 1, 2015
Adapting Brown's bestselling work of the same title (2013), Mone streamlines the true story of nine young men from the University of Washington who, against all odds, won the gold medal in rowing at the 1936 Olympics. The Husky Clipper was "a graceful needle of cedar and spruce," a racing shell manned by an eight-oar crew very different from their Ivy League counterparts. They were the sons of farmers, loggers, and fishermen, hardy young men fully up to the rigors of training, each committed "to being part of something larger and more powerful and more important than himself." Against the backdrop of the Great Depression and the rise of Nazi Germany, the inspiring tale of young Joe Rantz and his teammates is also about the many people who helped to make them heroes-the coaches, parents, fundraisers, girlfriends, and boat builders. Offering a model of masterful nonfiction writing, Brown expertly balances the leisurely pacing of the protagonists' back stories with the exciting race scenes, related with concrete nouns, lively verbs, and short sentences, selected and adapted for this edition by Mone. Many photographs, an easy-to-read timeline, and notes on "The Art of Rowing," complete with a diagram, add visual appeal. A fine companion to Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken (2014), also about the 1936 Olympics and also adapted for young readers. (Nonfiction. 10-14)

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August 1, 2015

Gr 4-7-This adaptation of the adult title The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics (Viking, 2013) chronicles the powerful University of Washington crew team that took the gold in Berlin. The book centers on one untrained rower, Joe Rantz, who was working his way through college. The team was guided by the determined UW coach, Al Ulbrickson, whose obstacles to success were the rival rowing team from the University of California, Berkeley, and his own inconsistent rowers. Introductions to figures such as George Pocock, the team's boat builder, are fascinating, and the photos of races and the team help to build an understanding of this unique world. The descriptions of the team's trajectory and their tense races are suspenseful, and readers will be fully invested. Rantz is a relatable underdog. However, the accounts of his struggles and triumphs come at the expense of his teammates, who are relegated to the background, existing only as sketchy, underdeveloped figures. Brown's portrayal of the Olympic games is full of thrilling details, but it's also impersonal, with little insight into the boys' thoughts, and Nazi Germany is mentioned only briefly. A "Who's Who" at the front of the book and a time line and introduction to rowing at the back are helpful and well laid out. VERDICT Those seeking an inspiring true story or a great sports tale will be pleased with this stirring work.-Marian McLeod, Convent of the Sacred Heart, Greenwich, CT

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from June 1, 2015
Grades 6-9 *Starred Review* Adapted from the adult best-seller The Boys in the Boat (2013), this quietly compelling story tells of the University of Washington rowing team that competed in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. While every race story is essentially the same, the accounts of these races are rivetingall the more so near the end of the narrative, when readers have come to know the oarsmen and their personal stories. The main focus is Joe Rantz. Sent away at age 4 to live with relatives after his mother's death, and later turned out of his father's house again at age 10, this time at his stepmother's insistence, Joe grew up working hard. He became physically strong and self-reliant, but the emotional hardship took its toll. Determined to make the rowing team in order to stay at the university, he ultimately gained much more from the experience than his initial goals of an education and economic security. The word teamwork, which can sound humdrum to kids in coaches' droning lectures, doesn't adequately describe the connection shared by the men in that boat in 1936. Illustrated with vintage photos, this moving book offers young people a vivid sense of that shared experience. A Depression-era story with timeless appeal.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)

September 1, 2015
Overcoming a difficult childhoodhis mother passed away, his father abandoned him, and the Great Depression made it even harder for a teenager to survive on his ownJoe Rantz not only managed to go to college, he made the freshman crew team at the University of Washington. There, he met boys equally determined to succeed and a coach who was driven not only to best West Coast rival University of California and the storied programs on the East Coast, but also to take the gold medal at the 1936 Olympics, in Hitler's Germany. As the story progresses, each member of that eventual Olympic team is profiled; the sport of rowing becomes both comprehensible and compelling; and it becomes almost impossible not to root for such a hardscrabble collection of underdogs as they exhibit hard work, sacrifice, teamwork, and loyalty at every stage of their collective journey to Berlin. This young readers' adaptation of the adult bestseller of the same name is liberally illustrated with black-and-white photographs; a character list, author's note, timeline, source notes, appendix on rowing, and index are also included. jonathan hunt

(Copyright 2015 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)