The Boys of Riverside is an inspiring “against the odds” true story of determination, courage, competition, and Deaf culture.
Are you looking for your next great book club selection?
Are you a book club host in charge of discussion questions?
Check out this book club kit for The Boys of Riverside.
I have noticed that visitors frequently arrive at this website as a result of searching for book club discussion questions. Occasionally, I will address certain discussion possibilities for book clubs in my reviews, but I have not created specific posts that book club members could use as a resource. Thus, a new feature is born: Book Club Kits. I’m grateful to Jo @ JoLindsdell for the inspiration and encouragement and for modeling what this post might look like. (Jo has several book club kits to check out!)
Book Club Kits will be posted in the feed as I create them but will live under a Menu Tab. This is the FOURTH but not the last! I envision maybe four per year (one per quarter) and each one will be one of my five-star reads.
Let me know what you think! Does a Book Club Kit interest you?
Previous Book Club Kits: West With Giraffes, Go as a River, and James.
***Reading beyond this point will reveal SPOILERS.”
Book Club Kit: The Boys of Riverside by Thomas Fuller
*This post contains Amazon affiliate links.
**This post contains SPOILERS**
Book Information:
Genre: Nonfiction
Categories: Journalistic NF, Narrative NF, Sports (Football), High School Sports, Against the Odds, Underdogs, Competition, Deaf Culture, Language/Communication, Southern California (USA)
Publisher: Doubleday
Publication Date: August 6, 2024
ISBN : 0385549873 ISBN-13 : 9780385549875
ASIN : B0CLL125CX
Number of Pages: 253
Purchase Link
Content Consideration (TW): football injuries
Age Appropriate:: high school + (no profanity)
My Reading Experience: I found The Boys of Riverside an amazing integration of information, history, culture, competition, and inspiration. Fans of underdog stories and sports will find a great deal to appreciate in this well-told and riveting real-life story.
Link to my 5 Star Review
Awards
Amazon Best Book of the Year 2024
My Summary of The Boys of Riverside
The football team at California School for the Deaf at Riverside, California was having an undefeated season when they attracted the attention of a New York Times reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief, Thomas Fuller. This was the positive and uplifting story he needed after recent difficult assignments. Fuller follows this underestimated team to the state championship while exploring Deaf culture, the history of ASL (American Sign Language) and Deaf education, and the team’s football history. He shares individual stories of the players and coaches. Can this inspirational team win the state championship in this remarkable season?
Historical Notes:
Deaf Team Was Underestimated and Mocked
Parade Honors California School For the Deaf
California School For the Deaf Wins State Football Championship
About the Author of The Boys of Riverside, Thomas Fuller
Thomas Fuller is a Page One Correspondent for The New York Times based in Northern California. He has reported from more than 40 countries for The Times and International Herald Tribune. He spent his early years in Tuckahoe, New York, and lives with his wife, also a journalist, and two children in the East Bay of San Francisco. He is a long-suffering fan of the New York Jets.
Author Interview:
How Deafness Became a Strength
Reviews:
Book Flights/Companion Reads:
Another nonfiction book about an underdog sports team is The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown (audio format highly recommended)
A fiction book about a young adult hockey team is Beartown by Fredrik Backman (mature content)
Movies With Deaf Characters:
Book Club Discussion Questions:
1.
Describe your experience with football, as a fan and/or participant. Have you seen or played 8-man football?
2.
Share your experience with the Deaf community. Do you know sign language?
What questions did you have about deafness or sign language before reading this story?
What did you learn about deafness? In the story, what surprised you the most?
3.
The author mentions that this diverse team is the realization of the American Dream. How was this portrayed throughout the story? Or do you agree or disagree with the author?
4.
Football motivates many students in this story to attend class and stay in school. What motivated you to stay in school?
5.
Is brotherhood, belonging, and excellence a winning formula for success? Do all winning teams owe their success to this formula?
“They had something immeasurable. They had brotherhood.
A tale of belonging and excellence was the story I wanted to write.”
6.
Thomas Fuller is a journalist. How does Fuller’s journalistic style enhance or detract from this story? Fuller is not a part of the Deaf community. Would you rather have read this story from an “own voices” author? How did the author’s ability to hear affect the story?
7.
Give examples of how Deafness gives this football team an edge.
What distractions might a hearing team experience playing against a deaf team?
“Dr. Corina says Deaf have what is called enhanced perception of biological movement. In laymen’s terms, this means they are better at picking up the movement of people around them.“
8.
The boys on this team are disadvantaged in many ways, but the communication gap that a deaf child might experience within his or her own family is heartbreaking. If you were the hearing parent of a child who was deaf, how would you overcome this communication barrier?
“In the United States, more than 90 percent of deaf children are born to hearing parents, a stark communication barrier between mother, father, and child.”
9.
Can you understand a world that deprives a child of language? Or one that punishes a child’s use of his or her native language? Can you understand the ignorance that dominated education of the deaf for so long? Can you comprehend the stigma of experiencing deafness and the isolation?
“It doesn’t matter if it’s sign language or spoken language. Humans are social beings, and learning to communicate is urgent in childhood. In the extreme, language deprivation can cause severe mental handicaps.
10.
Sign language versus oral language has been an enormously bitter clash. Then throw cochlear implants into the debate. Who suffers while educators and experts argue? If you were the parent of a deaf child, how would you advocate for him or her? What kind of a classroom would you envision for your deaf child? Does a person who is deaf have the right to choose between sign language, oral language, or a cochlear implant? Or maybe the person would choose a combination of the three?
11.
Does it make your heart happy to know how recent technological advances have benefited the deaf community?! Share one example from the story.
12.
The author provides many backstories of players and coaches. Which was your favorite? Which was most memorable?
13.
Do you have an opinion about applying the mercy rule in youth sports?
14.
What does winning this championship mean for Coach Keith Adams?
15.
What does it mean when the author refers to the Deaf community as “window people” and not “door people”? Why is line of sight critical for individuals who are deaf?
“The Cubs were window people, not door people. Window versus door; it was a leitmotif in deaf art and literature.”
16.
Which person did you empathize with the most?
17.
What do you think the author hoped to achieve with this story? He explores history of education for the deaf, language, deaf culture, vignettes of players and coaches and their backstories, the thrill of competition, accomplishments and success, geographical locations and settings, disparities and deficits, adversity, teamwork, and family life. Did taking on so much affect your reading experience? Do you think he achieved what he set out to do? Were you surprised that this was about more than football? What did you learn from this story, or what is your biggest takeaway?
18.
What is the most important message in the book? How has this story changed your perception of the Deaf community? How will this story change your interaction with individuals who are deaf? Does this book cause you to be curious about sign language?
19.
In what ways does this story compare with other sports stories you’ve read?
20.
If you were to recommend The Boys of Riverside to a friend or fellow reader, what superlative would you use to describe the book or your reading experience?
Quotes:
(also see additional quotes in the questions above)
“…for a young deaf child in a hearing family there was no way to absorb knowledge by linguistic osmosis.”
“The first decade of the twenty-first century was a time of immeasurable change in technology, and it affected the deaf population vastly.”
“They communicate better than any team I have ever coached against.”
Sign Language and science: “When the patient used his hands for sign language, his brain deployed language pathways. When he was just moving his hands around without any intention to communicate, the brain signals moved along a different pathway…. While hearing babies make sounds like ‘ba ba ba,” deaf babies moved their hands in ways distinct from their hearing counterparts, in movements that the researchers judged were the equivalent of sign-language babble.”
“The Cubs had epoxy–the common bond of deafness that gave them a sense of mission and unity that allowed many hands to punch as one.”
“Success in sports almost always involves more than just raw athletic talent. There is the coaching, the practices, the conditioning, the discipline, the luck. But there is also another crucial intangible: the mechanics and the mysteries of successful teamwork. It’s what makes team sports and football in particular, a fascinating study in human behavior.”
“He devoted his career to the science of sport, drawing on something called social identity theory, which holds that the more that individual team members can relate to the identity of the team, the better the group’s performance will be. Research has found that a team can be an extension of a person’s sense of self, and when they perceive themselves to share membership in a group, it can become a powerful determinant of the team’s overall behavior. It can give teams an edge.“
“What the players had in common was the way they communicated. … Being part of the Cubs gave the players a human bond that offered a measure of fortitude and resilience on the field and off. … The most significant contributor of happiness, the study found again and again over the decades, was not money or fame, but relationships with other people. Close relationships helped delay mental and physical decline.“
“The Cubs had made it to the championship. Win or lose, they had already forged enduring friendships and memories. Win or lose, they had a brotherhood that would be with them for a lifetime.”
A Themed Book Club Party
Football is a natural and easy party theme for this book. Of course, the team’s favorite pregame food is PIZZA!
Themed Party Goods
One of many options.
Follow this link to find a variety of football party favors.
Themed Snacks
Pinterest has many ideas for football-themed cookies!
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QOTD:
Have you read The Boys of Riverside or would you consider it for your book club?
Do you find this book club kit helpful?
Let me know if you end up using it for your book club and how it goes.
ICYMI: How to start a book club.
Happy Reading Book Buddies!
“Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading.”
~Rainer Maria Rilke
“I love the world of words, where life and literature connect.”
~Denise J Hughes
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I purchase or borrow from the library all books I review unless explicitly stated that the book is free (arc).
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Oh what an awesome idea! Publishers would probably work with you too to give you goodies to share in your lots!
Thanks! My kit for James has gotten thousands of views….so even though the kits are time intensive they tend to be worth it!
That is INSANE! My first post to ever have 1k views is hopefully about to happen, it’s sitting at 940 right now and I’m cheering it on so hard LOL
I’m shocked that it has over 10k views! Insane is right. 🤯 I figure it’s worth it to create more kits! Jo Linsdell blog does them and she shared her stats and that encouraged me to try! Good luck on getting those 1k views! 🙌
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