The Boys of Riverside: A Deaf Football Team and a Quest for Glory
4.4 | 2,617 ratings
Price: 11.99
Last update: 12-27-2025
Product details
- ASIN : B0CLL125CX
- Publisher : Vintage
- Accessibility :
- Publication date : August 6, 2024
- Language : English
- File size : 25.5 MB
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Print length : 253 pages
- ISBN-13 : 978-0385549882
- Page Flip : Enabled
- Best Sellers Rank:#1,270 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- Football (Kindle Store)
- Social Sciences eBooks on Disability
- Football (Books)
- Customer Reviews:4.44.4 out of 5 stars(2,617)
Top reviews from the United States
- PMEIncredible compelling story of individual grit and team success!This story was beautifully told, giving the reader some perspective on deaf culture, history, success and determination. How individuals can reach inside and pull out reserves of greatness while working in a team where the whole is greater than the sum of the individual parts is illustrated very well. This is an excellent read!
- Mike MGood readLearned a lot about eight-man football
- D. KnightInspirational to AllThis was a very inspirational story and will appeal to everyone, whether a sports enthusiast or not. I also appreciated how, interspersed through the story, was a history of deaf education and communication. A totally captivating read!
- tracyblakeGuts and LoveThis is a true story about the football team of a deaf high school. It includes emotions of the non hearing players, coaches and families. This telling enlightened me to a world I had not been privy to. Fair amount of football discussed. All heart.
- SemajFascinating Subject But Not Particularly Well WrittenLanguage acquisition by young children is a fascinating thing to behold, essential to mental health and not fully understood. (See “The Language Instinct” by Steven Pinker) Most of us establish language through our ears, but language is equally essential for the deaf and can be well developed through sight, where speaking becomes signing and listening is visual. The author of this book definitely understands this issue and how the prejudices of the hearing have worked to deprive the deaf of opportunities to develop language capabilities. He covers both historical prejudice against the deaf and the development of multiple sign languages. Unfortunately, the author has chosen to use a successful deaf high school’s football team’s championship run as the backbone and objective of this narrative. The result is a hodgepodge. Two seasons, football results predictable, switching between football, the prejudice of the large hearing world, some fascinating examples of natural language acquisition by deaf infants (deaf infants babble naturally, just like hearing infants—they just do it by signing!), and there are some serious injuries in the football season. I certainly learned something. I’m not sorry I read the book. But it is not a good read.
- Mike KataokaAn underdog tale well toldThis wonderful book about the CSDR championship football season hit home for me having worked and lived in the Riverside area for many years. Fuller focuses on the diverse backgrounds of the players and coaches whose shared inability to hear or speak works to their advantage on the field. I read this book during the Paris Olympics and what made Riverside high schoolers champions is the same stuff that wins medals for world class athletes: hard work, persistence, teamwork and courage. The Boys of Riverside, much like The Boys in the Boat before it, aren’t merely tales of unexpected glory in sports, but celebrations of diversity and unity to achieve a common goal.
- Denver HawkeyeA remarkable story of victory over adversityCapturing the spirit of a story like this that includes play by play descriptions of football games isn't easy. This entertaining novel is a remarkable achievement.
- T. PryorInformative & InspiringI purchased this book at the recommendation of my brother who has macular degeneration. He listens to books. He highly recommended this book, and I wholeheartedly agree.
I learned a lot about the deaf community while being inspired by the story of a high school football team who were deaf. They did NOT allow deafness to limit their competitiveness and ability to play the game well. The author provided information about deafness and sign languages that I did not know, even though I am over 70 years old.