{"id":216,"date":"2011-11-10T15:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-11-10T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=216"},"modified":"2015-05-05T09:03:09","modified_gmt":"2015-05-05T14:03:09","slug":"payback-time-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/?p=216","title":{"rendered":"Payback Time, by Carl Deuker (book review) – football, journalism, secrets"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>What’s going on at Lincoln High?
\nCoach is keeping a talented player on the bench?
\nA gifted athlete refuses interviews?
\nHis “previous school” history is… blank?<\/p>\n

Mitch, stuck as sports reporter<\/a> instead of newspaper editor his senior year, is puzzled about the new guy on the football team after accidentally witnessing his amazing catches and footwork at the park. Coach says to forget that and just feature the quarterback in every story to help his college scholarship chances<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Trying to find out the truth<\/a> stirs up more than Mitch could have imagined.
\nCan he and newspaper photographer Kimi stay out of danger? Is he right about Angel’s past? Is Coach covering up<\/a> so they can win the state championship?<\/p>\n

A compelling mystery-action story that you’ll enjoy, whether you’re a sports fan or not, especially as we go into high school football playoff season, just like Lincoln High…
\n*kmm<\/p>\n

Book info<\/b>: Payback Time \/ Carl Deuker. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2010 (paperback Feb. 2012). [author’s website<\/a>] [publisher site<\/a>] [book recap video<\/a>] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.<\/p>\n

My Book Talk<\/b>: Sports reporter instead of editor? Mitch isn\u2019t sure he wants to work on the school paper his senior year, even though he\u2019s planning to major in journalism in college. Well, he can write some great articles for his portfolio since Lincoln High is predicted to have a winning football season. And as photographer, Kimi will be with Mitch on most assignments. Maybe it\u2019s time for him to lay off his parents\u2019 fabulous bakery creations and start doing a little running\u2026<\/p>\n

When a new transfer player stays on the practice squad despite his obvious talent and the football coach won\u2019t comment, Mitch\u2019s reporter instincts sense a deeper story. Injuries during a crucial game bring Angel off the bench, and he leads the team to victory. But the next game, he\u2019s riding the bench again \u2013 is he an undercover cop?<\/p>\n

As Mitch and Kimi investigate the story, they receive anonymous threats and begin to worry for Angel\u2019s safety. Lincoln\u2019s football team is headed for the State playoff game, and the midnight caller promises that Angel won\u2019t make it home on the team bus\u2026<\/p>\n

Full-contact football games, hard-hitting news investigations, and a cute girl who actually talks to Mitch \u2013 will everyone come through safely, now that it\u2019s Payback Time<\/i>? (One of 5,000 books recommended on www.abookandahug.com<\/a>) <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What’s going on at Lincoln High? Coach is keeping a talented player on the bench? A gifted athlete refuses interviews? His “previous school” history is… blank? Mitch, stuck as sports reporter instead of newspaper editor his senior year, is puzzled about the new guy on the football team after accidentally witnessing his amazing catches and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,51],"tags":[22,4,45,20,5,70,18,40,44,49,9,21,14,35,58,3,8,84,61],"class_list":["post-216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fiction","category-mystery","tag-behavior","tag-belonging","tag-competition","tag-conflict","tag-coping","tag-crime","tag-family","tag-fathers","tag-friendship","tag-memories","tag-school","tag-self-image","tag-sports","tag-surprises","tag-technology","tag-teens","tag-us-author","tag-washington","tag-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=216"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5877,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216\/revisions\/5877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/booksyalove.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}