Friday Night Lights Book Report

Friday Night Lights, by H.G. Bissinger, follows the Permian Panthers, a successful high school football team in Texas, while they do everything in their power to win the state championship. Near the beginning of the book, we learn about the star running back on the Panthers, Boobie Miles, and how he has college coaches all over the state who are offering him scholarships to come and play for them. Unfortunately for both Boobie and Permian, Miles injures his knee before the season even starts which forces the team to fall back on the second string running back. Boobie’s knee injury was not the only thing that bothered him, he deals with a lot of racial discrimination also. “The black population in Odessa was quite small- about 5 percent” (102). This meant Boobie was surrounded by white people all day and most of the people tried

In many of the chapters, the author tells you about something that happened in the past, but instead of setting aside one whole chapter for what has happened in previous seasons, he jumps around from past to present without much warning. Due to the fact that the book is like this, it can be hard to follow what's going on or what time period it is happening. Another issue with the book is how often the author uses derogatory terms. The book takes place in the Texas, so you can expect to see some racial discrimination at some point, but it seems like you see the n-word used about every other sentence. Bissinger explains to us how often the term is used and how people do not think it is offensive, but at the end of the book, one of the coaches from the team the Panthers are playing says, “Let's not say black” “Let's say mixed ethnic crew”(331). If someone does not think people will like being called black, how do you think their going to react to being called the n-word. These are some of the few weaknesses is the book but that does not mean the whole book is