Raiders Night (Hardcover)

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Key Phrases: Coach Mac, Back Pack, Raider Pride Night (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up–The Nearmont High School football team and the adults who support it see winning as the ultimate goal, even if it means resorting to illegal steroids. The players are the toast of the town, enjoying wild parties, drugs and alcohol, and girls who offer casual sex. Matt Rydek, one of the team's popular stars and a cocaptain, is torn between two girls and deals with a pushy father who lives vicariously through him. During preseason camp, the obnoxious and angry cocaptain, Ramp, assaults Chris, a new sophomore player and the object of his jealousy, and violates him with a baseball bat. The stunned upperclassmen, including Matt, don't tell anyone what they have witnessed, and although the coaches eventually learn the facts, they attempt to keep them quiet and pacify Chris to prevent a scandal. When Chris finally confronts Ramp with a gun, Matt must make some serious decisions about revealing the truth. Realistically gritty language peppers on-the-mark dialogue in this disturbing tale of bullying and competitive fury taken too far. Matt is a strong character believably confused by the mixed messages he gets from those around him, including his father. The alarmingly clear depiction of athletes trying to conceal hideous violence is reminiscent of that in Erika Tamar's Fair Game (1993) and Nancy Garden's Endgame (2006, both Harcourt). Lipsyte has added to his repertoire a remarkable, tough, important story exposing various negative elements that are far too common in today's world of sports.–Diane P. Tuccillo, City of Mesa Library, AZ
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 10-12. This grim, disturbing story about high-school football centers on Matt, who is a co-captain of the Nearmont Raiders. With Division One schools aggressively recruiting him, Matt's future looks assured. His present, however, is a nightmare. Addicted to Vicodin and "juice," the regular shots of steroids he receives with the support of his father, Matt rides a nonstop emotional roller coaster: he hates himself for feeling embarrassed by his developmentally disabled brother, and he hates his father for living out failed dreams of athletic stardom vicariously through him. Matt even hates football after he witnesses his sadistic co-captain sexually assault a rookie player at a preseason hazing (a brutal, graphic scene involving a plastic bat). After initially going along with the team's cover-up of the incident, Matt cooperates when an investigation is launched. Lipsyte paints an ugly picture of a corrupt high-school athletics world ruled by arrogance, homophobia, sexism, and a pathological obsession with winning. Readers will feel Matt's pain as he struggles between turning his back on his team and listening to his conscience. One of the story's greatest tragedies is that Matt's decision to do the right thing seems so completely against the grain. Ed Sullivan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Reading level: Young Adult
  
• Hardcover: 240 pages
• Publisher: HarperTeen (August 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060599464
• ISBN-13: 978-0060599461
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #303,483 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A gripping tale so well-written, July 10, 2007

By	Outsports (New York and Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Raiders Night (Paperback)

What's most amazing about this book, to me, is that it has all of the insight and vivid detail you'd expect from a prolific writer like Lipsyte, but he's captured the tone and pacing you'd expect to encounter in a high school. He truly immersed himself in the culture of high school and high-level high school sports, and he places the reader right there in the locker room and in conversations in a way you'd swear you were listening to two 17-year-olds talk.

The book is also an incredible tool in the fights against cruel hazing and doping. Without beating you over the head with the message, Lipsyte shows everything that is wrong with the darkest sides of sports. A must-read for every high school athlete.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful impact., August 19, 2008

By	J. Conant (Crofton, MD USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Raiders Night (Paperback)

This is a short but well written book. One graphic scene (brief) will cause you to hesitate before passing it on to your teen but in my opinion the value of the lesson is strong and outweighs the desire to shelter your children. In the end it is about making the right choices, standing up, and doing the right thing. Our hero comes through!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Richie's Picks: RAIDERS NIGHT, August 2, 2006

By	Richie Partington "http://richiespicks.com" (Sebastopol, CA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

(Since writing this review, I have now read the book a second and a third time. This is definitely one of the best YA books of 2006 and unquestionably one of the best YA books relating to high school sports that I have ever read.)

"Richie! Richie! Richie!"

Imagine walking into a middle school classroom and finding the desks occupied by the likes of Joey Pigza, Sahara Special, Ruby Oliver, the Ally Sheedy character from The Breakfast Club, Cookie Monster, Roadrunner, Byron's friend Buphead, Jordan Catalano, and various other scholastically, socially, and/or hormonally challenged characters.

This was what it sometimes seemed like when I was standing in front of my wife's third period English class this past school year. The class was made up of a select, especially wonderful assemblage of students whom it was decided might benefit from being gathered together into a smaller class. And it was just as much fun for me to be in there as it might sound. (Of course, as Shari would immediately point out, Richie the middle aged adolescent guy didn't have to control the class; he could just be entertaining and be entertained, in turn, by them.)

It was a great opportunity to test whether those "high interest" YAs really are as "high interest" as I've always claimed them to be. And so we read aloud and discussed Rodman Philbrick's THE LAST BOOK IN THE UNIVERSE, Todd Strasser's CAN'T GET THERE FROM HERE, and Alex Flinn's FADE TO BLACK. Shari's hope was to work our way up to SPEAK, which she teaches to her other eighth grade English classes. But, alas, the introspective, sarcastic voice of Melinda Sordino was way over too many of their heads, and so SPEAK was abandoned after a week in favor of in-your-face Zach Wahhsted from Terry Trueman's INSIDE OUT.

In addition to their enthusiasm (They really would sometimes chant "Richie! Richie!" when I'd get up there to read aloud), it was heartening to see their willingness to take steps toward more scholarly behavior such as showing up close to the time when the bell rang, reluctantly but amicably forgoing mid-class snack times, and becoming attentive, in some cases, for significantly long periods of time.

And, yes, I'd say that the "high interest" YAs proved themselves to be just that.
During the time they were studying FADE TO BLACK, Shari and I had the opportunity to collaborate on a complementary research unit focused on HIV and AIDS. I was able to document the collaboration process along with the students' results and assessments as the final project for my Instructional Strategies class, and we all agreed -- adolescents and adults -- that we'd learned a lot from the search process and from the actual information that was gathered, evaluated, discussed, and compiled.

In chatting with friends about the success of the HIV/AIDS unit, I'd note that such exceptional work was being accomplished by a class of which three-quarters of the students were not being permitted to "walk" with their classmates; they were receiving "social promotions" to high school but, because of their accumulated lack of scholastic achievement, they weren't allowed to participate in the graduation exercises.

When, at one point, I spoke of this with a psychiatrist friend, he became quite emphatic in his opposition to such a policy. He told me that there are so few real rites of passage for most kids these days. He said it was a significant mistake on the part of the District to not permit those kids to participate in the ritual after spending three years in the school.

"Matt floated into the party a step behind Brody, who opened holes in the crowd with his smile. Brody reached out for guys to tap fists and girls to feel up. Ever since he was in PeeWee, All-Brody had acted like he was walking on a red carpet, but nobody seemed to mind. He could say anything to anybody. Guys trusted him in the huddle and girls couldn't keep their hands off him. He had left the football in the car. He was looking to score tonight.
"The beer and Vic buzz carried Matt over the upturned faces. 'Yo, Matt...Lookin' good, my man...Where's Amanda...Ready for hell, hoss?' He felt the words more than heard them, like hundreds of fingers plucking at him. Good thing Brody's driving tonight. Matt grinned back at people, winked, tapped a few fists, squeezed a few soft arms that came out of the crowd to encircle him like snakes then fell away brushing the length of his body. He smelled perfume and armpits. He waved back at Pete, in a corner with Lisa. They talked about everything. Pathetic, Matt thought, then wondered what it would be like to have someone you could really talk to.
" 'Start the party,' Ramp bellowed. 'Captains are here.' His shoulders cleared a path and he was suddenly beside Matt, throwing a heavy arm around his neck, thrusting a can of beer in his hand. In this kind of crowd, Ramp always acted like they were buds. Otherwise, he made wiseass remarks and kept his distance. Been like that since PeeWee, teammates but never friends.
" 'Wassup?' Can't just blow Ramp off with everybody watching.
" 'Hear about the transfer from Bergan Central?' said Ramp.
" Bergan Central was in another conference. He didn't know any of their players. 'What about?'
" 'Sophomore tight end. Thinks he's just gonna show up and play.' Ramp sounded angry. Ramp was a great linebacker, but only a so-so tight end. He didn't want any competition."

After staying up until 3 AM the night before last, totally caught up in reading Robert Lipsyte's RAIDERS NIGHT, I slept a few hours and then sat down at the laptop. My first inclination was to find more about anabolic steroids and Vicodin, the two drugs being used regularly by Matt Rydeck, the Nearmont high school senior around whom the story revolves. I then proceeded to dig up some information about California's recently enacted rules on training coaches who work in high school athletic programs -- rules enacted as the result of widespread use of anabolic steroids and other performance-enhancing substances by high school athletes.

But where my information gathering ultimately led me was to an exploration of hazing and ritual and the necessity of devising bonding rituals that really create community.

Central to the plot of RAIDERS NIGHT, and to what the title refers, is the final night of Nearmont High's football training camp and the "bonding" ritual inflicted each year by the senior players upon the new guys. The ritual portrayed in the story is homophobic in nature. Sadly, so I've been told, this is not an unusual attitude or occurrence in the real world.

What is unusual is that the ritual in Lipsyte's story gets out of hand when Ramp, the team Neanderthal and co-captain, graphically abuses the young transfer hotshot whose substantial talent threatens to significantly reduce Ramp's own playing time during the coming season.

Matt Rydeck is the other co-captain and the real story here involves Captain Matt's relationships and behavior in regard to his chemical intake, his teammates, his girlfriends, his parents, his developmentally disabled older brother and, of course, his abused teammate.

In SPEAK, the Michael Printz Honor book with the vital message about looking out for the welfare of all the members of one's school community, readers at first don't know what has happened to Melinda to make her call the cops, but gradually they come to learn the facts when she finally begins to let herself remember. In RAIDERS NIGHT, we see what happens to Chris (the transfer student) but don't have any idea about Chris's subsequent thoughts and behavior during the extended period of time when Matt is too confused and too caught up in the rest of his drug, girl, and parent-crazed life to do or say anything about what has befallen the kid whom he, as co-captain, should have been protecting from the Neanderthal.

As a reader of RAIDERS NIGHT, one might be tempted to blame Matt's behavior on his father's being such an a-hole -- which he truly is. But, hey, I'm sure that I'm not the only one who could spend an hour or two spewing about how so many of my own bad habits are the result of my father's misparenting or setting a bad example. The bottom line, as Matt eventually figures out, is that you are dealt what you are dealt, and the measure of a young man is who he decides he is going to be and what he decides he is going to stand for, irrespective of the influence exerted by parents (or peers).

We do need to be talking about behavior and attitudes of adults is in terms of the rituals in the lives of adolescents. We don't want to do away with rituals. What is needed instead is for adults to ensure that bonding rituals and rites of passage are positive and inclusive to the benefit of the entire group, team, or community.

RAIDERS NIGHT is one hell of a story. I'd never before read any of Robert Lipsyte's YA fiction, but am now feeling lots of admiration for the members of the Margaret Edwards Award committee who were responsible for voting Lipsyte that honor a few years ago. You can bet I'll be reading more of his books. And, no doubt, people will be hearing me speak more about RAIDERS NIGHT, both in upcoming presentations, and when the time rolls around to debate the best books of 2006.