The Illustrated Rules of Football by R.L. "Buddy" Patey, illustrated by Patrick T. McRae- Nonfiction

This book was a nonfiction book. It discussed the rules, players, equipment, etc., involved in football. There were fifteen basic rules discussed. These topics of these rules included the field of play, the ball, the goalposts, yardage chain and down marker, required player equipment, the officials, game time, scoring, the captain, the teams, starting the game, putting the ball into play, formations, out-of-bounds, and fouls. The players were also discussed in detail, and these included the linemen, the backfield players, the pass receivers, the linebackers, and the kicker. The book also showed and described some important signals used in football. This book was written in very simple language and terms, and lots of pictures were used to help describe the rules. The important words were written in bold letters, and there was a glossary at the end of the book defining these words. One good thing about this book was that they usually discussed the differences in youth, high school, college, and professional football so that people would not assume the rules were the same for all levels of football. The book also mentioned several times the importance of having good sportsmanship when playing football, which is a great thing to have reinforced for kids.
This book is great for third-fifth graders. Many kids enjoy playing or watching football, so they would probably find this book entertaining. There are other people, like myself, who like to watch football but do not know all of the rules. This book really breaks down and simplifies the rules of the game. The pictures and diagrams help to explain everything, and these elements along with simple language make this book appropriate for English Language Learners or struggling readers. Of course, strong readers would like it too if they like football! Some students know nothing about football, and they might want to read this book to understand why their peers enjoy this sport. This is a great book to have available for students, because many of them will enjoy it! I actually dreaded reading non-fiction books for this project because I thought they were all boring, but when I chose non-fiction books that were on topics that interested me, I actually loved them! Hopefully books like this can help students to appreciate nonfiction books as well!