The Boys of Winter

Joey Dibley

Mrs. Shivers

English 10 3rd hour

18 October 2013

The Boys of Winter

The Boys of Winter, by Wayne Coffey, is a non-fiction book about Herb Brooks. Herb Brooks was the coach of the 1980 United States Olympic hockey team. This book is 392 pages long. I personally would give this book five stars out of five because of the style of writing Wayne Coffey writes with.

This book is about a compassionate story of Herb Brooks and how he led the 1980 United States Olympic hockey team to victory. In the vary beginning of the book it starts at the end the end setting being Herb Brooks funeral. Herb Brookes died in a tragic car crash on august 11th, 2003. Later leading onto 1980 when he led his team to victory against the Russian’s.

One of the literary devices used was flashback in the form of narration. He uses it frequently in the beginning of the book such as in the very beginning of chapter one. The narrator goes back and forth from Herb Brooks’ funeral to the practicing and preparation for the 1980 Hockey Olympics. The author explains, “They were the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team and Brooks had brought them altogether, twenty-four summers before. Another literary device used a metaphor “Brooks, always wound tight, was even antsier than usual Sunday morning, February 24”.

I believe that the theme for this book is hope. Hope to a hockey team or almost any sports team for that matter is severely important. Hope is important in sports because it always gives you something to strive for knowing you can always improve to overcome obstacles.

Hope in my life may not be as dispirit as an Olympic gold medal but I believe I have hope in my hockey carrier how ever far it takes me. Hope is needed also in everyday life if we had no hope why would anyone