Preview of All-American Summary:

Tunis draws on his own experiences as an athlete and a sportscaster to capture the tension and exhilaration of athletic competition. His familiarity with the processes of an athlete's mind during the most demanding moments of a crucial contest enables him to present not only the particulars of the performance but the athlete's sense of his own effort— something rarely portrayed because most competitors are too involved to analyze or even understand what they have done. The accuracy of the details permits the reader to share the physical force of the athlete's activity, encouraging a strong sense of identification that makes the outcome important to the reader, who feels like another member of the team.

But Tunis's vivid dramatization of an important game is only one of the elements he employs to create a sharp psychological portrait of a teen-ager struggling with his developing sense of values...