Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Reviews of Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream

Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream
Friday Night Lights A Town a Team and a Dream
Author: H. G. Bissinger
ISBN-13: 9780306809903
ISBN-10: 0306809907
Publication Date: 7/2000
Pages: 400
Rating:
  • Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
 51

3.9 stars, based on 51 ratings
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Book Type: Paperback
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

25 Book Reviews submitted by our Members...sorted by voted most helpful

mizPJ avatar reviewed Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream on + 172 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Having grown up in a New York suburb where football players were barely one rung lower than God, FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS was a scary, very honest look back at a phonomenon I don't ever want to live near again. Well written, certainly easy to see why people in Odessa, Texas aren't happy with the author, a compelling read.
reviewed Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream on
Helpful Score: 1
if you like football, you will enjoy this book. I loved it!
reviewed Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream on + 44 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
this book is definately better than the movie. Alot of detail to the characters and an inspiring book. a must read.
reviewed Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream on + 165 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
It is truly amazing to read what the obsession with high-school sports can do to an entire town. Engrossing!
Blackstone avatar reviewed Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream on + 12 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
This is an amazing book for anybody who likes football. It chronicles the 1988 season of the Permian Panthers and also gives you background on the town, the players, and the team.
reviewed Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream on + 13 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
I'm from a very small town in Oklahoma and the author gets the portrait of what sports are like in the mid section of the country. The center of the community is centered around church, sports, and the school activities. It is the social center of the town. The sports stars are heros and there is a huge let down when they can't preform. Sad to put so much on the shoulder of such young people. That's the culture of the community and will probably not change anytime in the near future. Great, great book. A must read!
reviewed Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream on + 73 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
I did not grow up in Texas (I'm from Ohio) but I have lived here for almost 15 years. This is where my teenage son was born and is being raised and he is a football player. Football in my town was nothing like it is here in Texas. While nothing in this book suprises me, it sure would have if I had stayed a yankee (although the football craze is country-wide now I think)
This book is intense, heartbreaking and a page turner all the way through. You can feel the ups and downs of life with the characters and you may never forget them.
reviewed Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream on + 17 more book reviews
This book is about Texas High School Football, nice story.
reviewed Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream on + 113 more book reviews
Fascinating book. I love high school football, but I'm so glad my kids don't have to compete in Odessa, Texas. Of course, this story is from the eighties - maybe it's different now. Let's hope so. Really a good read!
reviewed Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream on + 54 more book reviews
good book more in detailed then the movie
reviewed Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream on + 41 more book reviews
Excellent book. Youv'e seen the movie now read the book. The book is always better than the movie.
reviewed Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream on + 2 more book reviews
I couldn't put it down. This IS one of the greatest sports book ever. It's hard to believe this story about a town's devotion and obsession to the young high school "kids" and the weekly Friday Night games.....
reviewed Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream on
It was not what I expected.
blessed1 avatar reviewed Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream on + 127 more book reviews
West Texas football is more than a sport...its a religion. Good story.
reviewed Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream on + 32 more book reviews
Best book written about small-town high-school football. 1000% times better than the movie or TV show.
reviewed Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream on + 5 more book reviews
I am sure a lot of you have seen this movie, but reading the book has truly made the movie even more life like. The book allows you to get to know the characters in more ways and you are able to really feel for what they go through. Even if you have seen the movie and know the story the book is worth reading.
reviewed Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream on + 140 more book reviews
Odessa isn't known to be a place big on dreams. But its high school football team, the Permian Panthers - the winningest team in Texas history - helps keep the hopes and dreams of this small town alive. Every Friday night from September to December, when the Panthers play football, this West Texas town becomes a place where dreams can come true/.
reviewed Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream on + 27 more book reviews
Scathing expose of high school football, and those it hurts.
reviewed Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream on + 112 more book reviews
This was a great book!! Having graduated in 1988 i could really picture myself in this small town, as our small town is just as obsessed with our football team.I see alot of the same things happening in our small town as did Odessa's high school football team.Very interesting look behind the scenes also.
reviewed Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream on + 11 more book reviews
Much more in depth than the movie, and gives an excellent portrait of what high school football means in Texas. Everything is bigger in Texas as they say. If you seen the movie and liked it, you will love the book.
reviewed Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream on + 300 more book reviews
As the cover states, "A town, a team and a dream" - this book tells of the Odessa, TX Permian Panthers, a high school football team and their Friday night dreams.

Great book - being from a small town myself, I could relate to the influence that one high school coach can have on a whole town. The very essence of the town seems to change depending on the win and loss record of the local team.
reviewed Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream on
Great read. This is a paperback, not a hardcover, and I don't know how to fix the listing.
dredogA avatar reviewed Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream on + 4 more book reviews
This was one of the best and most disturbing books ever.
Really well written. I was engaged to the very end.
reviewed Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream on + 22 more book reviews
Odessa isn't known to be a place big in dreams. But its high school football team, the Panthers - the winningest team in Texas history - helps keep the hopes and dreams of this small town alive. Every Friday night from Sept. to Dec., the Panthers play football............
reviewed Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream on + 44 more book reviews
Odessa Texas isn't known to be a place big on dreams. But its high school football team, the Permian Panthers-the winningest team in Texas history-helps keep the hopes & dreams of this small town alive. Every Friday night from September to December, when the Panthers play football, this West Texas town becomes a place where dreams come true. With frankness & compassion, H.G. Bissinger chronicles a season in the life of Odessa and shows how single-minded devotion to the team shapes the community and inspires-and sometimes shatters-the teenagers who wear the Panthers' uniforms,