Creative Sports: Super Bowl Champions: New York Giants (2023)

The illustrated “Super Bowl Champions” series provides elementary-aged readers with an introduction to some of the most successful and storied professional football teams ever to play in the National Football League (NFL). Each volume in this series provides readers with background information about the history of a championship team, some of the franchise’s greatest players, and how they were able to capture perhaps the most coveted championship trophy in the pantheon of North American professional sports. This volume in the series focuses on the New England Patriots. Established in 1960 as part of the newly-minted American Football League (AFL), the Patriots have become perhaps the most successful team in NFL history. Following the 1985 and 1996 seasons, the Patriots made it to the Super Bowl, but were defeated. In 2000, the Patriots hired Bill Belichick to be their head coach and drafted a slow-footed but highly accurate quarterback named Tom Brady. The combination of Belichick and Brady, plus magnificent roster development, soon made the Patriots a dominant football team. What followed were eight Super Bowl appearances and six championships in twenty years. Only in February of 2008 and 2012 were the Brady-led Patriots upset by the New York Giants in Super Bowls that could easily have resulted in New England victories. Such dominance was unheard of in NFL history and certainly not expected in the modern era, where league parity across teams is valued. Led by perhaps the greatest NFL head coach ever and quarterbacked by possibly the greatest NFL player ever, the modern Patriots remain a touchstone franchise and one that achieved levels of success unlikely to be replicated anytime soon. The story of this great team is well told in this introductory book. Young readers who enjoy sports will find this book both appealing and educational.

–Children's Literature, 10/09/2022