7 h 20 minAudiobook17 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 7 h 20 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
A place on the team means little until you prove your teammates can count on you.
In Left Guard Gilbert, Ralph Henry Barbour brings you into the world of school football, where a young player must earn his place. Hard practice, rivals and friendships give the season its shape. The challenge is not simply to show talent, but to become someone the team can trust.
Football becomes a test of loyalty, courage and fair play. Tiring practice and setbacks ask more of a player than skill alone. With a big game ahead, the pressure comes from wanting to succeed and fearing you might let others down. What matters most: personal glory, or doing your part for everyone?
What you’ll discover
- A place worth earning Follow the struggle to win trust through effort rather than a name or reputation.
- The team comes first Explore the choice between standing out yourself and using your talent for your teammates.
- Courage through hard practice Feel the pressure of tiring work, rough play and the fear of disappointing others.
- Friendship and fair play Enter a school sports world where loyalty matters as much as what happens on the field.
- More than a game Discover a story that treats sport as a test of character, not just ability.
Who will love it
Readers who like school stories, team sports, close friendships and quiet heroes, and anyone who enjoys a story told with humor, warmth and plenty of boyish banter.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A Late Arrival with a Bandaged Hand
- Boys, Masters and a Patient Second Team
- Losses, a Win and a Night Out
- Fighting Fire Beside a Stranger
- A Tie, a Hunt for Heroes, and a Promotion
- The Joke on Mr. Moller
- Walton Makes His Offer
- The Boy Who Tries to Run
- Loyalty, Courage and the Voice of the Narrator
Who’s who
- Don GilbertA steady, slow-smiling boy from Kansas who wants the left guard spot, works hard and keeps quiet about his troubles.
- Tim OtisDon's quick, talkative roommate and a right halfback, who teases his friend constantly and defends him fiercely.
- Coach RobeyBrimfield's sharp-eyed head coach, who builds teams carefully and expects every player to give his best.
- Harry WaltonA gloomy, sly substitute guard who resents Don and wants the first-team spot for his family to see.
- Amy ByrdA witty, well-dressed talker who loves mischief, sets off a school quarrel and tries to make it right.
- Tom HallA strong right guard and Don's friend, proud and stubborn, who longs to play in his last Claflin game.
- Mr. BoutelleCalled Boots, the unpaid graduate who coaches the second team and loves underdogs and hopeless causes.
- Danny MooreThe small, red-haired Irish trainer who mends the players, cracks jokes and sees more than he says.
Formats and delivery
- eBook
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- Large-print eBook
- The same book in bigger, clearer type, from the first page.
- Audiobook
- 7 h 20 min, complete, read by Lucas Linden.
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas in about 17 minutes, to read or to hear.
- Paperback
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Hardcover
- 6 × 9 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print paperback
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
- Large print hardcover
- 8.5 × 11 in. Printing soon: leave your email under Paperback or Hardcover above.
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Read and hear El guardia izquierdo Gilbert in 25 languages and switch at any time. Or read two side by side, paragraph by paragraph: the way to learn a language with a book you love.
El guardia izquierdo Gilbert
by Ralph Henry Barbour · 1916
A Kansas boy with a burned hand fights for a guard spot while a rival schemes to push him off the team.
Easy read5–10 hours to read25 languages
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In short
Left Guard Gilbert is a school story by Ralph Henry Barbour, an American writer who filled many books with boys at school and on the playing field. It follows one autumn at Brimfield Academy, a boarding school less than thirty miles from New York City.
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A Late Arrival with a Bandaged Hand
The story opens on a sweltering afternoon in September, the second day of practice at Brimfield Academy. Coach Robey, a wiry man of about thirty in faded trousers and a blue silk shirt, drills sixty-odd boys in the heat. He stops a halfback for tucking the ball under one arm and tells him to hold it against his stomach with both hands. Behind the plays you can already hear what kind of coach he is, sharp, fair and impatient with sloppy habits.
Afterward the coach asks the manager, Jim Morton, who is missing. The answer is Gilbert, a guard the team needs, who has not shown up. Tim Otis, his roommate, says Don wrote that he would meet him at a New York station and never came. Mr. Robey dryly remarks that it must take a while to get away from a place called Osawatomie, Kansas. Then he warns that he will not hold positions open for anyone, with the first game only four days away.
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What is Left Guard Gilbert about?
It follows Don Gilbert, a Kansas boy at Brimfield Academy, through one football season. He arrives late with a burned hand, fights for the left guard place and faces a rival, a school scandal and a hard choice before the big Claflin game.
Who is Don Gilbert in the book?
Don is a seventeen-year-old student from Osawatomie, Kansas. He is steady, strong and slow to speak, with a crooked finger and a scarred hand. His main wish is to play left guard on Brimfield's first team.
Is Left Guard Gilbert a true story?
No, it is a made-up school story by Ralph Henry Barbour, who wrote many tales for boys about school and sports. Brimfield Academy and Claflin are invented, though the football and school routines reflect early twentieth-century boarding school life.
The author
Ralph Henry Barbour
1870–1944 · American sports fiction writer
Ralph Henry Barbour was an American writer who lived from 1870 to 1944. He wrote fiction for young readers, often about boys and school sports. His books included Left Guard Gilbert. He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and published his first novel, The Half-Back, in 1899.
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