I Beat the Odds: From Homelessness, to The Blind Side, and Beyond

First there was Michael Lewis's best-selling book, "The Blind Side." Then there was the popular movie of the same title, starring Sandra Bullock. Next there was Sean and Leigh Anne Tuohy's book, "In a Heartbeat." (If you haven't read either of these two books or seen the movie, I wholeheartedly recommend them all--each has its own message.) Now, finally, Michael Oher has co-authored his own book about his remarkable story. Perhaps one of the first questions you might ask is whether there is a sufficiently different approach and message in Oher's book to make purchasing it worthwhile. In a word, my answer is yes. Oher's book is definitely not some short piece of fluff. It covers 21 chapters over about 250 pages, and while the book is fast-paced and easy to read, it addresses very important topics. According to Oher, he wrote this book primarily for two reasons: First, he wanted to separate fact from the fiction ("artistic choices") that Hollywood introduced into the movie. Second, and far more important, Oher wants to have a meaningful talk with the approximate 500,000 children in America whose lives have been turned over by the state to someone other than their parents. He knows that the odds in life are stacked against these children, and he wants to tell them how he beat the odds--hence the title of his book.

While this book is easy to read, it still packs a powerful punch. Perhaps the most touching chapter to me was the third one, entitled "The Day They Took Me Away," which describes what happened when Child Protective Services came to take him from his mother. This about that situation for a moment.

One theme that comes through loud and clear is that Michael Oher was very determined to make something of himself, and he wants to encourage that same determination in children at risk. As he stated, "Failure was simply not an option for me." This determination, by the way, certainly preceded his encounter with the very generous Tuohy family. Indeed, the famous movie scene where the Tuohy's silver BMW pulls up to him doesn't appear until page 136 of Oher's book.

In short, this book represents a very worthwhile addition to the earlier books and movie concerning Michael Oher's life. It has a lot of interesting material, and it packs an important, inspiring and profound message. There are even a half-dozen or so pages of photos, examples of some of the heart-warming (and heart-breaking) letters that Oher receives from kids every week, and at the end of the book there's a listing of children's organizations that readers may want to become involved with. If the plight of thousands of children in the child welfare system interests you, this book is worthy of your careful consideration.

I've read the Blind Side and the Tuohy's book and I agree with the first reviewer that Oher's book does add quite a bit of information not in the other books. Aside from details on his childhood, you get a sense of the kind of person the author is from his reactions to the people around him and his circumstances. My impression of the author is that he is a man with unusual maturity, compassion and kindness towards others all the more remarkable given the lack of nurturing he received early in life. He also comes across as funny and intelligent. The book definitely gives the reader a better idea of what Michael Oher is really like and I was surprised to see how insightful he seemed to be, not because I thought he was stupid, but because he is so young and yet expresses a maturity beyond his years. An inspirational book for teenagers or anyone else.

I just started reading this book yesterday and Michael Oher did a wonderful job telling his story! It tells a story of what a child feels like when bounced around between foster homes while trying to keep their family together and all of the emotions that come with it. I think it took a lot of courage for him to go back to the different places he had lived and finally come to terms with the different events in his childhood. I have worked with kids in the foster care system and have seen first hand how they will try to "forget" different events in their lives. I can't imagine being in that situation and then having to relive it all over again. I like this book a lot more then the other two. I think it's more personal and could give hope to a child in the same situation that Michael was in. I am so happy he made it out of the bad neighborhood he grew up in and has done something great with his life!

Job well done Michael!

Michael Oher has had so many other people tell his story that he must have felt he finally had to tell his own story in his own words.

Michael Oher may be the most well known offensive lineman in the history of the National Football League after the movie, The Blind Side, based on the best selling book of the same name by Michael Lewis. The Blind Side tells of an inner city Memphis kid who grew up virtually homeless but rose to become the first round pick of the Baltimore Ravens of the National Football League.

Anyone who read or saw The Blind Side knows the basics of Oher's story. He grew up in drug infested neighborhoods in Memphis with an indifferent mother addicted to crack cocaine, who often left her many kids to fend for themselves and was at times homeless.

Oher grew up often not knowing where his next meal was coming from or even where he would sleep. In an out of foster care, sometimes homeless, always destitute in if not the basics, direction and care, his character and work ethic, along with a lot of help from some very generous people, eventually landed him at a private school in well to do part of Memphis.

The amazing aspect of Oher's success beyond people like the Tuohy family who took him into their home and made him part of their family, is his work ethic and perseverance through severe disadvantages.

Yes, Oher got lucky that there were enough people to help him along the way achieve his dreams. But it takes more than being huge and athletic to take those opportunities and turn them into success. While there are many, many, better off, less disadvantaged athletes that never graduate from college or achieve any level true success in professional sports, Oher graduated and had had success as a pro. Regardless of talent and background, that takes a lot of hard work. And despite the unbelievable disadvantages, Oher took the opportunities in front of him and made a success of his life.

In this book Michael talks about his life growing up, his love for his siblings and his adopted family, the Tuohys, but he also has a message. And that message is to those in similar circumstances not to give up, work hard, and take the opportunities afford and make the best of them. While not all kids in Oher's situation will be quite as lucky, and probably not have quite the perseverance, Oher's success creates a model and gives hope to others.

And another amazing thing about Oher is how self aware he is. He notes that the life of a professional football player is short, so he doesn't live lavishly and plans to save and have a plan for the future. He understands that he doesn't know everything about football and the professional game and understands he has to continue to learn and improve. It's a rather refreshing perspective.

This book is readable, interesting, and while it will not really tell much that is not basically known about Oher's life and success, it is his message of hope and perseverance that makes it a worthwhile read.

Michael Oher, the star offensive tackle of the NFL Baltimore Ravens and an All-American at the University of Mississippi... was made even more famous by being the subject of an Academy Award winning film *THE BLIND SIDE*. And it is this celluloid presentation to the world that seems to be one of the two main motivator's for this heartfelt book. The biggest reason of course, is Michael's burning desire to try and educate the world about what it is really like to be homeless... without a Father figure... what it is really like in the foster care system... what it is really like to have a drug addict Mother who would disappear for days... weeks... and months on end. What it's like to not only be devoid of a Mother... but to have your brothers and sisters taken away from you also.

Michael also wants the world to know that a human being... and regardless of race... social status... or location... or non-location... of your home... that's what we all are. And Michael not only doesn't want you to forget that... he wants the world to know that even when a human being is at the bottom and homeless... and without a family member that ever said I love you... that special individuals can still have goals and dreams... **AND MORE IMPORTANTLY** the drive to do what it takes to reach those seemingly reach-less goals. Michael hopes to influence the seemingly down and out not to quit... and he wants to influence the more fortunate to look at every single person as a human being who with a little love and assistance can become a person of substance.

Michael wound up having twelve brothers and sisters from so many different Fathers he couldn't keep track of them. While he tries to emit love for his Mother the bottom line is explicit when he says: "BUT SHE SEEMED TO LOVE THE CRACK PIPE EVEN MORE. CRACK AND COCAINE WERE HER DRUGS OF CHOICE AND SHE NEVER SEEMED TO BE ABLE TO GET VERY FAR AWAY FROM THEM." Probably the most painful summation of his Mother was: "ALL SHE DID WAS GIVE BIRTH TO US. SHE WAS NEVER REALLY A MOTHER, NOT IN ANY RELIABLE WAY."

Michael always knew he could be successful in life if only given the chance, and he meticulously describes how he never gave up... and here is where I believe is the second most important reason he wrote this book in addition to trying to help the children that are out there now in the same circumstances he lived through... he does not like the way he was portrayed in the movie. In fact this last weekend February 12, 2011 I saw him interviewed on TV and he once again did not hold back his dislike for his movie portrayal. "I LIKED THE MOVIE AS A MOVIE, BUT IN TERMS OF IT REPRESENTING ME, THAT'S WHERE I HAD A HARD TIME LOVING IT. I FELT LIKE IT PORTRAYED ME AS DUMB INSTEAD OF AS A KID WHO HAD NEVER HAD CONSISTENT ACADEMIC INSTRUCTION AND ENDED UP THRIVING ONCE HE GOT IT." This book makes it obvious that this is a misrepresentation. One such example is that when Michael was in the fourth grade he was on the honor roll. It's also interesting that when Michael was seven years old he had an epiphany while watching Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls beat the Phoenix Suns for their third straight World Championship. Michael (Ohers) then **KNEW-I KNEW-THAT SPORTS WERE GOING TO BE MY WAY OUT.** Michael can barely constrain himself when, as portrayed in the movie, he is supposedly taught how to play football by his young (through adoption) brother with ketchup bottles.

Throughout the book (and in the TV interview) it is obvious Michael wants to be... AND IS... A ROLE MODEL. He cares about the thousands and thousands of children stuck in an awful... loveless... directionless... life. This whole book is built around not forgetting these poor children are out there... and also cries out for help from the fortunate. There are even multiple pages where he lists organizations throughout the country that can be contacted to offer help.

Michael achingly states: "THE TRUTH IS, I DIDN'T REALLY HAVE ANY ONE PERSON I COULD LOOK UP TO WHEN I WAS YOUNGER--BUT I DID HAVE SOMEONE I COULD LOOK TO FOR HOW **NOT** TO LIVE MY LIFE: MY MOTHER."

I read the Blind Side and the Touhy's book about giving before reading Michael Oher's I Beat the Odds. I think everyone who's read the books or seen the movie is curious about Michael's relationship with the Touhys and how he perceives his adopted family, and they are barely mentioned in this book. Throughout the book, I was torn between really admiring Mr. Oher for his tremendous will and hard work -- to keep your eye on the ball and stay disciplined when you don't have an obvious path to follow (and very low chances of figuring one out) is pretty amazing. But I was also very disappointed that he seems to give himself almost all the credit for his success. He definitely thanks those who helped him, but rather than recognizing their unusually high level of commitment and love and work that almost never happens, he just says, thanks so much for helping me & then goes on and on about how hard he worked. He may have felt defensive after the other two books came out & wanted to say that he wasn't some malleable kid that was shaped by those around him, but it really came across as if he felt he was due all the credit and didn't have much gratitude toward those who helped him.

While not quite better than the Blind Side book, this is also a fascinating book. The Blind Side started as a sports book and ended up with a human interest story occupying 2/3 of the book. Now Michael Oher, strips away the sports story and even his adoption by wealthy white parents and focuses on what it's like growing up in the bottom 1% of the economic scale.

This is the incredibly emotional read generating sympathy for what so many of our citizens go through. But to Mike, it was normal so it's really incredible to hear him describe how hard he tried to keep this environment together, as bad as it was, because that's all he knew. It's worth repeating the point that Oher keeps repeating: he was getting out one way or another. I really believe this. Oher seems to have a calm spirit in the way he carries himself making it almost difficult to believe he makes his profession in such a violent sport.

I can't recommend this book higher! You will finish this book feeling like you know Oher personally. And that's a good thing.

This book should be required reading for foster families! It's an amazing account of the foster care system from someone who lived it. It has provided a tremendous level of clarity about how foster children think that is difficult for foster parents to understand. An amazing book!

I saw the Blind Side and really was inspired by Michael. As soon as I heard he wrote a book I wanted to buy it to support him. I can understand him not liking the idea of Hollywood implying he didn't know how to play football but the real theme of the book is Michael's mindset in life. What I perceive is that he set a goal to get educated and financially stable to get out of the hood but he didn't want to do it with the random luck of being a rapper. He had people create a plan for him and his determination. Good job Michael for laying out that useful information so we can help others.

I'd recommend this book to everyone's whose seen the movie "The Blind Side" so that they can know the REAL story. I'd also reccommend it to teens as an inspirational/motivational book.

Michael says the only innacurate part of the movie that botherered him is that it was made to seem that he didn't know how to play football until meeting the Tuohys. In my opinion the movie extremly dumbed-down his character to make him seem more of a "stereotypical" ghetto youth than he was. While it's true the Tuohys helped him and made him part of their family, prior to meeting them Michael already had a good head on his shoulders, clearly defined goals, and was doing better for himself than most people in his situatiton would.