[1] He is the author of four books: All Things Must Fight to Live about his experiences covering war in the Congo, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (with inventor William Kamkwamba), Muck City about high school football in a rural African American communities in Florida, and The Kings of Big Spring about his family history in Texas.

[3] Kirkus Reviews described his book on his experiences covering the war in Congo as containing "Gutsy, richly descriptive recollections effectively conjure grisly events in a troubled nation.

[5] The Palm Beach Post called the book a lesson-filled trip into the past against a backdrop of AIDs, murder, drug use, and tragedy.

[6] Kirkus Reviews described it as a "stirring tale of sports as a means of escape from dire circumstances" in Florida's cane sugar producing region.

[7] Publishers Weekly noted "it chronicles the evolution of high school football in Belle Glade, Fla.—among the poorest communities in the U.S. and defined by the fertile black silt that helped build a sugarcane-farming empire.