Sports Camp - by Rich Wallace

Well, a more appropriate title would be impossible.  This is the story of eleven-year-old Riley, who heads off to a two-week sports camp with 59 strangers, to vie for the Big Joe trophy.  Over the course of those two weeks, Riley learns many lessons, including:

• everybody has something to contribute
• training can enhance your natural talents
• never eat week-old in refrigerated fried chicken
• legends can't hurt you, but giant snapping turtles can
• first impressions can be deceiving
• sometimes cheaters DO prosper
• but sometimes they don't

This short book is great for kiddos who love sports!  Softball, basketball, water polo, swimming, and archery were all part of the competition, pitting cabin against cabin.  Riley was the smallest in his group of boys from New Jersey, and was hopeless at basketball, but he found ways to contribute in the endurance events, and earn his teammates' respect by working hard and never giving up.

It was an interesting story that built toward a predictable but exciting conclusion, but the very end didn't tie things up quite as neatly as I had hoped.  It was good, but kind of abrupt.   Read this if you enjoy camp, competition, huge turtles, or lousy dining hall food.

Phoenix: Out of the Ashes Book 1 - by Jeff Stone

Mountain biking, kung fu, a tough girl with deep secrets, and a very, very old grandfather.  Bring these all together and you've got the story of 14-year-old Phoenix Collins, a mountain-biking teenager with a mission.  Full of action, fighting, cycling, and a bit of history and travel, this exciting book kicks off a new series with a pretty unique version of good guys vs. bad guys.

Jeff Stone wrote the Five Ancestors series, which was seven books about ancient kung fu warrior children who had the adventure of a lifetime as they traveled and fought to save their country and all that they believed in.  It was an excellent series, and this book carries the same story forward 400 years, with a new set of characters.  While you could read this series on its own, I think it will mean more if read after the original series.

The writing is tight, the pacing is exciting, maybe even thrilling, and the detail is exquisite.  However, the talk about cycling, both mountain biking and cyclocross, is overly detailed, and may lose (or win? who knows!) readers in the intended age range.  In this way, it reminded me of Will Hobbs books like Go Big or Go Home, which are good, but very sport-detail-heavy.  Overall, this is an excellent book that I did not want to put down!

Hat Trick - by W. C. Mack (Guest Review)

When you hear the phrase “Hat Trick,” what do you think of?  A hockey player scoring three goals, right? Well, the “Hat Trick” in the book Hat Trick refers to the main character Jonathon McDonald, and his quest to get good scores on three math tests.

Everything was going great in Jonathon’s middle school hockey career, until Eddie moved into town.  Jonathon was nervous that Eddie would take over his spot on the starting lineup, because they both play the same position.  Their rivalry continued into math class. But in math class, their play WASN’T as equal as it was on the hockey rink.

Jonathon struggled in math.  His parents decided that it was time that he needed some help.  To Jonathon’s absolute disgust, that help turned out to be a tutor named Eddie: his rival!  To make things even worse, his parents also decided that if he didn’t do well on the next three tests, he wouldn’t be able to play hockey for the rest of the season.

Now Jonathon needed to learn how to work as hard on his schoolwork as he did at hockey.  He also needed to learn how to turn a rival into a teammate.

Will Jonathon and Eddie get along?  Will Jonathon score a “Hat Trick” in math?  If you want to find out, then skate on over to the library or bookstore to “check” out this book!  I rate this book a 9 out of 10, and would definitely NOT put it in the penalty box. I think this book was a real page-turner!

(Thanks to 4th Grader and hockey player  Tyler K. for this excellent guest review!  Go Tonka!)

Top of the Order - by John Coy

t

To be honest, I read this because 1) The guy is a local author, and 2) A friend told me I really should.  I'm not a baseball guy, and have been disappointed by many sports novels, so did not have high expectations for this book.

Luckily for all you readers, I was pleasantly surprised by this engaging, well-written book.    Mr. Coy really knows how to keep the balance between lots of sports action and a story line that is really not about sports at all, but about friendship, family, and frustration.  Four fifth grade boys are dealing with all sorts of personal issues, and they come from different walks of life, but on the field they share one common goal: Winning.  There are all sorts of twists and turns, which while predictable, were interesting and kept me turning the pages faster than a shortstop's toss to second in a double play.  See? I not only enjoyed the story, but I learned a few things about baseball along the way.

Some sports novels have the sport as a background, just part of the setting, and others focus way too much on the sport and leave out any real story line.  Much like another favorite of mine, Mike Lupica, John Coy's writing has just the right amount of each.  If you love baseball, if you've ever had an annoying little sister (who turned out not to be so bad after all), if you appreciate the power of friendship and teamwork, or if you just like fun series books, check this one out.  (This is the first in a four-book series.)

Airball: My LIfe in Briefs - by L. D. Harkrader

What team in their right mind would play an entire season in nothing but their underwear?  This group of seventh-graders had something to prove, and they did it in boxers and briefs, turning their lousy record into an undefeated district championship.  Was it the great coaching? The kids' natural ability?  Or was it that when you take off your clothes and go in front of the crowd, you've got nothing left to lose?

This is a very nice story about Kirby, a kid who stinks at basketball, but wants to join the team to find out who his father is (makes sense once you start reading).  It's funny writing too, kind of  like Regular Guy by Sarah Weeks, but with a sports theme.  It's kind of like Travel Team because a bunch of losers end up improving at basketball, but this book is shorter and has less actual basketball action.  That's one thing I would change about the book: Add more on-court action!  Otherwise, it has a good plot, interesting characters, a bit of mystery, scary cafeteria food, and a happy, surprising ending.  If you like basketball or sports in general, funny school stories, or realistic fiction with happy endings, give this a try.

Travel Team - by Mike Lupica

This is a GREAT book!  Whether you love basketball or any sport, or if you're a total couch potato, this is a story that will grab your interest and not let go until the last page, when you'll wipe a tear from your eye and say, "Write another one just like that, Mr. Lupica!"  What's so great about it?  First of all, it's the story of an underdog, which everyone loves.  The short kids all got cut from their seventh-grade basketball team, and they form their own team and join the league.  Mr. Perfect's dad coaches the first team, and the shortest kid's no-good dad appears from nowhere to coach the second team.  It's excellent sports writing, great emotional writing about friends, families, and enemies, and is full of examples that you can't always judge people by their past, because they may have more to them than you think. 

Mike Lupica is a sports writer for magazines and newspapers, and has turned himself into a top-quality children's fiction author.  If you like Dan Gutman's writing, you'll like this even more.  Trust me, and check out Travel Team for yourself.  Warning: You might want to have a basketball handy, because this story will make you want to put the book down and shoot a few hoops between chapters.

Jim Thorpe - by Joseph Bruchac

This is the amazing true story of Jim Thorpe, a Native American student and athlete from the early 1900's who became a star in several different sports and became world-famous. It is also the story of how the U.S. government educated Indian students, and about what life was like for those children growing up during an interesting time in American history.

The book is told from the first-person perspective of young Jim Thorpe, with the author providing an original and entertaining voice for the narrator. It is a work of historical fiction, though all events are true and accurate.

Read this book if you enjoy football, baseball, basketball, or track and field, of if you'd like to hear about how those sports got started in the first place. It's a great book for lovers of biography and history, for those who are interested in Native American history, and for anyone who loves a good story.

Johnny Hangtime - by Dan Gutman

Normally, if a character in a book throws himself off the top of a skyscraper, it's a problem. For John Thyme (better known as stunt kid Johnny Hangtime), the main character in this action-filled story, it's just another day of work. Johnny is a 13-year old responsible for all of the wacky, dangerous stunts in Hollywood director Roland Rivers' blockbuster films. The problem? While Johnny does all the stunts, stuck-up actor and Hollywood star Ricky Corvette, sucks up all the fame. There are even bigger problems though, when Johnny is asked to do the most dangerous stunt of all, the one that his stunt-man dad died trying three years earlier. This book will have you at the edge of your seat from start to finish, not just from the fast-paced excitement of Johnny's stunts, but trying to figure out what will come next. Action fans, adrenaline junkies, movie buffs, this book is for you! While this is not Dan Gutman's most award-winning book, it is his personal favorite of all of his books, according to his website. Pick up your own copy, and you may find that it's one of your new favorites too.

Just for fun, here's an interview with Mr. Gutman, featuring questions from kids and teachers around the world.

Getting Air - by Dan Gutman

Can this be the perfect book for fourth grade boys? (They're a picky crowd, if you haven't noticed.) Really, it's a great book for anyone who loves a good adventure, and WOW is it an adventure.

Three teenage boys and one sister are traveling by plane from the east coast to California for a skateboarding competition, and are psyched. Their plane is full of old ladies heading to a knitting convention, and the boys strike up a friendship with one kind knitter as the plane takes off. Before long, though, terrorists take over the plane and threaten to blow it up. The kids and grannies work together to solve this problem, and as if this isn't enough of an adventure, they soon discover that the plane is about to crash deep in the Canadian wilderness. The only survivors are the kids, their friend the knitter, and a friendly flight attendant. Can they survive in the wild until their rescuers find them? It's not likely, except for one lucky fact - the youngest kid, Julia, is not only a brilliant Girl Scout, but has been reading Gary Paulsen's book Hatchet, in which the main character found himself in a very similar situation. What happens to our heroes? Do they ever skate again? If you're lucky enough to get your hands on this captivating book, you won't be willing to set it down until you've found out.

This is a MUST-READ for any middle age boy, anyone who likes to skate (board, that is), readers who love nature and the wilderness, and of course, anyone who has enjoyed the fabulous story Hatchet. It seems that Mr. Gutman had been reading Mr. Paulsen's book when he wrote this story, and we readers are lucky that he did, as this is the best Gutman yet.

The Million Dollar Kick - by Dan Gutman

I have always been impressed by how much third and fourth graders liked Dan Gutman's The Million Dollar Shot, which I agree is a pretty good book. I assumed that this book was just a take-off on that book, and wouldn't be as good. When my student MG convinced me to read it, though, it knocked my socks off!

This is the story of Whisper Nelson, a grumpy seventh grader who hates sports, who somehow ends up in a contest to win a million dollars. Against all odds, she wins the contest, and the money will all be hers... if she can score a penalty kick against one of the greatest soccer goalies of all time. Unfortunately, the only goal Whisper ever scored was in her own team's net during the one soccer game she played in her life. Will Whisper find a way to win the money? You will read the book to find the answer, but you will fall in love with the book for the quality of the writing and the story. This book will hold you captivated from the first page to the very end, and will become a favorite of many readers. It's not really about soccer, it's more about... life. Things don't always happen like we want them to, and sometimes the only thing to do is just go with it and see what happens. Grab your own copy of this book, and see what happens when Whisper does just that.

This book will appeal to sports fans, those readers who enjoy great realistic fiction and a bit of suspense, and any fan of Dan Gutman. I'm not a big fan of his Baseball Card series, but I'm really coming to appreciate his work, and he's becoming one of my favorite children's novelists (and that's saying something!)

The Million Dollar Shot - by Dan Gutman

This fun-to-read book by Dan Gutman is a basketball story, but is also much more. It is the tale of a boy and his mom, living in a trailer park and trying to make ends meet. At the same time, this is a story of two friends who overcome some pretty big differences (white boy living alone with his mom, African-American girl living alone with her dad) to help one another out and bring their lives even closer together. It's also the story of a really annoying boss at a big company that sells nasty junk food, who gets what's coming to him in the end.

Along the way, young Eddie Ball works his tail off, practicing for a single basketball shot that could change his life forever. Although there are many people trying to help him, there are also mysterious people trying to sabotage his chances. Can Eddie make it even when the odds are against him?

This is a great book for sports fans, and any upper Elementary reader who wants a story that will keep them reading until the exciting end.

Last Shot - by John Feinstein

Basketball lovers and NCAA fans, here's your new favorite book. Set at the NCAA finals tournament, this mystery focuses on two teenage writers who have been chosen by Sports Illustrated to be sports writers for the weekend, and follows them as they rush to solve a crime they learned about by accident. This story is very realistic, is a true mystery, and gives the reader a great inside view of college basketball. If you love reading the sports section and realistic mystery novels, you really need to pick up a copy of sports writer John Feinstein's Last Shot. I don't really care for college basketball one way or the other, but this book had me hooked from the very beginning, and I simply couldn't put it down. The writing is fresh and funny, and the characters are so believable you'll think you've known them for years. Some of the concepts are a bit advanced, targeted for ages 10 and up, so keep that in mind.