Sports Reads


GREAT SPORTS READS

::BASEBALL::

Y Deu Heart of a Champion by Carl Deuker
Seth faces a strain on his friendship with Jimmy, who is both a baseball champion and something of an irresponsible fool, when Jimmy is kicked off the team.

Y Dyg Infield Hit by Thomas Dygard
After transferring to a new high school during his junior year, Hal tries to make friends, gain a starting position on the baseball team, and hide the fact that his dad is a famous ex-major leaguer.

Y Feh Beanball by Gene Fehler
Relates, from diverse points of view, events surrounding the critical injury of popular and talented high school athlete, Luke "Wizard" Wallace, when he is hit in the face by a fastball.

Y Gra Samurai Shortstop by Ann Gratz
While obtaining a Western education at a prestigious Japanese boarding school in 1890, sixteen-year-old Toyo also receives traditional samurai training which has profound effects on both his baseball game and his relationship with his father

Y Gre Baseball Great by Tim Green (series)
All twelve-year-old Josh wants to do is play baseball but when his father, a minor league pitcher, signs him up for a youth championship team, Josh finds himself embroiled in a situation with potentially illegal consequences.

Y Lip Center Field by Robert Lipsyte
Mike lives for baseball and hopes to follow his idol into the major leagues one day, but he is distracted by a new player who might take his place in center field, an ankle injury, problems at home, and a growing awareness that something sinister is happening at school.

Y Lup The Batboy by Mike Lupica
Even though his mother feels baseball ruined her marriage to his father, she allows fourteen-year-old Brian to become a bat boy for the Detroit Tigers, who have just drafted his favorite player back onto the team.

Y Lup The Big Field by Mike Lupica
When fourteen-year-old baseball player Hutch feels threatened by the arrival of a new teammate named Darryl, he tries to work through his insecurities about both Darryl and his remote and silent father, who was once a great ballplayer too.



Y Lup Heat by Mike Lupica
Pitching prodigy Michael Arroyo is on the run from social services after being banned from playing Little League baseball because rival coaches doubt he is only twelve years old and he has no parents to offer them proof.


Y Mal The Natural by Bernard Malamud
Considered by many to be the greatest baseball novel ever written, this classic morality tale features one of the most memorable characters in all of literature, Roy Hobbs -- a talented athlete whose promising career is derailed by a youthful indiscretion. When Roy makes a comeback as an aging player, his struggle to achieve greatness in the midst of recreant temptations becomes the subject of an epic story about our national need for heroes and our simultaneous desire to see them.

Y Tur Hard Hit by Ann Warren Turner
A rising high school baseball star faces his most difficult challenge when his father is diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.


Y Wea Hard Ball by Will Weaver
A fourteen-year-old Minnesota farm boy has to figure out how to get along with the arch-rival in his love life and on the baseball diamond, and both boys must learn how to deal with the unfair expectations of their fathers.


::BASKETBALL::

Y Fei Final Four by John Feinstein
After winning a basketball reporting contest, eighth graders Stevie and Susan Carol are sent to cover the Final Four tournament, where they discover that a talented player is being blackmailed into throwing the final game.

Y Fol Hoops of Steel by John Foley
Passionate about basketball, troubled teenager Jackson O'Connell chronicles the ways the game colors the events of his senior year in high school.

Y Kre Rebound by Bob Krech
Determined to make the varsity basketball team, seventeen-year-old Ray finds his efforts to play both hindered and helped by the atmosphere of racism in his town.


Y Lup Summer Ball by Mike Lupica
Thirteen-year-old Danny must prove himself all over again for a disapproving coach and against new rivals at a summer basketball camp.


Y Mye Slam! by Walter Dean Myers
17-year-old Greg "Slam" Harris tells of the year in which he transfers to a magnet school for the arts, a more academically challenging, mostly white school. After being the hot shot star of his Harlem high school team, he has to learn to fit in and be a team player at his new school. He may not be able to do anything about the rest of his life--his relationships with his family and friends, his grandmother's illness, his scholastic difficulties, or what goes on in his Harlem neighborhood--but when he gets onto the basketball court, "Slam" feels in control.


Y Par Edenville Owls by Robert Parker
Fourteen-year-old Bobby, living in a small Massachusetts town just after World War II, finds himself facing many new challenges as he tries to pull together his coachless basketball team, cope with new feelings for his old friend Joanie, and discover the identity of the mysterious stranger who seems to be threatening his teacher.

Y Yep Dragon Road by Laurence Yep
In 1939, unable to find regular jobs because of the Great Depression, long-time friends Cal Chin and Barney Young tour the country as members of a Chinese American basketball team.


::FOOTBALL::

Y Coc Roughnecks by Thomas Cochran
Travis Cody prepares for the final game of his high school football career, a rematch with his school's chief rival.

Y Coy Crackback by John Coy
Miles barely recalls when football was fun after being sidelined by a new coach, constantly criticized by his father, and pressured by his best friend to take performance-enhancing drugs.

Y Deu Gym Candy by Carl Deuker
Groomed by his father to be a star player, football is the only thing that has ever really mattered to Mick Johnson, who works hard for a spot on the varsity team his freshman year, then tries to hold onto his edge by using steroids, despite the consequences to his health and social life.


Y Dyg Backfield Package by Thomas Dygard
The decision of four high school friends to go to the same college so that they can continue playing football together is shaken when one of them begins to receive attention as a star quarterback.


Y Dyg Second Stringer by Thomas Dygard
When Kevin replaces the quarterback and football hero who suffers a knee injury, the second stringer needs to prove that he can do the job and is not just a substitute.

Y Eul The Great Receiver by Elena Yates Eulo
Returning to high school in the fall, brainy Joey Eastland, the football team's waterboy, is determined to reinvent himself by becoming a star player and a "chick magnet."


Y Fei Cover-up by John Feinstein
Fledgling fourteen-year-old sports reporters Susan Carol and Stevie investigate suspicious activities at the Super Bowl after Stevie gets fired from his co-anchor job on a ground-breaking teen sports show.


Y Gre Football Genius by Tim Green (series)
Troy, a sixth-grader with an unusual gift for predicting football plays before they occur, attempts to use his ability to help his favorite team, the Atlanta Falcons, but he must first prove himself to the coach and players.

Y Gre Football Hero by Tim Green
When twelve-year-old Ty's brother Thane is recruited out of college to play for the New York Jets, their Uncle Gus uses Ty to get insider information for his gambling ring, landing Ty and Thane in trouble with the mafia.

Y Lip Raiders Night by Robert Lipsyte
Matt Rydeck, co-captain of his high school football team, endures a traumatic season as he witnesses the rape of a rookie player by teammates and grapples with his own use of performance-enhancing drugs.

Y Lup Million Dollar Throw by Mike Lupica
Eighth-grade star quarterback Nate Brodie's family is feeling the stress of the troubled economy, and Nate is frantic because his best friend Abby is going blind, so when he gets a chance to win a million dollars if he can complete a pass during the halftime of a New England Patriot's game, he is nearly overwhelmed by the pressure to succeed.


Y Wal Juice by Eric Walters
Moose must decide if he should risk taking steroids to become a big star on the football team. When a Division One coach comes to their smaller school to bring the football program up to contender status, Moose and the rest of the players on the team are pumped. Coach Barnes has new ideas and a vision for the future-nothing is too good for his players. With a new training regimen, everything seems to be on a winning track. But when Moose and others are offered steroids, tempers start to fray and the teammates have to decide whose side they are on.

Y Zad Food, Girls and Other Things I Can’t Have by Allen Zadoff
Fifteen-year-old Andrew Zansky, the second fattest student at his high school, joins the varsity football team to get the attention of a new girl on whom he has a crush.


::SOCCER::

Y Blo Tangerine by Edward Bloor
Twelve-year-old Paul, who lives in the shadow of his football hero brother Erik, fights for the right to play soccer despite his near blindness and slowly begins to remember the incident that damaged his eyesight.

Y Mye Kick by Walter Dean Myers
Told in their separate voices, thirteen-year-old soccer star Kevin and police sergeant Brown, who knew his father, try to keep Kevin out of juvenile hall after he is arrested on very serious charges.

Y Pee Keeper by Mal Peet
In an interview with a young journalist, World Cup hero, El Gato, describes his youth in the Brazilian rain forest and the events, experiences, and people that helped make him a great goalkeeper and renowned soccer star.

Y Pee The Penalty by Mal Peet
Paul Faustino, known as the best soccer journalist in the business, reluctantly investigates the disappearance of eighteen-year-old Ricardo, a soccer prodigy known as "El Brujito," while in alternate chapters a slave in old San Juan becomes a powerful voodoo priest.

Y Wal Shots on Goal by Rich Wallace
While pursuing his goal of helping his soccer team win the league championship, fifteen-year-old Bones tries to deal with his resentment of his best friend, on whose girlfriend he has a crush.


::MISCELLANEOUS::

Y Fei Vanishing Act by John Feinstein (tennis)
Eighth-grade sports reporters Susan Carol and Stevie reunite at the U.S. Open tennis championships where they investigate the mysterious disappearance of a top Russian player.


Y Gal Finnie Walsh by Steven Galloway (hockey)
Paul Woodward lives in Portsmouth, a quiet northern mill-town. Born the day Paul Henderson planted the puck between the pipes against the Soviet Union to win the 1972 Super Series, Paul has no choice about playing hockey. His best friend Finnie Walsh is stinking rich. He is also fellow hockey fanatic and the only good kid in a long line of delinquent brothers. Paul's father works the nightshift at the local mill, owned by Finnie's father. One fateful day the boys noisily prepare for their first season of hockey in the Woodward driveway, keeping Paul's father awake when he should be sleeping, which triggers a chain of world-altering events.

Y Gil Ice Claw by David Gilman (extreme sports)
High in the French Pyrenees, fifteen-year-old Max Gordon's race to win an extreme sports challenge becomes a race to survive when he is accused of causing the death of a mysterious Basque monk who has predicted a cataclysmic ecological disaster.

Y Hor Slam by Nick Hornby (skateboarding)
Just when everything is coming together for Sam, his girlfriend Alicia drops a bombshell. Make that ex-girlfriend- because by the time she tells him she's pregnant, they've already called it quits. Sam does not want to be a teenage dad. His mom had him at sixteen and has made it very clear how having a baby so young interrupted her life. There's only one person Sam can turn to-his hero, skating legend Tony Hawk. Sam believes the answers to life's hurdles can be found in Hawk's autobiography.

Y Hug Open Ice by Pat Hughes (hockey)
Hockey has been Nick Taglio's life since he was five years old, so when a massive concussion benches him--possibly for good--everything seems to fall apart, including his schoolwork, his family relationships, his friendships, and his love life.

Y Lip The Contender by Robert Lipsyte (boxing)
A Harlem high school dropout escapes from a gang of punks into a boxing gym, where he learns that being a contender is hard and often discouraging work, but that you don't know anything until you try.

Y Nel Paranoid Park by Blake Nelson (skateboarding)
It’s called Paranoid Park for a reason. It’s an outlaw skate park where Skaters rule and Preps enter at their own risk. But when one Prep braves the scene alone, he gets mixed up in a fight that leaves someone dead. In the sleepless nights that follow, he decides to call the police. Then doesn’t. He decides to tell his dad. But can’t. Desperate and scared, he puts off making any decision. Maybe no one will ever find out. But when a cop appears at his school wanting to question the skaters, the pressure begins to build.


Y Wea Saturday Night Dirt by Will Weaver (stock car racing)
In a small town in northern Minnesota, the much-anticipated Saturday night dirt-track race at the old-fashioned, barely viable, Headwaters Speedway becomes, in many ways, an important life-changing event for all the participants on and off the track.

Y Wea Super Stock Rookie by Will Weaver (stock car racing)
Trace Bonham knows he is fortunate to be offered a chance at being a paid super stock driver when he is still in high school, but regrets that he must leave his friends and home track and wonders if the sponsor is legitimate.




SPORT STORIES….STARRING GIRLS!

Y Fit Getting in the Game by Dawn Fitzgerald
When everyone tries to get thirteen-year-old Joanna off the boys ice hockey team, including Ben, her best friend since kindergarten, Jo resolves to deal with the problems caused by her participation.

Y Gri Planet Middle School by Nikki Grimes
A series of poems describes all the baffling changes at home and at school in twelve-year-old Joylin's transition from tomboy basketball player to not-quite-girly girl.

Y Lup Miracle on 49th Street by Mike Lupica
After her mother's death, twelve-year-old Molly learns that her father is a basketball star for the Boston Celtics.

Y Mac Boost by Kathryn Mackel
Thirteen-year-old Savvy's dreams of starting for her elite basketball team are in danger when she is accused of taking steroids.

Y Mur Dairy Queen by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
After spending her summer running the family farm and training the quarterback for her school's rival football team, sixteen-year-old D.J. decides to go out for the sport herself, not anticipating the reactions of those around her.

Y Mur Front and Center by Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Other folks have big plans for D.J. Like her coach. College scouts. All the town hoops fans. A certain Red Bend High School junior who?s keen for romance and karaoke. Not to mention Brian Nelson, who she should not be thinking about! Who she is done with, thank you very much. But who keeps showing up anyway.


Y Rob My Thirteenth Season by Kristi Roberts
Already downhearted due to the loss of her mother and her father's overwhelming grief, thirteen-year-old Fran decides to give up her dream of becoming the first female in professional baseball after a coach attacks her just for being a girl.

Y Tig PrettyTough by Liz Tigelaar
Two feuding sisters from Malibu, California, take their rivalry to the soccer field when both girls make the high school team.