Not quite a slam dunk but an enjoyable sports fantasy nonetheless.
Lizzy Trudeaux is the best basketball player in middle school.
Unfortunately, the boys’ coach denies her the chance to play with the boys because coed teams are against the rules. Lizzy and her father live under a mountain of debt and unpaid bills, but she practices on the trash-strewn court near their home every chance she gets. Collections agents call Lizzy daily (they don’t care that she’s only 13), but one odd robocall changes her life: “You have been pre-selected for one free wish.” Rather than hang up, Lizzy blurts out her secret fantasy: never to miss another basketball shot forever. After that, every shot is a “pure swish”—made without touching the net—even from 30 feet with her back turned. Her best friend, Toby, an enterprising “Buddha-shaped black boy,” fast-talks their way into the Mack Center, home of the Philadelphia Bells, where Lizzy shows off her new skills for the coach. Before she knows it, she signs a 10-day contract (she is only 13) and becomes Lizzy Legend. The narrative, broken into four “Quarters,” takes place in the not-too-distant past, with Lizzy narrating engagingly from the present. It’s ludicrous—and a whole lot of fun, with memorable secondary characters filling out the cast. The book subscribes to the white default; aside from Toby, the only people of color seem to be a Sudanese pro ball player and Spike Lee, who has a cameo.
Not quite a slam dunk but an enjoyable sports fantasy nonetheless. (Fiction. 8-13)Pub Date: Jan. 8, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5344-2024-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Aladdin
Review Posted Online: Sept. 16, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2018
BOOK REVIEW
A page-turner for soccer-mad readers, whether fans or players.
Challenges on and off the field await a 12-year-old Ohio boy who’s unexpectedly invited to attend an exclusive soccer camp in England.
Leo K. Doyle may be a star forward on his YMCA league team, but after accepting a surprising invitation from a roving scout to attend a month of highly competitive tryouts for a Premier League youth development program, he finds himself far from home and, at best, in the middle of the pack. At the London Dragons camp, Leo, who’s cued as biracial, with a white dad and brown-skinned mom, makes friends with fellow players from around the world. He also wins an anti-American bully’s grudging respect and even helps his 19-year-old coach with a sweet gesture of apology for his girlfriend. But from the outset, the focus is on “the Beautiful Game.” Without letting up on the breathless pace for a moment, Layton packs Leo’s narrative with clear descriptions of skills and techniques both basic and advanced, sapient coaching, game strategies, and intangibles (such as team chemistry) that ultimately come together to set Leo apart from his bigger, faster, stronger rivals. Following a series of hard-fought elimination matches culminating in a high-stakes final in the big stadium under the eyes of the godlike professional team, Leo flies home in time for a dizzying final twist that sets up the sequel to this first entry in Layton’s popular British series.
A page-turner for soccer-mad readers, whether fans or players. (Fiction. 8-13)Pub Date: Sept. 2, 2025
ISBN: 9781464267109
Page Count: 306
Publisher: Sourcebooks Young Readers
Review Posted Online: June 13, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish.
The dreary prospect of spending a lifetime making caskets instead of wonderful inventions prompts a young orphan to snatch up his little sister and flee. Where? To the circus, of course.
Fortunately or otherwise, John and 6-year-old Page join up with Boz—sometime human cannonball for the seedy Wandering Wayfarers and a “vertically challenged” trickster with a fantastic gift for sowing chaos. Alas, the budding engineer barely has time to settle in to begin work on an experimental circus wagon powered by chicken poop and dubbed (with questionable forethought) the Autopsy. The hot pursuit of malign and indomitable Great-Aunt Beauregard, the Coggins’ only living relative, forces all three to leave the troupe for further flights and misadventures. Teele spins her adventure around a sturdy protagonist whose love for his little sister is matched only by his fierce desire for something better in life for them both and tucks in an outstanding supporting cast featuring several notably strong-minded, independent women (Page, whose glare “would kill spiders dead,” not least among them). Better yet, in Boz she has created a scene-stealing force of nature, a free spirit who’s never happier than when he’s stirring up mischief. A climactic clutch culminating in a magnificently destructive display of fireworks leaves the Coggin sibs well-positioned for bright futures. (Illustrations not seen.)
A sly, side-splitting hoot from start to finish. (Adventure. 11-13)Pub Date: April 12, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-06-234510-3
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Walden Pond Press/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
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