A crucial, necessary reminder: Sports should be fun!
This basketball saga critically redefines “love of the game.”
In Walthorne, middle school sports revolve around the storied rivalry between the Walthorne North Middle School Cougars and the Walthorne South Middle School Panthers. North is captained by point guard Austin Chambers, whose well-off parents provide him with everything he needs to succeed—in part because his father is a Penn State basketball legend. Things aren’t so rosy for Carter Haswell, captain of South. As far as his parents are concerned, basketball is his job, as an athletic scholarship could relieve financial strife. What could be a tale of haves and have-nots swerves, instead examining the pernicious effects poor judgment, vicarious living, and outright self-interest can have on the physical and mental well-beings of student athletes. Peer relationships cause problems: Austin pressures wounded teammate Clay to play a high-stakes game, exacerbating his injury. Best intentions go awry: Alfie Jenks, a die-hard hoops fan and aspiring journalist, learns the importance of oversight, diligence, and context as her reporting sparks scandals. Egocentricity reigns: Carter’s coach encourages him to cheat in class, leading to the player’s suspension and the coach’s resignation. When misconduct brings their season screeching to a halt, North and South settle their differences without adult interference. Most characters are White; racism and socio-economic status come in for critical evaluation.
A crucial, necessary reminder: Sports should be fun! (author’s note, reading list) (Sports fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: March 23, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4197-4827-1
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Amulet/Abrams
Review Posted Online: Jan. 11, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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
This stands out for its unusual setting and smooth integration of friendship and family concerns. (Fiction. 10-14)
Sucked into "business" with a crooked classmate, bowling fanatic Lamar Washington makes good money faking his skills, but when a disruptive prank reveals his new friend Billy’s duplicity, he realizes how wrong it was to aim to be “the smoothest baddest dude” in Coffin, Ind.
This refreshing first novel is told in the first person with plenty of snappy dialogue by a smart African-American middle-schooler whose asthma has kept him out of the usual sports and whose older brother, a basketball star, consistently taunts him. Lamar’s new friendship threatens both a longstanding one and a promising new relationship with a girl. Tension mounts as Lamar is drawn further into an unsavory gambling world, realizing that his cheating is wrong but thrilled to have the cash to buy a Bubba Sanders bowling ball. A final, seriously physical fight with his brother leads to climactic arrests. The drab rigidity of Camp Turnaround, where Billy is incarcerated, contrasts with the excitement of the bowling alley Lamar loves. His grounding and community service seem appropriate. His understanding of the consequences of his prank fire alarm, both for his brother and for his basketball-mad small town, comes slowly and realistically, and the solution of his family issues is satisfying.
This stands out for its unusual setting and smooth integration of friendship and family concerns. (Fiction. 10-14)Pub Date: Feb. 22, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-06-199272-8
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Jan. 10, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2011
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