Alexander, Kwame. Booked.

Alexander, Kwame.  Booked.    Houghton Mifflin  2016  314p  $16.99  ISBN 978-0-544-57098-6  ms/hs  Sports  VG-BN 

In this novel in verse, Nick Hall is an avid soccer player whose father subscribes to Verbomania and forces Nick to read from “his” dictionary and learn a variety of uncommon words to prepare him for college. He has issues with paying attention in class as well as completing assignments, like any middle-school student who is distracted at times. He has a crush on April and a fun-loving, insistent librarian, as well as an overbearing language-arts teacher. Just when Nick learns that his team and best friend Coby’s team have been invited to play in the Dallas National Soccer tournament, he learns of his parents’ intent to separate.

This well-written novel in verse is sure to engage and entertain young readers. It will appeal to adolescent readers, as Nick experiences and learns to balance sports, school, parents’ requirements, romance, and his demanding teacher and librarian. When Nick encounters an unavoidable situation that threatens his ability to compete in the National Soccer Tournament, he must come to grips with it and differentiate between what he needs and what he desires. Readers can’t help but root for Nick on his life journey.

Booked will appeal not only to avid adolescent readers, but to struggling and reluctant readers as well. The story is written as a poem with few words on each page, and it will not intimidate reluctant readers. The many themes and twists in the plot will appeal to readers and give them a strong connection to the protagonist.

Summary: In this novel in verse, Nick Hall is an avid soccer player whose father subscribes to Verbomania and forces Nick to read from his dictionary and learn a variety of uncommon words to prepare him for college; and just when he learns his team and his best friend Coby’s team have been invited to play in the Dallas National Soccer tournament, he also learns of his parents’ intent to separate.      
     

Soccer-Fiction                                  --Virginia McGarvey

Grandmaster.

Klass, David.  Grandmaster.  Macmillan/Farrar Strauss  2014  226p  $16.99  ISBN 978-0-374-32771-2  ms/hs    Sports fiction  E-BN

When you think of chess, it does not bring to mind the intensity, physicality and ferocity that ice hockey and football epitomize.  But this novel makes chess into a blood sport and so exciting that even the person who doesn’t understand chess moves will become engrossed and be unable to put the book down.  Daniel is a novice when it comes to chess and is called Patzer-face, a play on his last name, Pratzer, and a term that means “pushover” in chess.  When the seniors on the Loon Lake Academy chess team invite Daniel to a chess tournament in New York City, he is skeptical, especially when they tell him it is a father/son tournament and only three students can bring their fathers along.  Family secrets unravel, revealing that Daniel’s father was a teenage Grandmaster but won’t speak of it. Bullies are found among the males of all ages, and father/son relationships are not always smooth in this novel of chess moves that mirror life moves.   As the Loon Lake Academy Mind Cripplers let a mother/daughter team enter the Mindcrusher realm for some late night karaoke, an old rivalry from years ago threatens to crush Daniel’s father.  Intricately entwined are plenty of fast-paced action, the tantalizing revelation of the Grandmaster’s last tournament from which he left as a broken person, the building of self-confidence, a budding romance, and better understanding between fathers and sons.                

Summary: Daniel, a beginner at chess, is invited to a father/son chess tournament.  Unexpected family secrets surface as Daniel learns of his father’s chess prowess.  The intensity of the tournament, bonding, first love, and fulfilling dreams make an exciting read. Gr. 6+

Chess-Fiction, Fathers and sons-Fiction               --Lois McNicol

Softball Surprise.

Maddox, Jake.  Softball Surprise.  (Jake Maddox Girl Sports Stories)  Capstone/Stone Arch  2014  72p  $23.99      ISBN 978-1-4342-4141-2  elem  Sports fiction  VG

Elementary students who enjoy sports fiction and softball will enjoy this title.  Students meet Jo Adler, a girl who loves playing softball and hopes to get selected to play for the Red Angels this softball season.  When team assignments are provided, Jo is disappointed that she was selected to play for the Yellow Sonics, but since she knows a few players, including her friend Delia, she is at ease.  Determined to make the Yellow Sonics a better team, Jo and Delia practice softball skills together and with their new teammates.  When Jo overhears about the Red Angels having won so many games, she starts to think differently about wanting to be a part of the Red Angels.  During the season, with an injury to the Red Angels’ shortstop, Jo is offered her spot on the team. With the information Jo now has about the Red Angels, she decides to stay on the Yellow Sonics and help make them become the best team in the league.

The author includes black-and-white illustrations, easy-to-comprehend text, a glossary, discussion questions, writing prompts, and more information about the sport of softball.

For schools that use Accelerated Reader, an existing test is available for students to take (AR Quiz # 163482).

Eight easy-to-read stories have been published in this series so far.  They emphasize speed, skill, and fair play.  Readers discover that an athlete's inner game, persistence, and courage are just as important as a steady hand or a chance for a goal.      

Summary: “Jo is disappointed when she is not placed on the Red Angels in the summer softball league, but when she is offered the chance to switch teams, Jo has to decide if she will leave her friends and play for the ‘winning’ team, or win with the Sonics.”   

Softball-Fiction                                --Charleen Forba-Mayer

Klass, David, and Perri Klass. Second Impact.

Klass, David, and Perri Klass.  Second Impact.  Macmillan/Farrar Strauss      2013  279p  $16.99  ISBN 978-0-374-37996-4  hs  Realistic fiction  E-BN

Jerry Downing and Carla Jensen, who share a high-school English class, blog about football in small-town America (specifically New Jersey).  The community culture, the pressure on the players, the consequences of bad choices, and most importantly the topical issues of head injury in high-school sports all come to play in the dialog that ensues in the blogs of both students. Jerry, the football jock, and Carla, the sports writer for the school paper, provide the two main perspectives of this story.  It is told almost completely in the form of blog posts, a device that serves as an intriguing and successful method of recounting past and present events in the story. E-mails between the two are also employed in the writing of this book, to address more personal issues between and about the two bloggers.  The emphasis on the pressure to play when injured, whether internal or from the team, really struck a note, and will do so with high-school readers as well.  The very topical debate about sports injuries, specifically concussion and other kinds of head trauma, is well presented from many perspectives.  There is just enough medicine to be informative without being preachy.  High-school athletes will gravitate to this book because of its cover.  They’ll be kept interested by the subject and the very appealing format.  It is only the “party” elements and related issues that keep this from being a middle-school possibility as well.         

Summary: Jerry Downing and Carla Jensen, who share a high-school English class, blog about football in small-town America (specifically New Jersey).  The community culture, the pressure on the players, the consequences of bad choices, and most importantly the topical issues of head injury in high-school sports all come to play in the dialog that ensues in the blogs of both students.

Sports injuries-Fiction, Sports-Fiction                           --Lynn Fisher

Maddox, Jake. Cheer Captain

Maddox, Jake.   Cheer Captain         

Stone Arch see Capstone      2011   64p     18.04  978-1-43422-551-1

elem    Realistic Fiction          Jake Maddox:Girls Sports Stories(Stone Arch)      VG

            ╥Julia is nervous about starting a new school, even though her best friend

Ava has offered to help her practice for cheerleading tryouts, but when Julia

learns they both want to become captain, she fears their friendship will not

survive the competition.╙    In this title, Julia and her family have moved

across town to River City East and she will begin a new middle school.  Luckily

for Julia, her best friend Ava also attends and was on the cheerleading squad

for the past two years.  In her old school, Julia had been the captain of her

cheerleading squad and now she along with the other girls must try out for the

team again this year.  Since the two girls are best friends, Ava loaned Julia a

uniform and together they practiced all their moves for the upcoming tryout. 

When cheerleading tryouts occurred, Ava╒s routine did not go as well as planned. 

Upset with her routine, she left the tryout.  Julia╒s tryout went very well and

when the list came out with cheerleading squad members, both girls made the team,

and Julia was selected as the team╒s captain.  Even though Ava did not say she

was upset with the decision, her actions proved otherwise.  Ava╒s behavior and

actions reflected her disappointment and jealousy.  With the way Ava treated

Julia, Julia decided to quit the cheerleading squad, since her friendship with

Ava meant more to her than the team.  Ava, along with her teammates soon

realized that they needed Julia as their captain and Ava and Julia made up and

the team was able to enter the cheerleading competition.  With the team╒s

practice and commitment, they placed first in their competition.

Includes black-and-white illustrations, information about the author and

illustrator, a glossary of terms, three discussion questions and writing prompts,

and basic cheerleading terminology.          Series includes 74 sports stories with

the emphasis on speed, skill, and fair play. The young athletes in these books

face obstacles not just on the gridiron, the court, the ice, or the half pipe,

but meet mental and social challenges as well.  Forba-Mayer, Charleen