How to Get Out February 12, 2024

Tre feels trapped in some ways. Trapped by the shadow of his older brother, Jaxon, trapped by the pressure of reservation life, and trapped by his own expectations. After all, when you live in a place where everyone tells the story of how your father was one of the greatest basketball players to ever play at the Red Lake Indian Reservation high school, and has the stats and the banners hanging in the school to prove it, things can be a bit overwhelming. Especially when all Tre was interested in for years were comic books and video games. But when he started to get into basketball, it was his older brother Jaxon, already on his way to beating their father’s records, who took the time to show him the ropes and teach him the moves.

Until Jaxon was killed in a car accident. Then all the hopes of the reservation, Tre’s family, and the school are gone. Unless Tre can somehow become as good as his brother was, maybe even better? But does he really have it in him?

Rez Ball by Bryon Graves is an unflinching look at life on the reservation, the myths, and the prejudices that face many Native Indians in our country. Many readers will enjoy the road Tre journeys on to discover what is important to him and just what he can sacrifice, if anything, along the way.

Recommended for mature 8th graders and up due to realistic content and language.

Play On November 13, 2023

When is it more about the play than the player? Is it ever okay to play injured for the sake of the win? Just that one game? Alfie is hoping to be a sports journalist and reporter some day, and she’s getting lots of practice in her middle school with her radio program and the school newspaper. She pays attention to the details and she noticed one of the players from the cross town rival team might be limping a bit in the big opening game of the season. And her sharp eyes aren’t wrong. But her reporting opens up a whole lot more than just a player playing hurt.

Walthorne North and South schools are really serious about their basketball and each team has a chance to come out on top, mainly because of Carter and Clay – each their own force on their own team. Austin, though, has his own issues that he is wrestling with, mainly that basketball is all his family ever seems to think about and he worries he will never be able to live up to what his dad expects from him.

How will all of it play out during this intense season?

Rivals by Tommy Greenwald looks at how intense sports have become with traveling teams, and private lessons and school sports, all for what? What is the ultimate goal? College scholarships? Glory for the school? And who is driving this? Is it the parents or the kids? It will make you think if you love sports.

Recommended for grades 6 and up.

Things Aren’t Adding UP October 23, 2023

Jack loves to play basketball, and while he isn’t the best, he is pretty good. He knows he has to work for everything, but he is willing to put in the time. He does wish that his dad would be a bit happier though, when he does do well. But for the last few weeks, he knows why his dad is more down than usual. Jack’s mom was in a terrible car accident and she hasn’t been able to leave the hospital.

But then something happens with Jack’s dad, something that Jack can’t even begin to believe and it feels like quickly basketball isn’t as important in life as it once seemed. Jack isn’t sure how to put his family back together, but he knows he has to try.

Titan Clash by Sigmund Brouwer is a page turner as you wonder what is going on with Jack’s family and if Jack will be able to put things back, even if he had nothing to do with how messed up things have gotten.

Recommended for grades 7 and up.

Reading the Signs June 13, 2022

Jalen loves baseball. But he has a problem. He wants to get onto the best travel team in his area, but that costs money. Money he and his dad don’t have. So it just so happens that his best friend Cat lives next door to a famous Yankee’s player, James Yager, better known as JY. And it just so happens that Jalen knows there are baseballs that this famous player has hit and signed – which are worth money. If he can only get his hands on those baseballs, Jalen’s money problems will be over, or so he thinks. So he and his friends devise a plan that they believe will get Jalen the money he needs.

However, no one expected for Jalen to get caught…by JY himself! Luckily he is able to get away, but that seems to be where his luck ends, because he sees JY again, at Cat’s birthday party! And unfortunately, JY recognizes him as the boy that was stealing his baseballs. Yager seems determined to make Jalen pay for his crime, but when Yager gets an unwanted phone call, Jalen has an idea.

Jalen realizes his he might have another way to solve his problem, and it involves the famous player!

Baseball Genius by Tim Green is for readers who love baseball and for those (like me) who don’t! It is a fun and entertaining book.

Recommended for grades 6 and up.

Bells are Ringing, In a Bad Way October 4, 2021

Football is what has kept him sane for years now, and without it, Isaiah can’t see how he will be able to focus and function. He has become such a good player that he is being recruited by Cornell, but he hasn’t told his parents yet. And that is because of what happened to his sister years ago, and why Isaiah needs football.

All that changes though, when he gets hit, bad. So bad, that he hears witches screaming in his head and he doesn’t even remember getting up and going home that night. It scares him though. Because is this game, and it is a game after all, worth everything?

As Isaiah struggles to figure out who he is without the sport, he begins to realize maybe he isn’t anything without it. And if he is forced to give it up? What then?

Cracking the Bell by Geoff Herbach gives a very personal look at how tragedy can lead to some unexpected good things, and what to do when that good thing might be taken away. How do we redefine ourselves, without getting lost along the way?

What Happens on the Field, Stays on the Field November 11, 2019

Teddy is in a coma after playing the Rookie Rumble – a game that just the incoming freshman play against each other and is coached by the senior football players on the last day of the preseason camp. Everyone is saying it was a tragic accident and how football has its problems, but everyone knows that is part of the risk to play this amazing game.

As Teddy’s family struggles to deal with his life threatening and possible life changing injury, others in the community gather round to support the family and the team in this time of need. However, when a well intentioned girl, who likes Teddy and just happens to be the daughter of the head football coach, puts up a site for people to offer prayers and to come together as a community, some interesting posts start to pop up. Was this really a typical football injury, or could there be something more to what happened on the field that day?

Game Changer by Tommy Greenwald is a super fast read as it is told in text messages, site posts, newspaper clips and short, almost novel in verse like text. The story shows how so many people are conflicted about the dangers of football and how some traditions are hard to let go.

Recommended for grades 7 and up.

Fastest on a Bike in the World! October 17, 2018

As a young boy in the late 1880s, Marshall didn’t see himself becoming a world champion at anything. Growing up one of eight children to parents whose own parents had been enslaved in Kentucky before the Civil War, he didn’t have much chance for opportunity, even living just outside of Indianapolis, Indiana. That all changed when his father took a job with a white family as their coachman. Marshall came along to help exercise the horses and met the family’s only child, a boy named Daniel. The boys were both eight, and Daniel’s parents encouraged a friendship between the boys. So much so, that they even invited Marshall to live with them for a time. Marshall got a taste of life that not many poor blacks got – good food, nice clothes and Marshall also played with Daniel’s white friends as well. Because the white family was very well off, they bought both boys bicycles – the new rage that was sweeping all of America.

Marshall took to riding a bicycle right away. Soon, he was coming up with tricks to perform as well as riding it all over. When the Southards left Indianapolis and moved to Chicago four years later, Marshall’s mother wouldn’t let him move with them. The Southards gifted Marshall with the bike they had purchased for him. Because of that bike, he was able to get a job as a paper delivery boy and it was during one of his rides his life changed again. He needed a repair on his bike and so took it to a shop where he then showed some of his tricks. The owner was so impressed, he told Marshall he would pay him to do tricks outside his store to bring in customers. It worked! It was that store owner who started him on the road to success as a bicycle racer and world fame at a time when it was difficult for many African Americans to even find decent paying jobs.

Marshall “Major” Taylor: World Champion Bicyclist, 1899-1901 by Marlene Targ Brill shines a light on a little known story in American history. Taylor rose to the height of his sport, even though many in America didn’t want him to succeed and worked hard to keep him from winning races, sometimes through politics and other times through actual physical violence. All because of the color of his skin.

Recommended for 6th grade and up. A really fascinating and fast read.

Girl in the Game! September 25, 2018

Tessa and Caleb have been friends for a while. They live on the same street, play on the same flag football team, and next year will be going to the same high school. Tessa is a possible rising star for the cross country team, and Caleb is hoping to get onto the high school football team.

But at the end of their last flag football game – a game that Tessa feels she lost because she didn’t catch a pass – she feels like she isn’t quite done with football. The only game that is left for her would be tackle football and the tryouts for the high school team will be coming up. Before that happens though, there is a football camp over the summer to get players ready. Tessa starts thinking maybe she’d like to be one of those players.

Caleb has realized that he likes Tessa as more than a friend, and she reciprocates his feelings. However when Tessa starts talking about playing tackle football, Caleb worries. Not only how it might impact his new relationship with Tessa, but the reactions he gets from his guy friends are troubling.

The Football Girl by Thatcher Heldring takes an issue and looks at it from all sides. Tessa struggles with figuring out the “empty feeling” she had after her last flag football game and wonders if it is because she isn’t done with the game. Caleb thinks Tessa is a great football player, but isn’t sure he wants her on his tackle high school team. As a reader you will feel the struggle of both teens and wonder where it will all go.

Recommended for grades 6th and up.

Taking Life’s Punches May 9, 2018

Levi feels like all his life his mom and older brother, Timothy, have watched over him so much that it can be hard to breathe sometimes! Ironically, that is the actual problem with him. Levi, when he was an infant, had a trachea that was compromised and it made it hard to breathe and eat and he was very sick for a long time. Now that he’s older though, he feels he can do much more, more than his brother and mother think.

Levi’s dad seems to see the potential he has, and encourages him to take up a sport. When Levi throws out the idea of boxing, his dad laughs, but goes along with it. What neither of them expects, least of all Levi, is that boxing turns out to be his sport! But it has to be kept a secret because there is NO WAY his mom will let him box, not with his history of medical problems. So how do you tell a mother and brother that you love, it’s time to let go, just a little bit?

Knock Out by K.A. Holt is the sequel to House Arrest and gives the reader Levi’s life as a teenager. If you haven’t read House Arrest, you don’t need to, although, it is a great book so you should! Levi learns some hard lessons about who you can really count on when the going gets tough; a lesson we all learn at some point in our lives.

Highly recommended for anyone who loves Novels In Verse and good stories. For grades 6th and up.

Dreams of Gold August 15, 2017

When Joe was little, he had a really rough time of it. His mother died when he was very young and then his father shipped him across the country to live with his aunt for two years. When his dad remarried, he sent for Joe to come back. However, Thula, Joe’s new step-mother, never seemed to take to him. Joe found himself set aside when he was fifteen years old and had to survive on his own while his father and stepmom left with the four younger siblings.

This made Joe leery of trusting others, but he was determined to go to college. He started at the University of Washington in Seattle in the fall of 1933. This was a rough time in the United States. The stock market crash of 1929 had cascaded down into all walks of life, and so Joe had a hard time finding jobs so he could pay to attend school. That was mostly the reason he found himself at the rowing try outs. Because each freshman that made the rowing team was guaranteed a part time job on campus – which might bring in enough money to keep him from having to drop out of school.

The rowing team was not easy though. There were close to 200 new freshman that wanted a spot on the boats, and already upper class teams in place. So competition was fierce. But there was something special about the boys that showed up to row that year, and even the year after as well. Something that made the coach of the University of Washington believe that he could put together a shell (as the boats are called) that could take Washington to the Olympics in Berlin in 1936. And it was possible, that Joe just might be in that shell, rowing it!

The Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown is a fast and interesting read about the United States rowing team that entered the Berlin Olympics. This is a wonderful story about a boy finding his inner strength and how it is possible to move beyond your past.

Recommended for grades 7 and up.