Sports

THE TRUTH LIES BENEATH

Paul Fisher's older brother is a high school football star, but to Paul he's no hero. Paul's own game is soccer, which he plays even though he has to wear thick glasses because of a mysterious eye injury. When the Fishers move to Tangerine, Florida, Paul tries to make sense of things. But it's not easy. In Tangerine, underground fires burn for years and lightning strikes the same practice field every day. Strange things happen here all the time -- but nothing is stranger than the secrets Paul discovers about his brother, his new group of friends, and his own dangerous past.

Malik got out of the swing and walked in back of me. "I've seen you swim, girl. You're the best I've ever seen. And whenever you ready you can win. Or, you can give up", he said, placing his hand in the middle of my back. "Just remember one thing", he said, pushing me gently, so gently, I could barely feel his hand as I swung up into the air. "I'll be here for you when you need me. But only if you don't let them win".

"Them who?" I asked, closing my eyes and letting the wind whisper on my face.

"Them who would hold you back", he said. "Keisha . . ". He stopped the swing with both his hands on either side of me. He leaned in close to my ear and whispered, "Keisha, don't let them win. I've gotta go now, but if anybody bothers you again, I'm taking it up".

-- from Born in Sin

Tayshas Reading List 2007-2008
When Miles Manning, a successful high school football player, discovers his teammates are using steroids--and one of them is his best friend--he's faced with a tough decision: Is he willing to do what it takes to win? Football is his life, and his family, especially his dad, is pinning its hopes on him. It's a lot of pressure for a high school junior to bear. This gripping look into the world of high school boys and athletes--and their struggle to be the best--is provocative and searingly honest.

There's bad news and good news about the Cutter High School swim team. The bad news is that they don't have a pool. The good news is that only one of them can swim anyway.

A group of misfits brought together by T.J. Jones (the J is redundant) to find their places in a school that has no place for them, the Cutter All Night Mermen struggle to carve out their own turf. T. J. is convinced that a varsity letter jacket -- unattainable for most, exclusive, revered, the symbol (as far as T.J. is concerned) of all that is screwed up at Cutter High -- will be an effective carving tool. He's right. He's also wrong.

Still, it's always the quest that counts. And the bus on which the Mermen travel to swim meets -- piloted by Icko, the permanent resident of All Night Fitness -- soon becomes the cocoon inside which they gradually allow themselves to

Sticky is a beat-around-the-head foster kid with nowhere to call home but the street, and an outer shell so tough that no one will take him in. He started out life so far behind the pack that the finish line seems nearly unreachable. He's a white boy living and playing in a world where he doesn't seem to belong.
But Sticky can ball. And basketball might just be his ticket out . . . if he can only realize that he doesn't have to be the person everyone else expects him to be.
A breakout urban masterpiece by newcomer Matt de la Pena, Ball Don't Lie takes place where the street and the court meet and where a boy can be anything if he puts his mind to it.

Texas Lone Star Reading List 2006-2007
From the award-winning author of "Night Hoops" and "Painting the Black" comes this suspenseful, psychologically astute novel with themes of terrorism and patriotism, fear and courage.

Texas Lone Star Reading List 2006-2007
A BookPage Notable Title
Two aspiring journalists win a coveted press pass to the Final Four basketball playoffs in New Orleans, where they soon learn the games going on behind the scenes turn out to be even more fiercely competitive than those on the court.

Jackson OUConnell's senior year is plagued by zits, shyness, and rumors that isolate him from most of the school. When team politics keep him off the starting lineup of the basketball team, Jackson must learn how to rebound from injustice and anger and start shooting from the heart.

Banned from his school's soccer team for being too short, Sh Kazamatsuri decides there's only one thing left to do: switch schools! But even a change in scenery doesn't help the David Beckham wannabe. On campus, he is mistakenly introduced to everyone as a hotshot soccer player. When the truth is revealed, Sh drops out of school in total disgrace. Now on his own, the spunky teenager must work twice as hard to make his dreams come true.

As Joe Brickman heads into his senior year, he's looking forward to soccer season and dating Kristine. But scary, unpredictable things start happening at Lawndale High, as past violence returns to haunt the present.

A 17-year-old Harlem boy struggles to become a champion boxer in this "excellent novel (recommended) for use in the early phases of secondary school literature study" ("Language Arts").

What's it mean to think team? It means you don't talk team business with anybody who isn't on the team. It means whatever happens inside the team stays inside. It means you can only trust a brother Raider. Any questions?

At Nearmont High School, football stars are treated like royalty, and Matt Rydek has just ascended to the throne. He's got it all: hot girls, chill friends, plenty of juice to make him strong, and a winning team poised to go all the way. If he can keep his eye on the ball now, his future will be set. But when the team turns on one of its own, should Matt play by Raiders rules, or should he go long alone?

Martino pens a story, set in the world of high school wresting, of two very different young men who both have the drive, the determination, and the commitment to self-sacrifice necessary to become a champion.

BookPage Notable Title
Welcome to the summer that 15-year-old D.J. Schwenk of Red Bend, Wisconsin, learns to talk--and ends up having an awful lot of stuff to say. She realizes when people don't talk, much remains unsaid, like why her best friend, Amber, isn't so friendly anymore. Or why her little brother, Curtis, never opens his mouth.

CCBC Choices - 1996
Sixteen-year-old Greg "Slam" Harris can do it all on the basketball court. His grades aren't so hot, though. And when his teachers jam his troubles in his face, Slam blows up. He never doubted himself on the court until he found himself going one on one with his future.

So that Kyo can fulfill her dream of becoming an NBA basketball star, her father enrolls her in a prestigious school . . . as a boy.

Seventeen-year-old Leah Weiczynkowski, about to begin her senior year of high school, is on the brink of realizing her dream -- playing soccer for the under-eighteen national team, her gateway to the World Cup and the Olympics. Everything she's worked for in her young life has been about this moment. She can't wait to tell her dad, her biggest fan and her faithful chauffeur to games and practices.

Unfortunately, her dad, Pete Weiczynkowski, has news of his own.

"Going for the Record" addresses Leah's passion for her sport, her love for her father, and her growing recognition of her father's faith and bravery. Loosely based on the author's own experience, "Going for the Record" is a coming-of-age story on a number of levels, as Leah must question everything that's mattered most to her and how she will define herself in the future.

A killer combination of high-interest plot and unforgettable characters "" All kinds of people. Little kids, a lot of men, even people your age come to the shows." """ "" They come to see acrobats pretending to wrestle with each other? Kyle is this some kind of sexual thing?" "
"" No! It' s an athletic thing! It' s called sports entertainment. Meaning, it' s like a sport, but it' s all scripted like theater. You' ve seen me watching wrestling on Monday and Thursday nights. . . . " "
"" Oh, that thing! Kyle, do you mean that terrible program where they hit each other with chairs? It' s like The Three Stooges! Why would a boy like you with all your talent and brains want to do something foolish like that?" " Kyle Bailey is a high-school senior who dreams of becoming a professional wrestler. He can' t tell his beloved grandmother, who

BookPage Notable Title
In a small Oklahoma town, one star linebacker must decide what kind of man he wants to be--both on and off the field.

Unflinchingly candid, this arresting companion to Trueman's Printz Honor book "Stuck in Neutral" is a compelling exploration of love and family as it tells the story of a young man who is dangerously consumed by his own rage and guilt.

The critics' votes are in--"Wrestling Sturbridge is a winner! Now available in rack-sized paperback.

Over the hot, Indiana summer, Nate's high school basketball team practices on a local court off a row of fraternities. One day after practice, one of the team members suggests breaking into a frat house and looting its contents. Nate goes along with it -- a move he instantly regrets. Soon all of his loyalties are being tested -- with his brother, a town outcast who might be blamed for the crime; with his girlfriend, who he tries to confide in; and with his teammates. A phenomenal novel in the tradition of Chris Crutcher, Rich Wallace, and Walter Dean Myers' SLAM.

Once in a while you get a second chance. For Travis Cody this is one of those times. His team, the Oil Camp Roughnecks, is facing the Pineview Pelicans for the state championship. Travis will have forty-eight minutes head-to-head with rival Jericho Grooms. Forty-eight minutes to redeem himself for letting Grooms break him on the play that cost the Roughnecks an undefeated season. Forty-eight minutes to prove he isn' t a quitter.