Painting the Black

Author	Alan Gratz
ISBN	0803732244

1845: Felix Schneider, an immigrant from Germany, cheers the New York Knickerbockers as they play Three-Out, All-Out. 1908: Walter Snider, batboy for the Brooklyn Superbas, arranges a team tryout for a black pitcher by pretending he is Cuban. 1945: Kat Snider of Brooklyn plays for the Grand Rapids...

Author

Julianna Baggott

It's been eighty-six years since the Red Sox won a World Series. Eighty-six years cursed.

Twelve-year-old Oscar Egg be-lieves he is cursed, just like the Red Sox. His real parents didn't want him, and now his adopted mom has dumped him off to live with his strange, sickly dad.

But there's...

Author	Kurtis Scaletta
ISBN	0375855793

Welcome to Moundville, where it?s been raining for longer than Roy McGuire has been alive. Most people say the town is cursed?right in the middle of their big baseball game against rival town Sinister Bend, black clouds crept across the sky and it started to rain. That was 22 years ago . . . and it?s still...

Author	Chris Crutcher
ISBN	0060598409

Bo has been at war with his father for as long as he can remember. The rage he feels gives him the energy as a triathlete to press his body to the limit, but it also translates into angry outbursts toward his teachers.

Now dangerously close to expulsion from school, Bo has been assigned to Anger Management...

Author	Christopher Paul Curtis
ISBN	0440413311

Luther T. Farrell has got to get out of Flint, Michigan.

As his best friend Sparky says, “Flint’s nothing but the Titanic.”

And his mother, a.k.a. the Sarge, says, “Take my advice and stay off the sucker path.”

The Sarge milked the system to build an empire of slum...

Author	Will Leitch
ISBN	1595140697

Everything comes easy for Tim Temples. He’s got a sweet summer job, lots of love from the ladies, and parties with his high school buddies. Why does he need to go to college?

Then Tim falls hard for Helena—a worldly and mysterious twenty-two year-old. Their relationship opens his eyes to...

Author	Paul Volponi
ISBN	0670061301

“Wow” is all I can say after reading Rucker Park Setup by Paul Volponi. This
book really deserves 5 stars out of 5, no doubt about it. Being a person who
doesn’t like reading, Paul Volponi delivers big, as a writer, with his second
based basketball story after Black and White, showing...

Author	Rich Wallace
ISBN	0679885552

Another interesting sports and character book; small town wrestling team out East is the obsession of the whole town (like football in Odessa/Midland). The place is the kind of town most kids can't wait to leave, and the teenage behavior is pretty accurate - lots of drinking by athletes and cheerleaders,...

Author	John H. Ritter
ISBN	0698119312

Tyler's temper is out of control. If he isn't careful, he'll blow his chances of making the All-Star team and being noticed by a scout. But Tyler's coach, a Vietnam War veteran, has seen anger destroy enough people. He knows that if Tyler is ever going to fulfill his dreams, he'll have to learn to fight his...

Author	Elaine Marie Alphin
ISBN	1575058626

Someone murdered Brian's girfriend, Amanda. The police think it was her father. Brian isn't so sure. But everyone he knows is telling him to move on, get over it, focus on the present. Focus on basketball. Focus on hitting the perfect shot. Brian hopes that the system will work for Amanda and her father....

Author	John Coy
ISBN	0439870321

John Coy turns to the high-stakes world of high school basketball in this fast-paced YA novel.

Liam has just been bumped up to starter on the varsity basketball team, and the pressure's on. With the girls' team heading to State, the boys' team is under even greater scrutiny than usual in Liam's...

Author	Matt de la Pena
ISBN	0385734255

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...

Author	J. Adams Oaks
ISBN	1416911774

Wyatt Reaves takes the seat next to you, bloodied and soaking wet, and he is a big-fisted beast. Tell him to stretch out like an X across asphalt and you've got a parking space. But Wyatt's been taking it lying down for too long, and he is NOT happy.

Since he turned twelve and a half, he's been living...

Author	S.L. Rottman
ISBN	0141307013

Sean is a 15 year old high school freshman. He has no one to look up to as his mother is abusive and a drug and alcohol addict. His father left the family a few years back and hasn't talked to Sean since. To make matters worse, whatever money Sean is able to make is stolen by his mother on a weekly basis....

Author	Walter Dean Myers
ISBN	0060582944

Drew Lawson knows basketball is taking him places. It has to, because his grades certainly aren't. But lately his plan has run squarely into a pick. Coach's new offense has made another player a star, and Drew won't let anyone disrespect his game. Just as his team makes the playoffs, Drew must come up with...

Author	Robert Lipsyte
ISBN	0060599464

The pressure is on.

At Nearmont High School, football stars are treated like royalty, and Matt Rydek has just ascended to the throne. As co-captain of the Raiders, he's got it all, or so it seems: hot girls, all the right friends, plenty of juice to make him strong, and a winning team poised to go...

Author	Robert B. Parker
ISBN	0399247750

When a shy high school student's body is found washed up on the shore of a quiet New England beach town, an apparent suicide, fifteen-year-old Terry Novak doesn't know what to think. Something just doesn't add up, so he decides to do some investigating of his own with the help of his best friend, Abby. It...

Author	L.D. Harkrader
ISBN	1596430605

Kirby Nickel loves basketball. He loves watching basketball. He loves talking about basketball. The only problem is he can't play basketball. But coach has a plan for Kirby and the supremely untalented seventh-grade team. It involves the guys playing nearly naked -- only in their briefs. Maybe the...

Author	James Preller
ISBN	0312367635

Two teams, six innings, one game.

A lively cast of characters--baseball-loving boys between the ages of eleven to thirteen--are playing the biggest game of their lives. With acrobatic catches, clutch hits, dramatic whiffs, and costly errors, this game is full of action. But as the book unfolds,...

Author	John Feinstein
ISBN	0375865705

"New York Times" bestselling sportswriter John Feinstein investigates a covert op at the Army-Navy football game in this exciting sports mystery.
The Black Knights of Army and the Midshipmen of Navy have met on the football field since 1890, and it's a rivalry like no other, filled with tradition....

Author	Dan Gutman
ISBN	0060594942

He was the world's greatest athlete, and a hero—until his medals were taken away.

Stosh is shocked when his enemy, Bobby Fuller, begs him for a favor. He wants Stosh to take him back in time to meet Native American Jim Thorpe—an Olympic champion who lost his medals in a scandal. Thorpe went...

Author	Gertrude Chandler Warner
ISBN	0807555509

When the Aldens visit their friend Fran in Wisconsin, they can't wait to hear her tell the story of the runaway ghost. Fran's family ghost hasn't been spotted in years, but the Aldens still shiver at the spooky tale of the ghost's bell clanging after dark. Then Violet hears a mysterious ringing in the middle...