Samurai Shortstop
10 best books like Samurai Shortstop (Alan Gratz): Alphabet of Dreams, A Heart for Any Fate: Westward to Oregon, 1845, Mudville, Accidents of Nature, Soccerland, The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had, Over the Wall, The Not-So-Star-Spangled Life of Sunita Sen, Words By Heart, You Never Heard of Sandy Koufax?!
| Author | Susan Fletcher |
| ISBN | 0689850425 |
Mitra and her little brother, Babak, are beggars in the city of Rhagae, scratching out a living as best as they can with what they can beg for--or steal. But Mitra burns with hope and ambition, for she and Babak are not what they seem. They are of royal blood, but their father's ill-fated plot against the...
A Heart for Any Fate: Westward to Oregon, 1845
| Author | Linda Crew |
| ISBN | 0875952992 |
This work is the winner of the 2004 Stevens Literary Prize. West. The sound of a wish in a single word. That's how seventeen-year-old Lovisa King put it that spring of 1845 as she set off with her parents, eleven of her siblings, and their assorted spouses and children for Oregon Country, the promised land....
| 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 | Harriet McBryde Johnson |
| ISBN | 0805076344 |
Seventeen-year-old Jean has cerebral palsy and gets around in a wheelchair, but she's always believed she's just the same as everyone else. She goes to normal school and has normal friends. She's never really known another disabled person before she arrives at Camp Courage. But there Jean meets Sara,...
| Author | Beth Choat |
| ISBN | 0761457240 |
"One day I’m going to play for the U.S. Women’s National Team."
That’s what Flora Dupre promised her mom before she died of cancer. Flora and her mom had created a place called Soccerland, an escape world in which they’d ignore the beeping cancer machines and just talk soccer. And now...
The Best Bad Luck I Ever Had
| Author | Kristin Levine |
| ISBN | 0399250905 |
The last thing Harry "Dit" Sims expects when Emma Walker comes to town is to become friends. Proper -talking, brainy Emma doesn't play baseball or fish too well, but she sure makes Dit think, especially about the differences between black and white. But soon Dit is thinking about a whole lot more when...
| 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 | Mitali Perkins |
| ISBN | 0316734535 |
As Indian culture continues to curry the movies, music, and literature of American culture, the time is perfect to re-introduce this Indian-themed novel about a young girl's heart-felt attempt to straddle her two worlds. Like any other eighth grader, smart and spunky Sunita Sen just wants to fit in....
Lena can recite the Scriptures by heart. Hoping to make her adored Papa proud of her and to make her white classmates notice her "Magic Mind," not her black skin, Lena vows to win the Bible-quoting contest. But winning does not bring Lena what she expected. Instead of honor, violence and death erupt and...
| Author | Jonah Winter |
| ISBN | 0375837388 |
In this striking picture book biography, an old-timer tells us what made Sandy Koufax such an amazing baseball player. We learn that the beginning of his career with the Brooklyn Dodgers was rocky, that he was shy with his teammates, and experienced discrimination as one of the only Jews in the game....
| Author | Matt Tavares |
| ISBN | 0763632244 |
Matt Tavares hits one out of the park with this powerful tale of a kid from the segregated south who would become baseball’s home-run king.
Before he was Hammerin’ Hank, Henry Aaron was a young boy grow ing up in Mobile, Alabama, with what seemed like a foolhardy dream: to be a big-league baseball...
| Author | Michelle Y. Green |
| ISBN | 0803726619 |
Mamie Johnson looks the batter in the eye. Sizes him up for a curve- or a fastball. Stretches her 5'2" frame. And pops a surefire, windup, coming-right-at-ya pitch smack dab over the plate. One that lets the batter know that this "peanut of a girl" means business. Fueled by her passion for the game and buoyed...
| Author | Jen Bryant |
| ISBN | 0375840486 |
Will Lyza's 1968 summer mystery lead to . . . pirate treasure?
When Lyza helps her dad clean out her late grandfather's house, a mysterious surprise brightens the sad task. In Gramps's dusty attic, Lyza discovers three maps, carefully folded and stacked, bound by a single rubber band. On top,...
| 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 | Kate Klise |
| ISBN | 0312570392 |
A middle grade novel about a 12-year-old girl dealing with loss, who uncovers a rather grisly scam involving a crematorium.
After her brother, sister, and father die in a plane crash, Daralynn Oakland receives 237 dolls from well-wishers, resulting in her nickname: Dolly. But dolls are little...
| Author | Gene Fehler |
| ISBN | 0618843485 |
It's the last inning of a high school baseball game between arch-rivals Oak Grove and Compton. Center fielder Luke "Wizard" Wallace steps up to the plate--and is hit by a beanball, a wild pitch that shatters his skull, destroys the vision in his left eye, and changes his life forever.
In this riveting...
| Author | Geraldine McCaughrean |
| ISBN | 0061836656 |
Pepper's fourteenth birthday is a momentous one.
It's the day he's supposed to die.
Everyone seems resigned to it—even Pepper, although he would much prefer to live. But can you sidestep Fate? Jump sideways into a different life? Naïve and trusting, Pepper sets a course through...
| Author | Ben Mikaelson |
| ISBN | 0786810025 |
In this book, Sparrow Hawk Red, by Ben Mikaelsen, the main character is about a boy named Ricky. In this book Ricky is a secret pilot., When these D.E.A. agents came over to his house to ask Ricky's dad if he could steal the plane, Ricky found out his mom got killed by Mexican drug dealers, Ricky's mom wasn’t...
| Author | Julia DeVillers |
| ISBN | 1416991301 |
When your father is the President of the United States, and you've taken your own oath to represent the kids of America . . . well, that's a lot of responsibility for one girl. Luckily, Liberty Porter is up to the job! There's no problem too big or too small that can't be solved with a visit to the White House...
| Author | Nancy Bo Flood |
| ISBN | 1590786610 |
On the island of Saipan, in the South Pacific, the second world war is a distant idea. The Japanese have governed the island for twenty-five years and they mix regularly with the native islanders. Though no one questions who holds power, the two peoples coexist peacefully.
Joseph has known...
| Author | Kekla Magoon |
| ISBN | 1416978046 |
Set in a suburb of Las Vegas, Ella and Zachary, called Z, have been friends forever, but Z has always been “the weird kid” in their class. He collects stubby pencils, plays chess, and maintains an elaborate –and public– fantasy life, starring himself as a brave knight. Z’s games were okay back...
| Author | Margi Preus |
| ISBN | 1419708074 |
Set in 1853 in Japan, this novel follows Yoshi, a Japanese boy who dreams of someday becoming a samurai. Unfortunately, as part of the serving class Yoshi can never become a warrior. He is taken up by Manjiro, the protagonist of Preus’s Heart of a Samurai, and becomes his servant and secret watchdog....
Joshua Reed is used to moving around since his dad became an Army recruiter and the Vietnam War broke out. But their newest home, in the mountains of Pennsylvania, feels special somehow. Josh has started to make a new friend, his dad has finally allowed him to get a dog, and Jack-with his strange glowing...
| Author | Dan Gutman |
| ISBN | 0060534451 |
Cannons are blasting!
Bullets are flying!
Wounded soldiers are everywhere!
Stosh has time-traveled to 1863, right into the middle of the Civil War. In possibly his most exciting and definitely his most dangerous trip yet, Stosh has decided to answer the question for all time: did...
The townspeople of Calico believe in family. In fact, some say that the souls of dead ancestors watch over this town, and on a clear night, you can see their "Soul Fires" dancing through the sky.
But when young Fiona Gan comes to town with her father, she finds that the Soul Fires are just the beginning...
