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LOR |
In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson
(age 9-12) by Bette Bao Lord friendship ... humor ... identity ... sports ... school Shirley Temple Wong sails from China to America with a heart full of dreams. Her new home is Brooklyn, New York. America is indeed a land full of wonders, but Shirley doesn't know any English, so it's hard to make friends. Then a miracle happens...baseball. It is 1947, and Jackie Robinson, star of the Brooklyn Dodgers, is everyone's hero. Jackie Robinson is proving that a black man, the grandson of a slave, can make a difference in America and for Shirley as well, on the ball field and off, America becomes the land of opportunity. |
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LUP |
Two-Minute Drill
(age 9-12) by Mike Lupica friendship ... sports ... school Publisher comments: Chris Conlan is the coolest kid in sixth grade...the golden-armed quarterback of the football team and the boy all the others look up to. Scott Parry is the new kid, the boy with the huge brain, but with feet that trip over themselves. These two boys may seem like an odd couple, but each has a secret that draws them together, and proves that the will to succeed is even more important than raw talent. |
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WAL |
Winning Season Series (age 9-12) by Rich Wallace friendship ... sports In the first of this series, The Roar of the Crowd, Manny's made the football team and determined to get into the game. The problem is Manny is not that big. He's got a whole season to prove to his team and himself that he can earn the roar of the crowd. title: Dunk Under Pressure |
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PAR |
Keeping Score
(age 9-12) by Linda Sue Park friendship ... historical ... war ... sports Both Maggie Fortini and her brother, Joey-Mick, were named for baseball great Joe DiMaggio. Unlike Joey-Mick, Maggie doesn't play baseball, but at almost ten years old, she is a dyed-in-the-wool fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Maggie can recite all the players' statistics and understands the subtleties of the game. Unfortunately, Jim Maine is a Giants fan, but it's Jim who teaches Maggie the fine art of scoring a baseball game. Not only can she revisit every play of every inning, but by keeping score she feels she's more than just a fan: she's helping her team. Jim is drafted into the army and sent to Korea, and although Maggie writes to him often, his silence is just one of a string of disappointments: being a Brooklyn Dodgers fan in the early 1950s meant season after season of near misses and year after year of dashed hopes. But Maggie goes on trying to help the Dodgers, and when she finds out that Jim needs help, too, she's determined to provide it. Against a background of major league baseball and the Korean War on the home front, Maggie looks for, and finds, a way to make a difference. |
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HAV |
Two Hot Dogs With Everything
(age 9-12) by Paul Haven humor ... sports Danny Gurkin believes in his heart that the Sluggers are the best team in baseball. There's just the small matter of breaking a century-old curse involving a pretzel, a bubble-gum tycoon, and a missing shortstop. Danny also believes that the outcome of Sluggers' games depends on him and hot dogs. Because eating two hot dogs with everything before each game is the best kind of luck a fan can give his team. Danny Ghurkin has a date with baseball destiny; he just doesn't know it. Yet. |
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TOL |
The Great Pete Penney
(age 9-12) by Jean Bashor Tolle sports An 11-year-old pitcher's unusual friendship with a tiny invisible man is responsible for her team's very memorable season. |
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KON |
About the B'nai Bagels
(age 9-12) by E. L. Konigsburg realistic ... family ... sports ... growing up Mark Seltzer thought he had enough aggravation studying for his Bar Mitzvah and losing his best friend. It's the last straw when his mother becomes the new manager of his Little League baseball team and drags his older brother, Spencer, along as the coach. No one knows what to expect with a mother for a manager, but soon Mark and the other players are surprised to see how much they're improving due to coach Spencer's strategy and helpful hints from "Mother Bagel." It looks like nothing can stop them from becoming champs--until Mark hears some startling news! |
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COH |
Thank You, Jackie Robinson
(age 9-12) by Barbara Cohen illness/loss ... sports ... friendship Publisher comments: After Sam's father died, he became so wrapped up in the Brooklyn Dodgers that he could describe every game they'd played in the past four years. Nobody was very interested, until Sam met Davy. They came from different races, religions, and generations. But it didn't take long before they had a friendship that went well beyond baseball. |
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SLO |
The Trading Game
(age 9-12) by Alfred Slote family ... enterprise ... sports Andy loves to collect baseball cards, but most of all, he loves his grandfather, an ex-Major League baseball player who thinks that baseball card collecting is a useless hobby. When Andy must choose to either play by his grandfather's rules or do whatever it takes to trade for his grandfather's baseball card, he learns a valuable lesson on hero worship. |
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GUT |
They Came From Center Field
(age 9-12) by Dan Gutman humor ... science fiction ... sports A team of aliens and a team of kids play a game of baseball. |
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AVI |
S.O.R. Losers
(age 9-12) by Avi humor ... sports The South Orange River (S.O.R.) School is big on sports and famous for not losing a game all season. That all changes when the school insists that some seventh-grader non-jocks form a soccer team. The new team is sure that losing their first game 32-0 will put an end to their athletic adventure, but no such luck. Their parents insist they try harder. The whole school cheers them on, and the finally score...for the other team. And only the eleven members of the S.O.R. Losers team know the secret of their outstanding "success." |
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SMI |
Bobby Baseball
(age 9-12) by Robert Kimmel Smith identity ... enterprise ... sports Ten-year-old Bobby Ellis loves everything about baseball, from the hits to the hot dogs. That's why he calls himself Bobby Baseball! Every day he dreams of becoming a major league pitcher and joining the stars in the Baseball Hall of Fame. And what better place to start his career than right here on his own Kids Club team, the Hawks? But the Hawks' coach happens to be Bobby's father, who has other ideas. |
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SLO |
Finding Buck McHenry
(age 9-12) by Alfred Slote identity ... historical ... sports Eleven-year-old Jason, believing the school custodian Mack Henry to be Buck McHenry, a famous pitcher from the old Negro League, tries to enlist him as a coach for his Little League team by revealing his identity to the world. |
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RIT |
The Boy Who Saved Baseball
(age 9-12) by John Ritter enterprise ... humor ... sports Tom Gallagher finds himself in a tight spot. The fate of Dillontown rests on the outcome of one baseball game, winner take all. Maybe Tom has one hope: Cruz de la Cruz, the mysterious boy who has just ridden into town on horseback claiming to know the secret of hitting. |
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GUT |
Dan Gutman's Baseball Card Adventures (age 9-12) by Dan Gutman historical ... sports With the help of baseball cards and other memorabilia, Joey is able to travel through time to meet some of the greatest sports stars in history. title: Abner & Me: a Baseball Card Adventure title: Babe & Me: a Baseball Card Adventure title: Honus & Me: a Baseball Card Adventure title: Jackie & Me: a Baseball Card Adventure title: Mickey & Me: a Baseball Card Adventure title: Satch & Me: a Baseball Card Adventure title: Shoeless Joe & Me: a Baseball Card Adventure title: Jim and Me: a Baseball Card Adventure title: Ray and Me: a Baseball Card Adventure title: Roberto and Me |