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CAR
The Longest Home Run (age 9-12)
by Roch Carrier
magic ... sports
``The longest home run in the history of baseball was hit by a girl.'' So begins a baseball misadventure in the village of Ste. Justine. This time, a strange girl named Adeline shows up at the daisy field where Roch and his friends play baseball all summer. She proceeds to hit a towering home run...right through the window of the crankiest man in town. Adeline has other powers as well, which Roch and the boys discover at a magic show. But without the baseball, the game cannot go on. When Adeline literally disappears, who do you think has to get the ball back?
F
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.
F
BAR
Go Long! (age 9-12)
by Tiki Barber
school ... sports
Publisher comments: It's Tiki and Ronde's second year on their junior high school football team, the Hidden Valley Eagles. The eighth-grade season is here, and the boys have come together as a team. Now key starters, Tiki and Ronde are ready for a great season, and with hard work and determination, maybe they will even go all the way to the State Championship! But when Coach Spangler announces that he has been asked to move up to the high school team, and Mr. Wheeler, the science teacher, is tapped for the head coaching job, the season seems over before it begins. Sure, Coach Wheeler played college football until he was benched by an injury, but it just isn't the same. Tiki wants to give Coach Wheeler a chance, yet the team's loyalties are divided. What does a science teacher know about the game of football? Can the team work together, get behind their new coach, and play smart?
F
BAR
Wild Card (age 9-12)
by Tiki Barber
school ... sports
Publisher comments: The Hidden Valley Eagles' eighth-grade season is looking strong, but the team's star kicker is put on academic probation for poor grades in biology and math. As Tiki and Ronde's mom always says, Grades come first. Maybe it's time to work together off the field as well as on.
F
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: Second-String Center
F
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.
F
CHR
Fighting Tackle (age 9-12)
by Matt Christopher
sports ... family
When he becomes stronger but slower, Terry must deal with being moved from defensive safety to offensive tackle on his football team and with the fact that his younger brother, who was born with Down's Syndrome, is becoming a faster runner.
F
FAR
Man o' War (age 9-12)
by Walter Farley
action ... historical ... animals ... sports
A fictional biography of Man o' War, one of the greatest horses in the history of thoroughbred racing.
F
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.
F
TUN
The Kid Comes Back (age 9-12)
by John Roberts Tunis
war ... sports
A baseball player heroically fights to overcome a handicap received in combat.
F
NAM
Yang the Youngest and His Terrible Ear (age 9-12)
by Lensey Namioka
family ... friendship ... sports ... the arts
Recently arrived in Seattle from China, musically untalented Yingtao is faced with giving a violin performance to attract new students for his father when he would rather be working on friendships and playing baseball.
F
TUN
Go, Team, Go! (age 9-12)
by John Roberts Tunis
sports
When one player from the overconfident team, the previous year's champions, is expelled for gambling and the other four are penalized for breaking training, they angrily quit the basketball varsity and leave the inferior B team defending the school's record.
F
SOT
Baseball in April (age 9-12)
by Gary Soto
sports ... friendship ... growing up ... short stories
In this unique collection of short stories, the small events of daily life reveal big themes--love and friendship, youth and growing up, success and failure. Calling on his own experiences of growing up in California's Central Valley, poet Gary Soto brings to life the joys and pains of young people everywhere. The smart, tough, vulnerable kids in these stories are Latino, but their dreams and desires belong to all of us.
F
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."
F
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.
F
TUN
Highpockets (age 9-12)
by John Roberts Tunis
illness/loss ... friendship ... sports
Cecil McDade ``Highpockets'' was a good baseball player, but he was all for himself, not a team player. Then, he accidentally ran over a young boy with a car and everything changed.
F
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.
F
ROW
Quidditch Through the Ages (age 9-12)
by J. K. Rowling
fantasy ... sports ... magic
The definitive guide to Quidditch, for all Harry Potter fans.
F
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.
F
GIF
All the Way Home (age 9-12)
by Patricia Reilly Giff
identity ... historical ... sports ... friendship ... family
Brick Tiernan is devastated when fire destroys his family's apple orchard in Windy Hill, New York, in the summer of 1941. His parents are forced to take jobs in different cities, and Brick is sent to Brooklyn to live with Loretta, a family friend, until the family recovers front their financial loss. Brick feels homesick before he even gets to Brooklyn, but when he meets Martel, Loretta's adopted daughter, he discovers that they have things in common. Both are Dodgers fans, and Martel, who wonders about her real mother, has a mysterious connection to Windy Hill. In the final days of summer, Brick and Martel find a way to return to Windy Hill, where a kind elderly couple help them discover what they are each searching for-a sense of belonging and the real meaning of home.
F
KOR
The Zucchini Warriors (age 9-12)
by Gordon Korman
humor ... school ... sports
Roommates Bruno and Boots find obstacles in their way as they attempt to lead the Macdonald Hall Zucchini Warriors to a victorious football season and earn the reward of a new recreation center.
F
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: Ray and Me: a Baseball Card Adventure

Barron Park Elementary School, Sat Aug 25 11:55:26 2012
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