Topic: Sports

Outcasts United

In the 1990s, the small town of Clarkston, Georgia, became the center for refugee resettlement. The United States government didn’t tell the original residents that soon people from war-torn nations would be settling in the area and trying to navigate a world vastly different than the homes they had come from. When an American-educated, Jordanian woman named Luma Mufleh moves in, she starts a soccer team comprised of refugee kids, hoping to keep them off the streets. They dub themselves “The Fugees.”

Outcasts United tells the true story of one of the Fugees’ seasons, led by dedicated soccer coach Luma. Reporter Warren St. John details the lives of the players and their coach on and off the field as they maneuver through their lives in a town that didn’t see them coming. Their story demonstrates shared humanity and the need for compassion.

Much of the book revolves around Luma’s life. Luma’s old-school coaching methods produce results in her players. St. John captures how much Luma’s players valued her, as she is much more than just a coach to them. Luma consistently helps the boys’ families with daily tasks, especially when English isn’t well-spoken or understood in the households. Despite her tough-love approach to coaching, the players see her as a mentor and someone to be admired.

The boys face serious challenges in their lives, but soccer unites them as brothers. Many of them come from rival nations that carry their own prejudices against each other, and the small southern town in Georgia they now live in certainly carries its own prejudices about the refugees. Despite these differences, Clarkston is a global community. Luma forces the boys to get along or get off the field, and the strategy in unifying Clarkson is not much different – they have to make the situation work. There is no other option.

The sense of community in Outcasts United is striking. Community is built from the ground up, and it requires that everyone makes an attempt to work within it. Luma has built a community through soccer, and the Fugees family still exists today with more teams and schooling opportunities. Luma could not have done this work without compassion—compassion for the refugee families in Clarkson and for the community that they were trying to build. Through that compassion and through soccer, they have created something truly beautiful.

Outcasts United is inspiring because of the work that Luma and her Fugees put forth. Despite their trials, they’re a team that wants nothing more than to live their lives and play soccer. Although soccer fans will be the main target audience of this book, this true story is moving for anyone interested in themes of compassion and community through sports.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • Some of the players on the team are refugees, and they have experienced “the horrors of war. There were Sudanese players on the team whose villages had been bombed, and Liberians who’d lived through mortar fire that pierced the roofs of their neighbors’ homes, taking out whole families.” One boy “had been forced by soldiers to shoot a close friend.”
  • Descriptions of violence and death are present throughout the book. The players’ stories are revealed, detailing the histories of war-torn nations. In Liberia, one group’s “force grew quickly, in no small part augmented by boys whom [Charles Taylor] armed and drugged into a killing frenzy. Some of these boy soldiers were orphans whose parents had been killed . . . others were kidnapped from their families by Taylor’s own militias . . . Soldiers terrorized citizens and looted at will . . . More than one hundred and fifty thousand Liberians died.”
  • One morning a player is shot at a practice, and “the exact circumstances of the shooting were murky.” It is made clear that gang activity caused it and one of Luma’s players, unfortunately, got caught in the crossfire. He survives.
  • There is a lot of discussion about gangs and gang activity throughout the book, and Luma does her best to deter the boys from joining.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Former president of Liberia and convicted war criminal, Charles Taylor, was captured on the Nigeria-Cameroon border “in an SUV stashed with cash and heroin.”

Language

  • Xenophobia is littered throughout the book. The old residents of Clarkston, Georgia often make it clear that they don’t like the refugees or Luma, who is Jordanian. At one point, Luma is pulled over for a broken taillight on the way to a soccer match and the police cuff her and keep her overnight in jail “just in case.” It is expressed here and elsewhere that Luma and the others know that this isn’t normal protocol for a broken taillight, and it is in no way an isolated situation in the book.
  • The refugees also have their own baggage, which Luma discovers. Luma says, “The Afghan and Iraqi kids would look down on the African kids, and the kids from northern Africa would look down on kids from other parts of Africa.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Luma is from Jordan, which is under “Sharia law, which applies to domestic and inheritance matters, the testimony of two women carried the weight of that one man. A wife had to obtain permission from her husband to apply for a passport. And so-called honor killings were still viewed as minor crimes in Sharia courts.” It is also stated that Luma is Muslim.
  • Places of worship are sometimes mentioned in town. For instance, “A mosque opened up on Indian Creek Drive” in Clarkston, Georgia, where Luma’s soccer team was based.
  • In Clarkston, “a third of the students at the local elementary school skip lunch during Ramadan. Attendance at the old Clarkston Baptist Church dwindled from around seven hundred to fewer than a hundred.”
  • Assistant coordinator Tracy Ediger, growing up with her sisters, “attended church three times a week, rarely watched television, and had each enrolled at Christian colleges after high school.”
  • One of the refugees that Luma meets, says, “God very, very good.”
  • Before a game, the team prays together, but not everyone practices the same religion. To remedy this, “Grace would offer a Christian prayer; Eldin, a Muslim one. The boys formed a circle at midfield, draped their arms around each other, and bowed their heads.”

by Alli Kestler

Whale Talk

T.J. is a Cutter High School senior who despises school sports. He thinks the jocks and their letter jackets are over-glorified, and that the school favors them. He wants nothing to do with sports until his English teacher, Mr. Simet, asks him to form a swim team. After witnessing a mentally handicapped student get bullied for wearing his dead brother’s letter jacket, T.J. forms an idea: a swim team full of high school rejects earning the right to wear letter jackets at school.

What the team lacks in skill they make up for in motivation. There is no pool at Cutter, and they have to travel to every swim meet. Mr. Simet and Icko, a homeless man who sleeps at the gym where they practice, help morph this group of outcasts into a real team. The team eventually becomes a family, a place to share their tragic backstories and offer each other consolation.

The story is told in the first person from T.J.’s point of view. Readers will enjoy his quick wit and appreciate his empathy. T.J.’s motivation for the swim team sways from wanting to defy Cutter’s athletic expectations, to giving the team a sense of belonging. While T.J. makes questionable decisions and can be hot-headed, his heart is in the right place. T.J. has a great support system, including his foster parents and his counselors, who give him advice along his journey. Unusually wise for his age, T.J. learns that knowing someone’s past experiences is the key to understanding the reason behind their actions.

While there is some swim terminology used, Whale Talk focuses mostly on T.J.’s life. There are a lot of subplots besides T.J. forming the swim team, which may be overwhelming for some readers. However, in true Chris Crutcher fashion, every subplot intertwines and contains a lesson to be learned by T.J. and the reader. These subplots have mature topics including bullying, domestic violence, child abuse, racism, and death. Whale Talk is a must-read, heartwarming book for those who want to think deeply about human connection.

Sexual Content

  • J. talks about how his biological mom got pregnant with him. “She’d had a one-night stand with my sperm donor to get even for a good thumping and had no idea the tall black-Japanese poet’s squiggly swimmer was the one in a billion to crash through to the promised land.”
  • When talking to a classmate named Dan Hole, T.J. is grateful his “last name can’t be translated into any target so basic to adolescent males.”
  • J. tries to “outsmart the Internet controls the school puts on” and types in “‘chicken breasts,’ hoping the browser will spit back a little bit about chickens and a whole lot about breasts.”
  • J. talks about how much a jock at his school loves his Ford. T.J. says, “I swear, if God made him choose between that ugly truck and his you-know-what, which he claims is also supersized by McDonald’s, it would have been a three-day decision.”
  • J. describes Carly, the girl he has a crush on. “There is no butt-twitching or flirtatious glancing or any of the symptoms that usually rocket me to Hormone City, but her natural sexuality is jarring.”
  • Carly tells T.J. what she is looking for in a relationship. “If we’re friends, we’re friends. If we have sex, we have sex. I don’t sleep with more than one person, and I won’t go with anyone who does. We double up on birth control.”
  • J. recounts the story of his dad having lunch with a woman and then sleeping with her. “She took him to her house, where they made fast, hot, electric love, uncharacteristic for either of them, to hear Dad tell it.”
  • J. hints that he and Carly messed around in his car. “I drop off Carly to head home, having completed a science experiment with steam and the interior of a Chevy Corvair.”
  • J. tells Tay-Roy, one of the swimmers, his goal for the swim meet should be “for him not to get sexually assaulted on the deck by the female spectators.” T.J. goes on to say Tay-Roy is a “serious hunk in a tank suit.”
  • Mott, one of the swimmers, says one of his mother’s boyfriends molested him. Matt says, “Ol Canada [the boyfriend] couldn’t figure out which bed he was supposed to sleep in.”
  • Rich accuses T.J. of “fucking [Rich’s] wife.” T.J. responds, “Nope. I have a girlfriend.”
  • When Tay-Roy asks Mott what the point of having a girlfriend who lives in Alabama is, Mott “simulates whacking off.” Mott later calls it “cybersex.”
  • Carly’s friend, Kristen, recounts her date with Barbour, a man who is known to be abusive. Kristen told Barbour something that upset him, and he said she “could make it up to him by having sex.” Kristen thought he was joking, but “all of a sudden he was unbuttoning my coat, and I [Kristen] was trying to get out and accidentally scratched his [Barbour’s] face . . . He kept telling me to strip, and I’d say no and he’d punch my arm . . . he just kept saying it faster and faster and hitting me before I could answer.”
  • J. describes the swim team’s new workouts. “We have put the supine surgical-tubing station (which Dan Hole began to call muscle masturbation – thereby placing him forever in Mott’s good graces) into mothballs, and now the guys simply line up in an endless forty-by-infinite-yard relay.”

Violence

  • J. throws himself over a fawn so two hunters can’t shoot it. “Wyberg and Barbour tried to peel me back, slapping the back of my head and kicking my ribs, and in the chaos the deer kicked a three-inch gash in my forehead.”
  • J.’s dad accidentally killed a baby, who crawled under his truck and got caught between the two rear tires. The baby’s mom “discovered a small severed arm lying next to the white line . . . maybe a hundred yards from where the truck spit out the rest of the little boy’s mangled hand.”
  • J.’s dad confronts Rich about stalking his wife, who has a restraining order on him. “He walks in and right up to Rich, shoving his fingers deep on either side of his Adambac, pushing the back of his head against the window.”
  • Rich shoots T.J.’s dad, killing him. “I [T.J.] glimpse the muzzle of the deer rifle . . . Dad instinctively dives directly into the path of the bullet. His body crashes to the pavement with a thud . . . I see blood leaking onto the pavement.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • J. says his birth mother was “getting heavily into crack and crank and heavily out of taking care of me.” She eventually decided to take him to his adoptive parents.
  • J. says Chris was “born addicted to crack cocaine.”
  • J. says his mother “may have been a little too ‘spiritual’ on mood-altering funstuff” when she named him “The Tao.”
  • Simet, T.J.’s English teacher, drinks a beer as he and T.J. eat pizza.
  • Simet orders a glass of wine while he and T.J. are at dinner.
  • J. thinks about his past. “When my bio-mom…was at the top of her druggie game, she would leave me for days, propped in the crib or the car seat . . . I’ve heard my mom say a thousand times that if you give her a drug-addicted mother with a kid under two, she’ll give you a ninety-five percent chance of that kid getting molested or beat or both.”
  • While the swim team is on their way home, the bus drives over ice and smashes into a ditch. Mott says, “Damn, I been on drug trips that weren’t that good.”
  • Rich shows up at T.J.’s house drunk, begging to see his wife.
  • J.’s foster mom says his biological mom was “launched on meth.”

Language

  • God, Jesus, for Christ’s sake, and Goddamn are frequently used as exclamations.
  • Profanity is used frequently. Profanity includes butt, dummy, shit, shitty, shitter, bullshit, shithead, chickenshit, hell, asshole, ass, ass wipe, hardass, smartass, prick, piss off, fuck, fucked-up, fuckin, damn, bitch, son of a bitch, nigger, chink, bastard, crap, and retard.
  • J. says a famous radio talk show gives the “hot poop on big-time crime fighting.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • J. says the Cutter sports teams “pray before games.”
  • J. says the football players are “gods” at Cutter.
  • Coach Cutter goes to church.
  • J. talks about the irony of his dad acting like a saint, yet not being religious. “It’s funny. Dad doesn’t attend church, and it is seldom I hear his spiritual take on anything. But the running over of that little boy almost turned him into a saint, as far as public behavior goes.”
  • In the past, T.J. has a teacher who was “the new preacher at the Mountain Bible Center, and he ran his classroom the way I imagine he ran his church, with a holy iron fist.”
  • While doing an activity where he tries to make all the words he can from the word “Christmas,” Chris puts his own name above “Christ.” The teacher tells Chris he “can’t put [his] own name before the name of the Lord.” Chris responds by saying he was told “at Sunday school that Jesus liked kids and He was nice. So He wouldn’t mind.” As a punishment, the teacher made Chris stand up beside his desk and say “Chris Coughlin thinks he’s better than Jesus.”
  • J.’s dad says he was “mad at God” for letting him accidentally kill a baby.
  • J.’s dad talks about the first time he saw a photograph of the Earth that was taken from the moon. “From a physical point of view, God appeared a long ways off.”
  • Someone talks about how his mother’s old abusive boyfriend, Rance, used to babysit him. “Man, if you want to pass up purgatory and go straight to hell, you want to enroll in Rance Haskins’s Day Care.”
  • J. says it’s “as if the minor gods in charge of jerks are doing their job,” when he catches Rich violating the restraining order.
  • In a fit of rage, Rich shoots T.J.’s dad. As T.J.’s dad is dying, he tells T.J., “You’re going to have to forgive him, T.J. He had no idea what he was doing.” T.J. thinks, “That was Jesus’ last line.”

by Jill Johnson

Here to Stay

Bijan Majidi loves basketball, comic books, and his mom. When he makes it on the varsity basketball squad, he’s over the moon. Now he’s getting noticed and being invited to parties with the cool kids. But when someone sends the whole school a photoshopped picture that makes Bijan look like a terrorist, he has to deal with the fallout. Here to Stay examines the prejudices and identities that envelop the lives of Bijan and his classmates.

Here to Stay tackles discussions about race and prejudice against the backdrop of a wealthy, white, New England neighborhood. Sara Farizan’s commentary creates a rich dialogue that acutely questions a status quo that harms students who aren’t white. Bijan, who is half Persian and half Jordanian, experiences microaggressions and a hate crime. Bijan is also put under emotional and social strain. Despite this, Bijan is resilient and handles the situations thrown at him through his wit and the strength of his heart.

Along with the discussion of race, Farizan includes two LGBTQ+ characters who initially hide their relationship because they fear their community’s backlash. In both overarching plot points, acceptance and sticking up for oneself are recurrent themes. Although not everyone in the novel is kind to these characters or to Bijan, the supporting cast of friends are loyal and kind people.

Bijan is undeniably a good main character. He’s friendly, funny, and sticks up for himself and his friends. Occasionally, some characters’ dialogue comes across as strange or too young for teenagers. However, it doesn’t make the characters any less likable. Considering all the dark topics that Here to Stay covers, Bijan’s inner monologue is really funny and brings some much-needed lightness to an otherwise depressing situation.

Farizan does an excellent job presenting a discussion around prejudices and integrating it with a fun high school basketball story. Ultimately, life is made up of great, game-winning moments as well as terrible moments. Bijan’s story is about dealing with other people’s prejudices, but he’s also a teenager who has crushes and who likes basketball. These things are not separate from each other, and Farizan presents Bijan as a whole person who deals with a full range of human experiences. Here to Stay is powerful, not necessarily because Bijan is extraordinary, but because his story is a reality for many people. Readers certainly won’t have a difficult time finding something to like about Bijan and his story.

Sexual Content

  • Bijan has “an imaginary future ex-girlfriend, Elle.” He has a crush on Elle, and the topic of his love comes up often.
  • When Bijan is getting ready to go to a party, his mom tells Bijan that he can’t “get ‘fresh’ with any young ladies.”
  • According to Bijan, his best friend Sean “has had sex.” No other details are given.
  • At the start of practice, a basketball player throws his shirt to the side. “Some girls from the varsity squash team catcalled as they ran on the track above.”
  • Someone makes a comment about Bijan going back to “whatever country or Cave of Wonders” he came from. Bijan responds with, “I’ll go back to where I came from. Back to your mom’s house. She made me the best breakfast this morning after the time we had together last night. Her maple syrup tasted just as good as she did.”
  • Bijan’s best friend Sean makes a suggestive comment about another classmate. He says, “I wouldn’t mind tutoring Erin Wheeler . . . I’d answer any anatomy and physiology questions she may have.”
  • Another basketball player, Will, mentions his girlfriend to a teammate. Will says, “Once I get what I need from [my girlfriend], I’m calling it off. Then it’s college honeys for days, you know what I’m saying?” This statement is not explained further.
  • Will harasses Bijan about a girl in their grade. Will says, “ ‘It’s really nice of you to keep defending [Stephanie]. You giving it to her, man?’ Will dry-humped the air. ‘I mean, I guess she’d be a good lay. She’s got a nice physique for a munchkin . . . You put a gag over her head when you do her? So you can shut her up and not have to look at her? I know you people like your girls covered.’ ”
  • Stephanie and Erin have been secretly dating.  At a party, Bijan accidentally overhears them.  Stephanie says, “ ‘While we haven’t done anything, I like you. I like you very much’ Then [Bijan] heard it. Lips smacking. Stephanie was kissing someone!” Erin is worried about being found out because “My friends and that school are going to tear [Stephanie] apart.”
  • Will makes yet another comment to Bijan, this time about Bijan and Sean. “I thought you two were joined at the hip. How will you be able to take a piss without him holding your dick?” Bijan responds, “He’s his own man . . . But it’s true, my dick is far too big to hold. Your mom said so last night.” Will then responds with, “By the way…which of his moms did it with a turkey baster?”
  • Bijan and Elle kiss. “[Bijan] cupped her face in [his] hand. She was so warm. Kissing her was a million times better than scoring the winning basket for Granger.”
  • Erin and Stephanie start officially dating. Erin introduces herself as “[Stephanie’s] girlfriend, with all the confidence of her years in the New Crew.”
  • While in the locker room, Will makes a series of sexual comments about Bijan and Drew’s love lives. In response, Bijan says, “Why don’t you find a Jacuzzi jet to stick your dick into and call it a day, Will.”

Violence

  • Bijan talks about movies. He says that “Daniel LaRusso gets to crane-kick the crap out of Johnny.”
  • Occasionally, fouls occur in the basketball games and players are knocked down, pushed, or shoved.
  • After Bijan makes a comment about a player’s mom, the player “rushed [Bijan], knocking [him] to the sidewalk.”
  • Someone photoshopped Bijan’s face onto a racist version of the school mascot and sent it to the school. Bijan’s face was “photoshopped onto the head of a man with a long beard wearing a pakol hat and holding a gun.”
  • An email is sent to the Granger student body, but this time it outs Stephanie and Erin’s relationship and sexual orientations. It’s a picture of their photoshopped faces, and they’re “vomiting rainbows.” It is later revealed that Stephanie’s friend, Noah, is the one who made it out of jealousy, as he felt entitled to Stephanie’s affection.
  • Will gets drunk the night before the first tournament game and brings his buddies to beat up Bijan. One of them, “grabbed hold of [Bijan’s] shoulder and pushed [him] backward with his forearm against [his] chest. [Bijan] tried to get away, and wanted to yell but the fear wouldn’t let [him].”
  • At the basketball game, a group of white people who “had wrapped athletic towels on their heads and wore fake beards . . . held up a poster-sized version of the terrorist photo of [Bijan]” sat behind the basket and chanted “USA! USA! USA!” at Bijan.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • At a party there is a “cooler full of beers.” Many of the underage students drink at the party.
  • Someone says to Bijan about the photoshopped picture, “Whoever did send it, I’d love to shake their hand and buy them a beer.” Bijan responds, “I’d love to buy a keg for whatever college will take you . . . How much does your grandpa pay to have you play for us?”
  • At another party the students drink again. Bijan drinks a beer and says it tastes “like wheat backwash.” Bijan also joins in on beer pong where he plays “with the guys for an hour.”
  • Drew talks about his dad. Drew says, “Mine’s a real piece of work. A guy named Tim who would rather play keno and drink than hang out with his kid.”

Language

  • Profanity is used somewhat often. Profanity includes damn, crap, bitches, ass, and hell.
  • Bijan says his life turned into a “crap salad in a bucket.”
  • Students make many comments about Bijan’s race, and they also make insensitive comments about other races as well.
  • Bijan briefly mentions that the JV locker room talk included “theories about what would happen if you smeared Icy Hot all over your junk.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • During a speech at school, Bijan talks about his parents’ religions. “My mom is Muslim but doesn’t speak to God as much since my dad died. My father was Christian. My relationship with God is personal and has nothing to do with you.” Bijan thinks, “I didn’t explain to them that terrorists who commit heinous acts in the name of religion don’t understand their faith at all, including the white Christian terrorists within our own country. I didn’t read to them the section of the Qur’an that says, ‘Whoever kills a person unjustly. . . it is as though he has killed all mankind, and whoever saves a life, it is as though he had saved all mankind.’”
  • Bijan doesn’t drink, and he turns down a beer from another student. That student then says, “Allah’s not gonna mind.”

by Alli Kestler

 

 

 

 

 

 

Losers Bracket

Annie’s two worlds collide when her biological family and foster family both come to watch her swim meet. A fight breaks out between the two families resulting in Annie’s nephew, Frankie, running away. Annie must rely on her friends, her foster brother, and her social service worker to help her better understand her biological family. In the end, Annie vows to help Frankie find a safe home.

Annie finds refuge from her troubles when attending a book club. In the book club, Annie and other high school students engage in discussions about heroism, family, and stories. These discussions help Annie make sense of her life. Annie also finds support and comfort in her best friend, Leah, and in Walter, a good-hearted biker.

Although Annie partakes in basketball and swimming, there are no play-by-play sports scenes and hardly any sports terminology is used. While sports give Annie an outlet to let off some steam, their main function is to give Annie’s mother an opportunity to see her. Sports fans may be disappointed by the lack of sports scenes.

Crutcher portrays a realistic take on the life of a foster child, and clearly and realistically communicates Annie’s intense feelings. The book is told in the first person, and Annie does not sugarcoat any of her feelings or experiences. Annie constantly disregards her foster parents’ rules, but she is very empathetic. Throughout the book, Annie learns that people can be immeasurably kind and selfless. She also learns to appreciate and love her biological family, even if they behave poorly. Loser Bracket teaches that everyone deserves to tell their own story.

Even though Loser Bracket is written at a fifth-grade reading level, the story hits on tough, mature topics such as abortion, obesity, domestic violence, and suicide. For example, Annie’s sister tries to kill herself and her son by driving her car into a lake. A must-read for mature readers, Losers Bracket is a thought-provoking book about what it means to call someone “family.”

Sexual Content

  • When Annie says she is going to suck at the butterfly stroke, Leah tells her it doesn’t have to be pretty because Annie “gets to dazzle some young horny Michael Phelps never-be studs laying out on a blanket in your skimpy Speedo two-piece between races.”
  • Annie thinks, “There is something powerful about making guys drool, even if they’re doughy little boys three to six years younger, walking around between races with their beach towels high up under their boy boobs to hide their cottage cheese handles. I’m pretty sure this sick little part of me has something to do with what Nancy calls my ‘Boots wiring,’ which is designed to ‘git yourself a man.’”
  • Annie talks about past experiences where she realized she could use her body to her advantage.
  • Annie’s mother encouraged Annie to use her body to her advantage. Annie’s mother “told me every chance she got that ‘them titties’ could get me all of what I needed and most of what I wanted. I’m not going into it, but mostly they got me fingerprints and lies.” Annie goes on to say she is “not going down that road,” and she only dates a guy “if he keeps his hands in his pockets.”
  • Annie thinks her swim coach’s girlfriend “doesn’t like the way I twitch my bikini butt at her boyfriend.”
  • At book club, Annie thinks a boy will remember Maddy because of her “outstanding cleavage.”
  • During book club, Maddy tells a boy to speak up and, “make your voice like your pecs.” Annie explains, “If he does make his voice like his pecs, it will be loud and clear . . . almost any T-shirt fits him like a coat of paint.”
  • Marvin, Annie’s foster brother, tells Annie he can hear his parents talking in their room through the heat grate in his room. He says, “Unfortunately, that’s not all you hear,” hinting that he can hear his parents having sex.
  • Although the word “masturbation” is never used, Marvin hints that he does it. He tells Annie, “Hey, everyone thinks guys my age are stumbling into puberty trying to figure out what to do with our di. . . private parts. I know exactly what to do with my private parts; I just don’t know who to do it with. Except for, you know, myself.” He goes on to tell Annie how his dad got him a kitten to “keep him from practicing” because “when a kitten sees something moving under the covers, he pounces.”
  • Annie describes the show The Leftovers. “On October 14 of whatever year, at the exact same moment, two percent of the population of Earth vanished . . . if you were some guy making love with one of the two percent, you better be on a soft mattress because you’re going to fall about a foot. Farther if it happened to be Nancy. . . these ‘leftover’ people screw like rabbits, because who knows when it will happen again.”
  • Annie jokingly tells Marvin to “memorize the naked scenes” on the show they’re watching because “there will be a test.” Marvin answers, “Which I will pass with flying colors. I may even go on the Internet afterward to pick up some extra credit.”
  • Someone tells Annie, “You’re almost eighteen. In some cultures, you’d be a sex slave by now.”

Violence

  • When Annie’s mom doesn’t show up to her swim practices, Annie feels an emptiness. But when she does show up, Annie is ready for a fight. Annie thinks her brain is “wired backwards,” and compares this phenomenon to “those chicks who cut on themselves; no obvious upside, but every one of them says there’s relief when the blade or the piece of glass slices through.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Walter says Annie’s mom didn’t show up to the basketball game because “Something urgent came up.” Annie asks, “Was it in a pill bottle?”
  • Annie watches her nephew Frankie play with two stuffed animals. He makes them talk, saying they “don’t need no dads ‘cause they do drugs and go to jail. And they hurted our mom.”
  • At Annie’s swim meet, her biological and foster families get into a fight. Annie recounts, “Sheila [Annie’s sister], who must be high, is convinced these people [her foster family] are actually here to taunt me.”
  • Annie and her best friend, Leah, spend hours looking for Frankie. When Leah tries to reassure her, Annie says, “Yeah, well, tell you what’s about to happen with my drug-crazed whore of a sister. She’ll get on TV and cry and say what a wonderful little guy her Frankie was and how desperate and brokenhearted she is, and when it dies down she’ll double her drug use and Frankie will just be another awful Boots memory.”
  • Leah says humans “get a nine-month head start with our mothers, no matter how messed up they are . . . We eat what they eat, share their fluids. . . Biology doesn’t separate vitamins from drugs.”
  • Someone tells Annie that her sister is dropping weight fast. Annie asks, “Like a meth user? Does she still have teeth?”
  • The family goes to Quik Mart every year for Thanksgiving dinner. “Though Quik Mart sells wine, you’re not allowed to drink on the premises, so Walter buys a few bottles and hides them in the toilet tank in each restroom, where you sneak in to fill the Diet Pepsi can you brought inside your backpack.”

Language

  • Profanity is used frequently. Profanity includes: crappy, crap, bitch, bitchy, son-of-a-bitch, ass, asshole, hard-ass, dumb-ass, kick-ass, shitty, shit, shithole, bullshit, damn, damned, hell, bastard, goddamn, fuckin, fuck, bigot, and piss off.
  • Lord, Jesus, God, Oh my God, and For Chrissake are all used several times as exclamations.
  • One of the characters is referred to as a dyke.
  • When Annie is losing a swim race, she was “cursing Janine like she’s the Antichrist.”
  • A woman says she is married with two kids that she would “murder Jesus for.”
  • Annie thanks her coach for “kicking my butt this summer. For keeping me swimming this god-awful butterfly until I got it.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Walter tells Wiz, a social worker, “I’m not a religious man, Wiz; don’t know God from no God from Christian God from Muslim God from Star Wars God.”
  • At book club, the members talk about heroes. Mark asks about Jesus, and Annie thinks, “Very little of what we discuss doesn’t go back through Nazareth for Mark.” When someone says Jesus isn’t real, Mark says, “Nobody more real than Jesus.”
  • Annie thinks, “Mark . . . holds tight to his Christian beliefs, though he never pushes them on you like some people. He also acts on them.”
  • Someone tells Mark, “Pinocchio is more real than Jesus.”
  • When students in the book club try to place Jesus in the same category of popular culture heroes, Mark says, “I’ve been in church every Sunday and Wednesday night since, like, before I can remember. . . that’s where all my heroes come from, starting with Jesus…I just couldn’t leave Him in with Yoda and Obi-Wan.”
  • During the book club’s debate on heroism, someone explains the dilemma of The Last Temptation of Christ.
  • When someone searches the river for Frankie but doesn’t find him, Annie thinks, “Thank God.”
  • Walter tells Annie how he struggled with PTSD. “I’d tried everything . . . Every church told me something different – didn’t know whether to let Jesus save me or save myself.” He goes on to say how he almost went “out the easy way,” but realized “if I jump and there’s a god, I’m going to have to account for myself.”
  • Walter tells Annie he wanted to help her biological mother, and Annie asks if he thought God was testing him. Walter answers, “The world tests you, Annie. If there’s a god, he has bigger fish to fry.”
  • Mark tells the book club about his sister who had an abortion and was thus banished from his religious family. Annie tells Mark, “If you do go to [your sister] you lose seven other people, all family.” Mark adds, “And Jesus.”
  • Another book club member says, “I go to church, too, and the Jesus I know would treat your mother like a money changer, no offense to your mother.”
  • Annie thinks, “I remember talking with Mark about God one night after book club last year, walking away thinking I hope he’s right. I hoped some great big entity is watching, some entity who wants things to turn out right . . . and who has the power to make that happen. But at the same time I was afraid to want it, because of how much it hurts to not get it.”

by Jill Johnson

Cowgirl Grit

Sydney Todachine wasn’t expecting to spend the summer at her grandpa’s ranch on a Navajo reservation. But when her parents go on a research trip, Sydney has to leave San Diego and go to the Navajo reservation. When she gets to her grandpa’s place, she is even more upset that her cousin Hadley is also staying at the ranch because he has always been mean to her. Without any of her friends, Sydney is prepared for a terrible summer.

But then Sydney bonds with a beautiful horse named Midnight. She doesn’t want to embarrass herself, so she rides the horse in the middle of the night. Sydney thinks she can never be as good of a rider as the experienced cowboys and cowgirls. How can Sydney find the courage to saddle up and compete in the upcoming rodeo?

Readers will relate to Sydney, who is having a difficult time adjusting to being at her grandfather’s. Even though she loves riding, Sydney doesn’t want anyone to see her riding Midnight because she is afraid others will make fun of her skills. In addition to that worry, Sydney is upset because Hadley teases her for dressing like a city girl. Hadley’s teasing makes Sydney want to avoid him at all costs, but how can she avoid her cousin while they are living together?

Readers will relate to Sydney’s insecurities and her desire to fit in. Cowgirl Grit focuses on Sydney and her fears, but it also introduces readers to the rodeo. While the characters are undeveloped and the story conclusion is unrealistic, Sydney grows and becomes more confident over the course of the story. She also learns to get along with her cousin and make new friends.

Sydney and her family are Navajo and the story takes place on a Navajo reservation, but the Navajo culture is never introduced. The story misses the opportunity to share cultural knowledge. While the story has diverse characters, the characters are one-dimensional and generic.

Horse lovers will enjoy the story and the cute black and white illustrations that appear every 4 to 7 pages. The story has a simple plot, easy vocabulary, and realistic conflicts. The ten short chapters and full-page illustrations make Cowgirl Grit a quick read. For those who would like to use Cowgirl Grit as a learning opportunity, the end of the book has a word glossary, discussion questions, writing prompts, and a glossary of rodeo events. Readers who want more horse stories should add the Big Apple Barn Series by Kristin Earhart to their reading list.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

 

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Lu

Lu’s birth was a miracle, and he’s used to being the only child and track star in the house. That is until Lu’s parents break the news that he’s going to be a big brother. In the final installment of the Defenders Track Team, Lu grapples with his father’s drug-dealing past, his mother’s unusual fruit masterpieces, and his own fears. All the while he’s trying to pick a name for his new sibling and help his team win the end-of-season track championship. Lu struggles while running hurdles; it’s the one race where he can’t seem to get past the first twelve steps.

Lu builds on the growth of the characters in the previous three books. However, Lu spends more time tackling personal integrity, drug abuse, and forgiveness. Lu’s teammates, family, and coach help him learn how to be a compassionate person who rights his wrongs, and he becomes a big brother that his little sibling can look up to. By now, the Defenders track team is a full-fledged family, and the end of the novel wraps up their journey together.

Reynolds knows how to write young teenagers’ voices. Lu’s voice strikes the balance between self-confident and insecure. He’s a great runner, and he’ll be sure to tell everyone about it, but the thought of running hurdles makes him afraid. Lu worries, would he be a good big brother? Can he face his childhood bully and show him kindness? Lu is a good kid, but his ability to overcome his fears and not let them consume him makes his character compelling. Lu even inspires others around him to be better by demonstrating integrity and eventually apologizing for his actions.

Lu is a good end to the series. Unlike the first book, not a lot of big events occur. Despite this, the story never seems to drag, and the smaller plot points carry more weight as they develop the characters. Reynolds’s straightforward style and vernacular usage are fun, and they help make the story believable and interesting.

Readers will enjoy the end of the Defenders Track Team series because it neatly ties up all the characters’ conflicts and ends on a compassionate note. If the reader has read the previous three books in the series, they should definitely read Lu because these books take themes like family, friendship, and track and give them life. Most importantly, these books ask the reader to always be the best version of themselves.

Sexual Content

  • Patty teases Lu about a girl named Cotton, but Lu says “Patty was only teasing me about Cotton because she thinks I like her and we should go together. But I don’t. I do. But not like that. Not all the way. But she cool. But go together. Grease face? Nah.”
  • Lu’s parents occasionally hug or kiss in greeting. When Goose, Lu’s father, returns from work, Lu’s mom “leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.”

Violence

  • Lu and his family playfully slap each other on the arm. For instance, when Lu hears about being a big brother, Dad “popped me on the arm with the back of his hand” out of excitement about the big secret.
  • Ghost playfully “slapped [Lu] on the arm” while getting a ride home after practice.
  • Lu fantasizes about throwing an orange at Kelvin, his childhood bully. In his daydreams, he “cocked [the orange] back like a pitcher, and fast-balled it at his ugly face.”
  • There are references to previous books when Ghost’s dad tried to kill Ghost and his mom. According to Ghost, Mr. Charles “saved our lives. He hid my mom and me in his storage room.” No other details are given.
  • Lu and his teammate Aaron get into a fight when Aaron trips Lu while running. Lu says Aaron “charged me and shoved me with his whole body, and I flew to the ground.”
  • It is implied that Ghost gives Lu a wedgie. The team was chatting with Lu when “one of them thinking it would be funny to give me a wedgie.” The wedgie is played off as friends goofing around.
  • It is implied that Kelvin was abused at home, probably by a parent since it is also mentioned that he went to live with his grandparents. While at the basketball court, Lu sees that Kelvin has “no blue-and-purple spots on his arm. No marks.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • A former runner referred to as “the Wolf” now has a drug addiction and begs for money. After giving him a dollar, Coach Brody says to Lu, “To me, that’s embarrassment. Not the dope—that’s illness. But to let something get in the way of your full potential…” There are many references to Wolf’s addiction throughout the book.
  • Lu’s dad, Goose, explains how he started selling drugs at 15. His dad says, “I’ve told you that before, and you know I’m not proud of it.” This is the extent of the conversation. Later it is revealed that Goose sold the Wolf “his first hit.”
  • Coach Whit convinces her brother and former track star, the Wolf, to check into a rehab center. Goose brings Lu along because Goose works with people struggling with addiction, and he wants to give Lu a chance to see what he does.
  • While sitting in the rehab center, Lu talks about the pamphlets he reads. Lu says, “I sat in the waiting room for what seemed like forever, reading these papers about detox, and how sometimes before they can even start real treatment they have to let the drug pass through people’s bodies, and how terrible it feels to, like get all the stuff out of you.”
  • At the dinner table, Goose drinks a beer. Lu says, “Juice for Mom. Beer for Dad. Milk for me.”

Language

  • The book is written in the main character’s vernacular, so the grammar is often purposefully incorrect, like when Lu says, “lightning so special it don’t never happen the same way or at the same place twice.”
  • A couple of times, Lu is flippant towards his parents. Early on, when he describes listening to his mother, he says, “I swear, sometimes she just be talking to be talking.”
  • Lu says that Shante Morris “looks like a horsefly” because “her eyes kinda made her look like she was always surprised how nasty those cupcakes were every year. Ha! Sorry.”
  • Words like shut up, dang, fool, stupid, and hater are all used frequently throughout the book.
  • Lu has albinism, so characters will make comments about it. For example, he notes that in his yearbook people write “Have a nice summer, you fine-o albino.”
  • When his dad is late, Lu considers calling him a “booboo-faced clown.”
  • Lu’s family has plenty of playful banter, like when Lu returns from practice and his parents tease him by saying, “You smell like bananas” and “stinky son.”
  • Lu has a laundry list of nicknames for a kid named Kelvin (“Smellvin”), who made fun of him for his albinism.
  • Two pages are dedicated to the things that Kelvin has said to Lu. Some of the more creative insults on the list include: “You look like a cotton ball dipped in white paint,” “Like milk. Like somebody supposed to pour you over cereal,” and “Like grits with no butter.” Of Kelvin’s appearance, Lu says, “It don’t even look like he was born, but instead was built, but together in some kind of blockhead bully factory.”
  • Coach Brody and Goose knew each other as kids, and Coach Brody would make fun of Goose for his stutter. Coach told Goose, “You sound like a choking Chihuahua.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Lu refers to his birth as “a miracle,” and at one point he says that his mom having another child was “magic.”

by Allison Kestler

Top Prospect

Travis is starstruck when Elvis Goddard, head coach for the Gainesville Fighting Gators, comes to his house to offer his older brother, Carter, a football scholarship. Carter isn’t the only one who gets an offer.  When Coach G sees Travis’s talent as a quarterback, the coach offers him a scholarship even though he’s just an eighth-grader. This once-in-a-lifetime offer turns Travis into an overnight sensation, landing him VIP access to the Gainesville University gym and football field, an interview with ESPN, and instant popularity at school.

Meanwhile, Carter is learning the ropes of being a college football player. He and his roommate, Alex, start part-time jobs at a car dealership under the guidance of Walter Henry. Walter secretly gives Carter hundreds of dollars, something for which the Gainesville team has already been investigated. Carter feels guilty but accepts the money. When Alex tears his ACL in a football game, he miraculously recovers.  Alex confesses that he is taking steroids to help his healing process. Although Carter doesn’t agree with Alex’s decision, Carter promises to keep it a secret.

Back home, as Travis graduates eighth grade and enters high school, the pressure of keeping a scholarship gets more intense. He is chosen as the high school quarterback, but he feels used because the coach just wants a job at Gainesville University. For the three players, everything is going according to plan until Alex collapses from an apparent heart failure at a football practice and dies. Carter knows the real reason for Alex’s death—the steroids—but chooses not to tarnish Alex’s name by sharing his secret.

Shaken by Alex’s death, Travis’s skills deteriorate. During a game, Travis injures his elbow and must begin a slow, painful recovery. After a devastating loss of a game that costs Travis’s team the championship, Walter Henry offers Travis steroids. Travis hesitantly accepts the steroids, but he decides to ask for Carter’s advice on whether or not he should take them. Carter, knowing the steroids killed Alex, blows up and attacks Walter. Although Walter is investigated, nothing happens to him; however, Coach Goddard resigns, and Travis’ scholarship is withdrawn. Even though Travis is heartbroken, he is happy to be relieved of the pressure of keeping a scholarship.

Football players and fans will enjoy Top Prospect because it explores different aspects of football. The story explores multiple football issues including steroid use, the never-ending pressure to perform well, and under-the-radar payment from sponsors. Readers will relate to Travis’s, Carter’s, and Alex’s passions for football. However, the games and practices are tediously described, which might bore readers. In an afterword, Paul Volponi recounts a few real-life stories of eighth graders being offered college scholarships that inspired this book.

In addition to football issues, Travis also goes through personal issues. Travis’s parents are divorced, and he has to deal with his dad’s emotional and physical distance. The story is told mostly from Travis’s point of view, but there are also several short chapters from Carter’s perspective. Carter is initially frustrated to always have Travis tailing behind him, but the time they spend together ends up strengthening their relationship. Besides his brotherly bond and love of football, Travis is not a relatable character. He overcomes many conflicts, and he learns not to push himself too hard and to always be honest with Carter. However, Travis does not change as a person. He is self-centered and is never humbled. There is no real plot to the story, and the book ends abruptly. However, Top Prospect will suit older readers looking for a football-intense story.

Sexual Content

  • Travis recounts a date with Lyn, a girl he has a crush on. Travis “had even worked up the nerve to kiss her by the end of it. My first real”
  • Travis goes to a party where “five or six cheerleaders kissed [him] hello on the cheek.”
  • Travis, a freshman, is going on a date with a sophomore. His mom has “the talk” with him and tells him, “This is an older girl. I just want to make sure that you’re ready for these relationships.”
  • At the movies, Travis runs into Lyn, who is on a date with a junior boy named PJ. Before the movie starts, PJ “gave [Lyn] a quick kiss,” which makes Travis jealous.

Violence

  • During a Gator’s football game, Carter blocked a defender. “You could hear the huhh of air leaving that defender’s lungs as Carter flattened him like a pancake.”
  • During a Gator’s football game, Alex tears his ACL. “Alex caught a cleat in the turf while he was making a sharp cut. His left knee twisted with a ton of torque, buckling beneath him. He fell to the field screaming in pain, with both hands clamped around his knee.” As he is brought to the locker room on a cart, he “slammed the cart’s metal railing so hard [Travis] thought he might have broken his hand.”
  • During a game, Carter gets tackled in mid-air. “At the height of [Carter’s] leap, a defender hit him in the thigh, sending Carter into a mid-air backflip. He crashed into the ground.”
  • During a game, Travis takes his first sack of the season. “A heavyweight lineman…pounded me pretty hard. But I went with his momentum and didn’t try to fight his force. I bounded up off the ground right away.”
  • During a game, one of Travis’s D-backs “absolutely drilled” the opposing team’s receiver, “burying his shoulder pads into the receiver’s chest and causing the loudest pop [Travis had] heard in a long time.”
  • During a game, Travis decides to ram into a senior linebacker. Travis “lowered [his] right shoulder and stuck it square into his midsection. The crowd let out a roar as my body shook from the collision. But that all-state linebacker flew back almost as far as I did.”
  • During a game, Travis dives for a football that lands close to his feet. Travis “got to the football first and tucked it beneath [him] when the Bruiser slammed into [his] left elbow. A bolt of pain shot through [his] entire body. Then it happened again and again as other players piled on top.”
  • Believing Coach Harkey, the Gainesville fitness coach, gave Travis the steroids, Carter “grabbed [Coach Harkey], running Harkey back against a wall… [Carter] tried to shove that vial down Harkey’s throat.”
  • When Carter realizes Walter gave Travis the steroids, Carter drives to Walter’s dealership. Carter “aimed the car straight for [Walter], jumping the curb… By the time Walter looked up, [Carter] was almost on top of him… [Carter] slammed on the breaks, stopping just a few feet away, nearly pinning him against the glass of the showroom.” After Carter gets out of his car, he “grabbed Walter by the collar and rammed him against the hood of the car.” Then, Carter “punched [Walter] in the solar plexus.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Alex tells Carter he is taking PEDs to help his knee recover quickly.
  • Alex explodes on Carter and Travis for talking too loudly while he is trying to sleep. Carter knows this is a side effect of Alex taking PEDs. In his inner thoughts, Carter thinks, “PEDs—that was the only way I could explain what I’d witnessed.”
  • Walter Henry tries to give Travis steroids to help his elbow heal. Walter justifies using steroids by saying, “Travis, steroids are everywhere in society. They’re in the feed we give chickens and cows to make them healthier. These are for humans… The mildest you can take. Just a few steps above aspirin or Tylenol. But instead of making pain, they heal the problem at the source and promote growth… It’s what plenty of scholarship athletes do to compete when they’re injured.” Walter gives Travis “two vials of pills.”
  • When Walter initially offers Travis steroids, Travis tells him, “I can’t. They’re drugs. Anyway, it’d be cheating.” Later that day, though, Travis “talked [himself] into believing [he] really wouldn’t be cheating… taking steroids would be about getting healthy, not about becoming a better player. [He] already had the talent in the first place.”
  • Walter hands Travis the steroids and gives directions for taking them. Walter “produced two vials of pills. ‘It’s a seven-week cycle,’ [Walter] explained. ‘The first four weeks, you take the ones in the container with the blue stripe. The next three weeks, take the ones from the red. They’re stronger.’”

Language

  • When Travis is offered a scholarship, Carter wonders, “Why was I busting my butt in the weight room and staying up nights studying the playbook?”
  • When Travis does an ESPN SportsCenter, his mom asks if it’s live. When he nods, she mouths, “My God!”
  • Damon, a member of Travis’ football team, fumbles a ball and calls himself “a moron” and “a fat idiot.”
  • Alex tells Carter they need to talk, and Carter wonders if it’s about Alex’s mom or “God forbid, somebody from the NCAA heard about Walter’s money.”
  • After a bad first half of Travis’s football game, his coach furiously yells at the players, “If you’re going to get your butts whipped, at least keep your heads up!”
  • When Travis shows Carter the vial of steroid pills, Carter asks him, “Who gave you this crap?”
  • When Carter realizes Walter Henry gave Travis the steroids, he says, “God, I should have seen it.”
  • When Carter tells Coach Harkey he knew Alex was taking steroids, Harkey says, “Relationships aren’t easy. Lord, I only wish I’d had a better one with Alex Moore.”
  • Travis “wished to God [he] could have been there when Carter beat [Walter’s] behind.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • In testimony to Alex, Coach Goddard says, “[Alex] was totally committed to fight back from his injury and to play to the very best of his God-given abilities… I’m sure that his spirit and memory will remain a vital part of this team.”
  • Carter says, “After the EMTs put Alex in the ambulance, we all held hands in a circle and got down on one knee to pray.”
  • After swearing he will never tell anyone about Alex taking PEDs, Carter says, “God bless you, fam.”
  • After he dies, Alex’s jersey hangs inside his open locker. “Players passed by it and crossed themselves or bowed their heads, like it was a sort of shrine.” Travis “ran [his] fingers over the fabric, trying to feel Alex’s spirit.”
  • Carter tells Alex’s mom he took steroids. She responds, “I’ll let God judge my son’s mistakes.”

by Jill Johnson

The Crossover

Twelve-year-old Josh and his twin JB Bell are the kings of the basketball court. Untouchable and unstoppable—the sons of former professional basketball player Chuck “Da Man” Bell couldn’t be anything less than excellent. But when Alexis walks right into the twins’ lives and steals JB’s heart, Josh is left without his best friend by his side. Meanwhile, the boys’ father’s health is on the decline, despite Chuck’s utter denial. Josh and JB must deal with the consequences of everyone’s actions—including their own.

Kwame Alexander’s The Crossover is told in free-verse poetry. As with the prequel novel Rebound, his free-verse poetry works really well with the beat of the basketball games and Josh’s narration. Oftentimes, the basketball lingo and Josh’s internal monologue intermix, and readers will find that the verses enhance the experience.

The Crossover does an excellent job of mixing different storylines. The tensions between the twins’ father’s health, the upcoming basketball championships, and the brothers all get a good amount of page time and work together to raise the stakes. Josh and JB have more arguments as the pressure increases in basketball, and their father has more and more complications with his health as the book continues. The climax of the book is foreshadowed well early on, and each plot point finds an end.

These plot threads help create the themes of family, atonement, and inheritance. The dynamic between the twins, their mother (Crystal), and their father (Chuck) is healthy, though they do occasionally argue. JB and Josh argue with each other often. But when JB refuses to speak to Josh after Josh nearly breaks JB’s nose with a basketball, Josh reveals just how much he loves his family. He also does everything in his power to atone for his actions, and he and JB soon forgive each other. The boys also deal with their father’s legacy and how the legacy impacts their futures. Chuck was a basketball star, and the boys have inherited his prowess on the court. However, high blood pressure and stubbornness also run in the family, and the boys struggle with the fact that they may also inherit these negative characteristics.

While this Newbery Medal Winner is short, Alexander handles all these topics well. Basketball fans will enjoy The Crossover for the sport aspects, but the appeal of the book reaches further than the court. Josh and his family are realistic characters who experience universal emotions like love, anger, and loss. The Crossover is an excellent story that even non-readers and non-sport fans will find enjoyable. The story shows that despite differences in time, space, and opinion, we carry our loved ones in our hearts, always.

Sexual Content

  • Josh and JB’s dad, Chuck “Da Man” Bell tells his sons about how back in the day, he “kissed/ so many pretty ladies.”
  • Josh says that the only reason why JB has been “acting all religious” is because his classmate “Kim Bazemore kissed him in Sunday/ school.”
  • Josh does his homework while his teammate “Vondie and JB/ debate whether the new girl/ is a knockout or just beautiful,/ a hottie or a cutie,/ a lay-up or a dunk.”
  • Josh teases JB and asks if “Miss Sweet Tea” (Alexis) is his girlfriend. JB dodges the question. However, it is clear that he likes her a lot because “his eyes get all spacey/ whenever she’s around,/ and sometimes when she’s not.”
  • Chuck faints, and his wife Crystal demands that he see a doctor. Chuck refuses, and they argue. In an attempt to diffuse the tension between them, he says, “Come kiss me.”
  • After Crystal and Chuck stop arguing about Chuck’s health, Josh narrates, “And then there is silence, so I put the/ pillow over my head/ because when they stop talking,/ I know what that means./ Uggghh!” This happens a couple of times throughout the book.
  • JB and Alexis walk into the cafeteria, and she’s “holding his/ precious hand.”
  • JB and Alexis kiss in the library, and Josh sees them.
  • JB tells Alexis “how much she’s/ the apple of/ his eye/ and that he wants/ to peel her/ and get under her skin.”
  • Josh says, “Even Vondie/ has a girlfriend now…She’s a candy striper/ and a cheerleader/ and a talker/ with skinny legs/ and a big butt/ as big/ as Vermont.”

Violence

  • Josh has long dreadlocks while JB has a shaved head, so JB plays with Josh’s locks. Josh “slap[s] him/ across his bald head/ with [Josh’s] jockstrap.”
  • JB accidentally cuts off five of Josh’s locks of hair. Josh gives JB several noogies over the course of a few interactions.
  • Josh nearly breaks JB’s nose with a hard pass during a basketball game. He does it on purpose because he’s upset with JB, and Josh is suspended from the team. The description is only a couple of words.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Crystal’s younger brother “smokes cigars.”

Language

  • The younger characters occasionally use rude terms such as crunking, stupid, and jerk.
  • When Josh narrates his plays, he talks big about his game. This leads to him occasionally threatening physical contact during the game. For instance, Josh says, “Man, take this THUMPING.”
  • Josh’s nickname is “Filthy McNasty.”
  • JB suggests a bet against Josh. Josh responds with, “You can cut my locks off,/ but if I win the bet,/ you have to walk around/ with no pants on/ and no underwear/ at school tomorrow.”
  • JB responds with, “if you win,/ I will moon/ that nerdy group/ of sixth-graders/ that sit/ near our table/ at lunch?”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • JB only went to one basketball summer camp because “he didn’t want to miss Bible/ school.”
  • The Bells go to church on Sundays before basketball. Josh says, “When the prayers end/ and the doors open/ the Bells hit center stage,” meaning the basketball court.

by Alli Kestler

Christmas in Cooperstown

Mike and Kate volunteer to wrap presents for charity. As they are wrapping gifts, they get an unexpected invitation to stay the night at the Baseball Hall of Fame. At the special thank-you sleepover, Mike and Kate decide to explore. As the kids creep through the dark museum, Mike uses his special flashlight and discovers that one of the famous baseball cards on display is a fake. Can they find the real card, catch the crook, and get the presents to the charity’s Christmas party on time?

Christmas in Cooperstown highlights the importance of helping others. Mike and Katie aren’t the only young helpers. One of the young helpers celebrates Hanukkah, and another one celebrates Ramadan. The kids briefly mention their holiday traditions. Despite their different beliefs, they all come together to help those in need.

Like the other books in the series, Mike and Kate follow the clues to solve the mystery. However, the list of suspects is small. In the end, they discover that one of the volunteer workers took the card hoping the Baseball Hall of Fame would give a reward for its return. The volunteer “was trying to play Robin Hood, taking from the Hall of Fame to give to the community center.” In the end, several of the baseball players donate money to help build the community center.

Christmas in Cooperstown is an easy-to-read story that has a simple plot. Black and white illustrations appear every 2 to 5 pages. Most of the illustrations are a full page and they help readers visualize the characters as well as help them understand the plot. The book ends with Dugout Notes which includes eight pages with facts about Cooperstown and the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Even though Capital Catch is the #13 book in the series, the books do not build on each other, so they can be read out of order. The Ballpark Mysteries do not need to be read in sequence to be enjoyed.

Christmas in Cooperstown mixes baseball, mystery, and community service into an enjoyable story. Sports fans who want a humorous sports story should add Baseball Blues by A.I. Newton to their reading list.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

The Breakaways

Shy fifth-grader, Faith, has never played soccer. When popular girl, Amanda, invites her to join her soccer team, Faith figures that it’s an opportunity to make friends. There’s just one problem: when Faith arrives at practice, she finds out that Amanda is on the best team, while she is on the C team—the worst team. Faith finds herself stranded on a ragtag team where it seems like no one is interested in playing soccer, and many of the players aren’t interested in being friends with each other.

The Breakaways is a graphic novel that follows Faith and her teammates as they navigate middle school, their relationships, and soccer. The story concept is unique and funny as it is an inversion of the standard sports story. Unlike most sports books, Faith and her teammates aren’t serious about their sports, and they don’t strive to be great. The characters in The Breakaways aren’t good at soccer, but they discover that their friendships don’t rest on wins or losses. Many of the players even bond over their dislike for the sport, showing that their lives are much more than the sport that they play.

The Breakaways has a diverse cast of characters and several characters are LGBTQ+. This includes Faith, who is bisexual, and Sammy, who comes out as trans. There is also an array of cultural differences in the characters. For instance, Yarelis and her mom have a conversation in Spanish, and Nadia wears a hijab. The diverse characters make the story relatable for readers who don’t otherwise feel represented in literature. Johnson creates an inclusive environment for the team and for the readers as well.

Despite the diversity and the fun concept, the book feels too short, as none of the characters have a well-developed individual story. Some characters, like Yarelis, get only a couple of pages, and then their stories stop abruptly. Some pages are dedicated to scenes that aren’t expanded upon. For instance, Faith has daydream sequences where she envisions herself as a young knight on a quest. Although these scenes and the rest of the book are beautifully illustrated, these sequences don’t seem to add anything to the plot and are never really addressed outside Faith’s imagination.

The Breakaways discusses themes of friendship and acceptance through this ragtag soccer team. Despite joining for a variety of reasons, the players come together and try to make their experience fun. Even though the characters’ stories are cut short, the overall message is about learning how to make the best of a bad situation. For a reader searching for an empowering and feel-good book, look no further.

 Sexual Content

  • Sodacan tells Faith, “I saw you looking at Molly’s bra today.” Faith is flustered.
  • Jennifer tells Molly, “I’m gonna hit on Jalissa’s brother today.”
  • Molly and Jennifer argue about Marcus, the boy they both like, during a soccer game.
  • In one illustrated panel, Molly kisses Marcus on the cheek.
  • Marie likes Sammy and admits her feelings one night. Sammy, another member of the team, comes out as trans. He says, “I think I’m a boy.” They briefly discuss it, then they kiss because they like each other.
  • One player, Zoe, asks Faith, “Do you like boys?” Faith responds, “I don’t know who I like. Maybe boys. Maybe girls.” She then talks about her aunt who “lives with her wife in New York.”
  • Zoe admits that she is attracted to girls.
  • Zoe compliments Yarelis’s ability on the bass, and it seems like flirting. Yarelis blushes in the next panel.
  • Sammy tells Sodacan that he’s a boy. Sodacan doesn’t understand, and Marie says, “He’s trans.” Sammy explains further and says, “It means when I was born, the doctors said I was a girl, but I’m actually a boy.”
  • Marie and Sammy are dating.

Violence

  • Sodacan claps Faith on the back in a friendly way.
  • After they discuss Yarelis joining their band, Yarelis hits Sodacan’s head with a vinyl sticker.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Marie says of another player, “Miss Prissy is too good for us dogs!” Other terms like goody two-shoes are also used often.
  • Two players are called Bulldog (Molly) and Warthog (Jennifer). It is implied that they do not know about these nicknames.
  • Rude language is used frequently by the teens. Rude language includes: dumb, stupid, turd, shut up, crazy, fool, suck, dweeb, nerd, crappy, and losers.
  • Molly and Jennifer pick on Faith because her name sounds like fart. When another player defends Faith, Jennifer tells Sodacan, “You’re such a pig.”
  • Marie asks Sodacan why she’s sticking up for “that baby” when talking about Faith.
  • One player jokes that the team sucks and people laugh. Molly makes the same joke, and Coach makes the team run laps. Molly says, “What? Sammy does it and it’s okay? Only tiny girls get to be rude?”
  • Jennifer rejects a car ride from a classmate on the way to school. He calls her, “Ugly, trashy Warthog.”
  • Marie and Sodacan make up. Marie says, “I should hit you, though. You deserve it. You are sorta a jerk.” Sodacan replies, “You are too. We’re sorta jerks together. That’s our thing.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Jennifer gets mad at Molly after her remark causes the team to run laps. Jennifer says, “God, Bulldog.” Another player yells, “Oh my God” in frustration during practice.
  • One player, Nadia, wears a hijab.

by Alli Kestler

Breakaway

Twelve-year-old Lily knows her place in the world is on the soccer field. When she’s out there scoring goals, everything’s right. Lately, though, her competitive spirit has been getting the best of her, and she begins to alienate all of her friends. Tabitha, a popular girl who spends most of her time on the bench, would give anything for Lily’s confidence and ability on the soccer field. Meanwhile, Lily secretly admires Tabitha’s world of money and friends. When it’s Lily on the bench instead of Tabitha, she figures out a few things she never expected and realizes that sometimes it takes more skill to make others look good instead of yourself.

Lily clearly loves soccer, but she is often overconfident and has a difficult time controlling her anger. Lily tells her own story in Breakaway, which allows the reader to follow Lily’s thought process and understand her emotions. When Lily isn’t picked up for a select team, she gets angry at her best friend, Vee, who makes the team. Lily is overcome with jealousy and also “was developing a long laundry list of people to blame.” Lily believes that she is the best player on the team, and others should recognize her skill. When Lily is suspended from the team, she has a hard time taking responsibility for her actions. It isn’t until the end that she realizes, “I can tell you all the talent in the world is wasted if you think you can do it all alone. No one can. The world doesn’t work like that. Families don’t work like that, friendships don’t work like that and I’m pretty sure soccer teams don’t work like that either.”

Even though Lily’s family life is interspersed in the story, the long descriptions of soccer make the story best for soccer fans. The fast-paced story teaches many lessons about sportsmanship as well as the importance of taking responsibility for your actions. Lily’s parents are another positive aspect of the story. They are interesting, unique, and demonstrate healthy family relationships. Her parents don’t expect her to be perfect. Instead, Lily’s father tells her, “You can’t erase your mistakes, LJ. You can make up for them and you can make sure not to repeat them, but you can’t just will them to disappear.”

Breakaway combines soccer and family into a fast-paced story that teaches positive lessons. The story’s advanced vocabulary and the large cast of characters makes Breakaway best for proficient readers. Soccer fans may also want to read the other books in Montalbano’s series, Soccer Sisters. As a former soccer player, coach, and motivational speaker, Montalbano creates an entertaining story about soccer, friendship and family.

  Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • During the soccer games, there are some players that use illegal moves. For example, during a game, “Lily trapped the ball with her thigh and turned to shoot, but something caught her foot, and instead of making contact she fell straight to the ground, getting a mouth full of dirt… She had been tripped.”
  • During a game, “a Rockets defender shoved Vee from behind, knocking her flat and stealing the ball.”
  • When some boys are being mean to Lily and Vee, Lily gets angry. “Before Griffin could say another word, Lily tossed her ball up and volleyed it directly at his head. It flew like a rocket, and he ducked just a millisecond before the ball would have hit him like a missile, stumbling to the ground and smacking his hands hard on the pavement.”
  • To stop Vee, a player “brought her down from behind. Could have broken her ankle or wrecked her knee.”
  • During a game, the other team began “taking cheap shots… Reese was knocked down at midfield.” Later, “The sweeper grabbed at Tabitha’s arm. She grabbed her uniform. Tabitha tried to get the shot off, but it was too late: the defender grabbed her from behind and pulled her to the ground.”

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • At dinner, Lily’s father “took an unusually large gulp of wine.” Later, her father “took another large sip of wine.”

Language

  • Darn is used twice. When Lily’s aunt was late, she said, “the darn car wouldn’t start.”
  • Jerks is used three times. Some of the characters refer to others as jerks or call them jerks.
  • Vee is upset that Lily went to Tabitha’s house. Vee says, “Oh, like the queen of Brookville would ever have a Lakewood loser like me over to her house.”
  • Crap is used once.

Supernatural

  • Lily’s grandfather calls her “brutta,” which means ugly in Italian. “It was an old Sicilian fear that if you talked too much about the beauty of a child, particularly a girl child, then the gods would come and take her away.”

Spiritual Content

  • When Lily throws a ball at a boy, it “slammed into the big glass yellow H hanging in front of the Heritage sports bar… Oh please, don’t let it fall, Lily prayed to herself.”
  • Lily goes to a friend’s house, and a group of boys are playing video games. Lily “prayed they would stay interested in the game.”
  • When Lily has to clean her father’s restaurant’s windows, she “lifted the squeegee and got to work, praying no one she knew would walk by.”

Sunny

Sunny is a murderer. At least that’s what he thinks. Sunny’s mother died giving birth to him. To make matters worse, Darryl (his dad, who makes Sunny call him by his first name) acts like everything Sunny does is wrong. The only time Sunny feels like he is doing something right is when he wins races. Sunny is the number one mile-running champ at every track meet, but he doesn’t care about that. Actually, he hates running…but Sunny runs because it seems like the only thing Sunny can do right in his dad’s eyes is to win first place ribbons running the mile, just like his mom did. When Sunny stops running mid-race one day, he puts forth his first step into reclaiming his own life and making amends with the tragedy of his mother’s death.

With the growing conflict with his father, Sunny needs his friends on the track team more than ever.  Sunny discovers a track event that encompasses the hard beats of hip-hop, the precision of ballet, and the showmanship of dance as a whole: the discus throw. But as he practices for this new event, can he let go of everything that’s been eating him up inside?

Told through Sunny’s diary entries, the third installment in Defenders Track Team series explores Sunny’s transition from long-distance runner to discus-thrower. When he begins letting his mother’s running dreams go, Sunny finally starts on his journey towards finding his own rhythm. Sunny is a story about grief, forgiveness, honesty, and letting go of the screams within. Discus allows Sunny to let go of his mother’s running dreams so he can become his own person.

Sunny’s diary entries reveal his pain and emphasize that he feels very much alone in the world. Despite his generally “sunny” outlook, Sunny and his father’s emotional relationship is most poignant in the story. Their shared moments of grief humanize them, and the end of the book shows the beginning of their healing process in their relationship and in their shared trauma over Sunny’s mother’s death. In the end, the world isn’t perfect for Sunny, but he finds a certain peace within himself as he is able to release the emotions he’s been bottling up.

The supporting cast is a small, but powerful force in Sunny’s life. Sunny’s homeschool teacher, Aurelia, has a lighter, sillier personality that contrasts with Darryl’s relatively stony demeanor. Both are important parental figures for Sunny. Coach Brody and Sunny’s teammates, Lu, Ghost, and Patty provide their friend with unconditional support. They even encourage Sunny when he chooses to take up discus rather than run. Sunny’s diary entries show that he cares deeply about those in his life as well. These characters help bring out Sunny’s uncompetitive and kind nature, and these traits make it easy to root for his success.

Sunny is thought-provoking, and the novel’s strength lies in Reynolds’s ability to develop interesting characters. The descriptions of Sunny learning how to dance and throw the discus are fun, and they blend well with his unique narration style. Sunny is a compelling read because it builds on the already diverse, emotionally intelligent world that Reynolds created in the previous two books. Sunny reinforces that the support of friends and family make all the difference in someone’s journey, but that there’s only one person who can take that first step to make the change.

Sexual Content

  • None

 Violence

  • When one of the other runners, Aaron, makes a snide comment towards Sunny, Sunny’s friend Lu “put his fists up and said he had those two things to throw right at Aaron’s face.” Coach Brody breaks up the group before any fighting can occur.
  • Aaron and Lu frequently argue because Aaron feels that he is in competition with Lu, and he is often unkind. During a track meet, Sunny sees “Aaron push Lu after the stretches.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • While in college, Aurelia was a drug addict and went to rehab.
  • Mr. Nico, Sunny’s neighbor and owner of a puzzle company, comes over and “smokes cigars with Darryl [Sunny’s father] whenever he’s here.”

Language

  • Words like stupid and weird are used frequently.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

by Alli Kestler

Backfield Boys: A Football Mystery in Black and White

Jason and Tom are two best friends from New York who love to play football. They are stoked when they are accepted to Thomas Gatch Prep (TGP), a private boarding school in Virginia created specifically for athletes. After their first week of practice, Jason, who is white, expects to be placed as a wide receiver because of his speed. Tom, who is black, expects to be placed as a quarterback because of his strong arm and accuracy. But when Jason is assigned as a quarterback and Tom is assigned as a wide receiver, the boys start to suspect racial bias. As the year progresses, Tom and Jason, along with their roommates Billy Bob and Anthony, start to notice deep-seated racism in the school.

Tom and Jason discover that there have been zero African Americans that have played as quarterbacks at TGP. Determined to expose the racism at the school, Tom and Jason enlist the help of two reporters: Teel and Robinson. These two reporters have already heard about the underlying racism at TGP, but they’ve never had enough evidence to prove it. As the football season gets underway, Tom and Jason gather more evidence of racism. Tom is never put in any of the games. All of the students were assigned roommates, and there are no interracial rooms. One of the biggest stories they find is that Mr. Gatch, founder of TGP, invited a former KKK grand wizard to speak at a school he worked at thirty years ago. The boys are stunned that the founder of their school has ties to the KKK, but it’s still not enough of a story for Teel and Robinson to publish.

In addition to attempting to expose the racism in the school, Tom, Jason, Anthony, and Billy Bob deal with the everyday pressures of high school, including deciding on who to take to the school dance. Fortunately, Billy Bob uses his southern charm to win over a group of senior girls, providing himself and his friends dates. Their big news break occurs at the school dance. The dance is going well until Mr. Gatch yells at Tom and Anthony for dancing with their dates, who are white. His explosion lands him and his school in the public eye.

A couple of weeks later, the head football coach, Coach Johnson, calls a meeting, but only the white coaches are invited. Coach Johnson announces he is leaving and the new head coach is a black man, which causes uproar. Coach Johnson says, “We all have to make sacrifices in today’s world. Bad enough we had to put up with a black president in this country.” The meeting is further evidence of racism and when the media hears a recording of the meeting, the story explodes in the media. The school is split into those who support Coach Johnson and those who don’t.

There are underlying real-world, political elements in Backfield Boys. Trump is referenced a few times. For example, Tom, Jason, Anthony, and Billy Bob sit with their friend Juan del Potro and other Hispanic students at lunch. Tom comments, “Donald Trump would not like our table.” Juan adds, “He’d want a wall down the middle of it.” After the story of the coaches’ meeting is published, “Fox News was having what felt like a field day with the story, the issue to them being that the United States was being destroyed by ‘chronic political correctness.’” The main characters are obviously not supporters of Trump and have no reserves about expressing their political and religious opinions.

Backfield Boys describes, in detail, many football games, which will satisfy football fans. Tom and Jason always know which plays will work best, which is unrealistic since this is their first year playing football. Tom, Jason, Anthony, and Billy Bob don’t have any flaws and are always presented in a positive light, which makes them unrealistic characters. They are extremely mature and witty for their age, providing the book with good humor. They are admirable in that they could have chosen to just leave TGP, but they decided to stay and work towards exposing the racism in the school. The story drags at times, and the climax comes at the very end. Backfield Boys is about football, but it is also about underlying racism that still exists in sports today.

Sexual Content

  • Billy Bob stands up to Mr. Gatch after being yelled at for dancing with a black girl. Grateful, Zoey “walked a few steps over to Billy Bob, leaned down, and gave him a long kiss on the lips.”

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Jason and Thomas want to tell the coaches they are in the wrong positions, but they don’t think it will go over well. Jason says, “I was only with Coach Reilly a couple of minutes, but my sense is that he’s a serious jerk.”
  • While he is checking for students who want to go to church, Coach Ingelsby insults Jason’s Judaism. After Coach Ingelsby leaves Jason’s room, Jason says, “Go with God, you jerk.”
  • A football player who was yelled at and blamed for hurting his teammate dropped out of TGP. Anthony says he doesn’t blame him because “Bobo did everything but call him the n-word.”
  • Robinson knows it will not be easy to prove Coach Bobo is racist. He says, “[Coach Bobo] may be a racist, but he’s no dummy.”
  • After Billy Bob performs a play Coach Johnson didn’t call, Coach Johnson tells him to “sit your butt down the rest of the night.”
  • Gatch, the owner of TGP, is furious that Tom is dancing with Toni, a white girl. He shouts, “Good God, do you expect me to just stand here and watch while you paw this beautiful young girl?”
  • Tom tells Teel and Robinson about Mr. Gatch’s response to him dancing with a white girl, and how that proves Mr. Gatch is a racist. “We got [Mr. Gatch]. He did everything but call Anthony and me the n-word.”
  • After making a good play during a football game, Billy Bob tells Coach Johnson “You’re welcome for saving your butt – again – tonight.”
  • When the coaches discover that the new head coach is a black man, Coach Ingelsby says, “Well, I sure as hell am not working for a goddamn. . . ” The book goes on to say, “And then he said it, the n-word.”
  • “What the hell?” and hell are used several times.
  • “My God” and “Oh, my God” are used several times as an exclamation.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • During football practice, Jason runs the fastest out of everyone. Tom jokes, “Wait until they find out you’re Jewish. They’ll want to drug test you.”
  • Billy Bob tells Jason he is the first big city kid he has ever met. Jason replies, “Maybe I’m the first Jewish kid you’ve met, too.” Billy Bob asks Jason if it was scary living in the West Side of Manhattan, and Jason answers, “Probably no scarier than it would be to be Jewish in Gadsden.”
  • Jason and Thomas joke with each other during a blessing. An upperclassman whispers, “Hey, freshmen, you need to shut up and show some respect during the blessing.”
  • After a prayer is finished, an upperclassman asked them, “What’s the matter, you big-city boys don’t believe in God?” Another student chimes in, “Are you Muslim or something? You pray to Allah?”
  • When the two upperclassmen question Tom, he replies, “You pray to whomever you want, and I’ll pray to whomever I want, and we’ll leave it at that.” Billy Bob jumps to Tom and Jason’s defense by saying, “I go to church every Sunday and pray to the Lord Jesus Christ, just like you do. But at this school we’ve got folks from all over, and we all better learn that not everyone’s the same as us.”
  • The chaplain at TGP prays, “Dear Lord, we thank thee for our food today. May we be faithful stewards of thy bounty. Grant us the grace to walk where your son Jesus’s feet have gone.”
  • During a school prayer, “Jason wouldn’t bow his head for a prayer mentioning Jesus as the son of God.”
  • “Tom didn’t bow his head because he believed that all prayer should be silent and private.”
  • At the end of practice on a Saturday, Coach Johnson tells the football team to, “Pay your respects to the Lord in the morning.”
  • Jason stays at the school while Billy Bob and Anthony take a bus to go to St. Michael’s Catholic church. Jason recalls the school forms saying, “If the Protestant services offered on campus on Sunday were not deemed appropriate, transportation to churches of their denominations in the area would be supplied.”
  • Coach Ingelsby asked Jason if he was going to church, and Jason responds, “I’m Jewish.” Coach Ingelsby retorts, “So Jewish people don’t go to church?” Jason tells him, “Coach, if you’re Jewish you go to temple, not church. And, generally speaking, you go on Friday night or Saturday morning.” Coach Ingelsby asks, “Jewish people don’t believe in Jesus Christ, do they?” Jason answers, “Most Jews believe he existed. They just don’t believe he was the son of God.” Coach Ingelsby tells Jason he feels sorry for him because he is “missing out on salvation.”
  • On Sunday mornings, the school library is closed. There is a sign that says, “God first, studies second.”
  • Tom tells Jason that Coach Ingelsby asked him about Jason’s Tom jokes, “Well, at least Billy Bob and Anthony are in church. Maybe God will tell them how we can deal with this place.” Jason responds, “Not sure even he has the answer to that.”
  • After he and Tom talk to the reporters about a possible news story for TGP, Jason jokes, “Let’s go see if our good Christian roommates are back from church yet.”
  • While interviewing Tom and Jason, a reporter tells them the coaches reference God a lot in their media interviews. “There’s a lot of giving all the glory to God. You’ll find that’s big at TGP.”
  • While being interviewed in the locker room, the players hide when Coach Johnson walks in. The reporter whispers he hopes Johnson went back into his office. Billy Bob says, “Hope might not be enough. We might need to say a prayer.” Tom whispers back, “All glory to God.”
  • Tom runs into Coach Ingelsby, who is making his weekly church rounds. Coach Ingelsby asks Tom, “No worship again today for you?” Tom replies, “No offense Coach, but how or when I practice my religion, whatever it may be, is really my business alone.”
  • After a football game, Coach Johnson “drops to one knee” and says, “Now let’s give thanks.” Since everyone else knelt, Jason knelt too. He “felt awkward at these team-prayer moments but knew he would feel more awkward if he remained standing. He bowed his head.”
  • At the end of a football game, Coach Johnson prays, “We thank you, Lord, for the great execution of our defense and the wonderful pad level from our O-line.” Jason wants to crack up “at the notion that God paid any attention to TGP’s defensive execution or pad level.”
  • When Coach Johnson’s prayer is finished, Coach Ingelsby tells Tom and Jason, “Nice of you two to kneel along with your teammates.” Jason responds, “I believe in showing respect for all religions, Coach. Mine and others.”
  • After a game, Coach Johnson tells the players to take a knee and prays, “Lord, let these young men learn from the mistakes they made tonight.”
  • During the school dance, the football coaches try to separate Tom and his dance partner, Toni, because they are an interracial couple. Tom’s friends are also part of interracial dance partners. As Toni stands up for herself, Tom “was hoping and praying the other girls were giving similar responses to being ordered to change partners.”
  • Tom describes the plan for him and his friends to meet reporters. “All four of us will be going to church tomorrow – even Jason, the godless Jew.”
  • A football player notices Jason heading to church. He asks, “Hey, what’s a Hebrew doing going to church?” Jason, as a cover up, replies, “I’m thinking about converting.” To get the football player off their backs, Billy Bob jokes, “It’s the Lord’s day. How about giving it a rest?” When the football player doesn’t respond, Jason thinks, “Invoking the Almighty seemed to do the trick.”
  • “Amen to that” is used several times as an agreement to a statement someone says.
  • “Thank God,” is used several times.

by Jill Johnson

Soccer Stand-Off

Ethan is pumped for soccer this year. Since he is an eighth-grader, he’ll definitely be placed on the starting lineup. However, a startling discovery is waiting for Ethan on the soccer field. On the first day of tryouts, he learns that his soccer coach is his least favorite teacher, Ms. Brezinka. She taught him science last year–a subject he almost failed. Suddenly, Ethan’s take on the new season has gone from excitement to dread. What does a woman know about coaching a boys’ soccer team?

Although a few boys decided to quit the team, Ethan and his friend, Malik, stay. Ethan slacks off during tryouts though, landing him a spot on defense. Despite Malik’s constant defense of Ms. B and Ethan’s mom’s lectures about how “women often have to work twice as hard to be taken half as seriously as men,” Ethan can’t seem to fix his attitude. Finally, after he and Malik get into a fight that lands Ethan a detention and an indefinite grounding, Ethan realizes he is acting selfishly. He confesses to Ms. B that he was embarrassed about doing so poorly in her science class, so he convinced himself into believing she was the problem with the soccer team instead of himself. Ms. B gives him a clean slate, and Ethan starts to play as a member of the team. Although it takes his teammates a while to accept him back, the team eventually turns into a well-oiled machine that wins their first game.

Soccer Stand-Off focuses on Ethan’s inner conflict of being embarrassed about almost failing Ms. B’s class and lashing out. The story is told from Ethan’s perspective, so he is the only one that undergoes character development. Ethan usually feels pangs of guilt when he says something hurtful, making him a frustrating but relatable character. The story is realistic in that it takes Ethan a while to realize the mistakes he is making. After realizing he was wrong for believing a woman couldn’t coach a boys’ soccer team, he learns to play as part of the team instead of only serving himself on the field.

In addition to his internal conflict, Soccer Stand-Off also focuses on Ethan’s conflict with his mom, Malik, and Ms. B. He has friends who oppose Ms. B’s coaching of the boys’ soccer team as well as friends who support Ms. B. Malik’s constant defense of Ms. B is what finally gets through to Ethan. He bravely stands up to the boys who quit the team and apologizes to Ms. B, Malik, and the rest of the team for acting selfishly.

Soccer Stand-Off is part of the Jake Maddox JV series, a series of standalone sports books. It has a simple plot and is separated into short, easy-to-read chapters, making it good for reluctant readers. Discussion questions, writing prompts, soccer terms, and a glossary are included in the back of the book. The book describes a few soccer practices and one soccer game in detail, but the book isn’t overloaded with soccer scenes. Instead, it focuses on the morals Ethan learns. Soccer Stand-Off teaches readers this important lesson: when you have a problem, look at the way you’re behaving before blaming someone else.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • When he makes the team, Ethan is upset he is in a defensive position instead of a starting position. Jerome, the team captain, tells Ethan he wasn’t even trying at practice. Angry, Ethan “charged up behind Jerome and shoved him, almost knocking him down… [Jerome] shoved Ethan back.”
  • Ethan and Malik get into an argument over how well they think Ms. B can coach the boys’ soccer team. When Malik defends Ms. B, Ethan tells him Ms. B is “the only one who would be dumb enough to start you.” This causes Malik to “charge at Ethan” and “knock him to the floor.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • Jerk is used frequently. For example, the characters say Ethan is “playing like a jerk” and “acting like a jerk.”
  • When Ethan’s friend, Jacob, doesn’t show up to practice, Ethan texts Jacob, “What the heck is going on?”
  • Upset that last year’s soccer coach is replaced with a female science teacher, Ethan says, “Now we’re stuck with this demon woman.”
  • One of the players on the boys’ soccer team says, “This is bull,” when he finds out the new coach is a woman.
  • Jerome tells Ethan his position is attacking midfielder for their first game. When Ethan thanks him for getting him off defense, Jerome responds, “It’s totally [Ms. B’s] call. I still think you’re an idiot.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

by Jill Johnson

 

Deep Zone

Ty just made the team that will play the seven-on-seven tournament for middle-school athletes, coached by former NFL star Mark Bavaro. If his brother Thane’s NFL team makes it to the Super Bowl, they would be living their football dream: both brothers playing for a championship game in one weekend. Unfortunately, Thane injures his knee in a game and is out for the season. Still, Thane supports Ty as they travel to Miami with Ty’s team. There, Ty meets Troy, another football player his age who has an uncanny knack for guessing which way Ty will run. Will Ty be able to outsmart Troy in the championship game?

In addition to football, Ty has other worries. Ty is visited by Agent Sutherland, who is assigned to protect him and Thane from the mob. Last season, Ty accidentally gave the mob inside information so they could bet on who would win the Super Bowl. Now, two mobsters are loose and may have Ty marked as a target.

Football fans will appreciate the large amount of football terminology, descriptive game scenes, and discussions of strategies. Ty and Thane have a great relationship, and readers will be impressed by all the things they get to do as a result of Thane being in the NFL, such as riding in limousines and going to exclusive parties. While the lavish lifestyle is realistic, these scenes do not help advance the plot and make it difficult to relate to the characters.

Even though the mobsters add mystery to the plot, they are completely inept and do little to make the main characters shine. Unfortunately, Ty is not very relatable because he is one-dimensional. However, he has a couple of positive personality traits, such as being caring and hardworking. The story can drag at times, and although satisfying, the climax doesn’t come until the very end of the book. Deep Zone is a book for football fans looking for an easy read.

 Even though the publisher recommends Deep Zone for readers as young as eight years old, there are scary scenes, such as Ty and Troy being kidnapped by mobsters. Deep Zone is the last book in the five-book Football Genius series. The books follow Ty and Troy’s stories separately, and they meet in Deep Zone. Although Tim Green summarizes the story thus far so readers can understand Deep Zone, reading the previous four books would make the plot easier to understand.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • During a game, Thane catches a ball and gets tackled. Thane “got hit by all three Ravens players at once. Thane’s body pinwheeled in the air, and he landed somewhere in the pile of arms and legs right at the goal line.” He injures his knee.
  • Ty swings a bat at an intruder in his house. “Ty reared back and swung the bat. It connected with something. The man yelped and fell at Ty’s feet . . . Ty swung the bat again. Klunk. The man collapsed in a pile.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Troy’s dad tells the two mob men to “have a drink” to celebrate winning a lot of money. Ty hears “the clink of glasses as they toasted their success.”

Language

  • A fan for the opposing team shouts, “You stink!” at Ty.
  • Heck is used several times. For example, Thane turns quickly and re-injures his knee. He says, “Man, that hurt like heck.”
  • Ty calls himself a “stupid chicken” because he is easily scared.

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Agent Sutherland tells Thane, “Thank God everything worked out.”
  • Thane’s uncle Gus “nodded like a Sunday school teacher.”
  • When Ty is stuck on a swamp tour and it starts to storm, he “closed his eyes, crossed his fingers, and said a prayer.”
  • Ty thinks he is about to die, so he “prayed to God there was a heaven and that he really could be with his mom and dad. But he was afraid heaven wasn’t true . . . Afraid God was just words. He didn’t think that, but he couldn’t help being afraid.”

by Jill Johnson

Digging Deep

Asiyah Najjar isn’t sure she wants to play on a travel team. But her best friend Lucy talks her into going to volleyball tryouts. When both Asiyah and Lucy are chosen to be part of the team, Asiyah is excited. But the practices are longer, harder, and more frequent than her old squad’s. Soon, Asiyah isn’t sure that she made the right decision in joining the travel team.

Asiyah is well-known for goofing around and making her friends laugh. While at practice, she keeps up her silly antics but instead of laughing, Asiyah’s new teammates are upset that she’s distracting them. Instead of having fun, Asiyah keeps making mistakes. Instead of upper her game, Asiyah is having difficulty concentration. When she overhears Lucy and her other teammates talking poorly about her, Asiyah wants to quite the team. Will travel volleyball come between Asiyah’s and Lucy’s friendship? Can Asiyah dig deep and jump to the next level of play?

Before quitting, Asiyah asks her brother for advice and with his encouragement, Asiyah begins to ask herself, “Is now the right time for fun?” As Asiyah gets more serious and focused on the game, she realizes that working hard improves her skills. Soon, both her coach and teammates notice Asiyah’s efforts. When Asiyah makes a key play that leads to winning a game, Asiyah knows her hard work has paid off. Asiyah realizes that she doesn’t need to change, she just needed to figure out when to be serious and when to be silly.

Readers will relate to Asiyah, who loves to make people laugh. Her silly faces, dance moves, and jokes are fun, but they also lead to trouble. Like many, Asiyah’s feelings are hurt when her best friend doesn’t stand up for her. Asiyah begins avoiding Lucy, which just makes the problem worse. When Asiyah talks to her brother, he gives her advice—about both volleyball and friendship. Her brother tells her, “Well, you need to decide if you want to put in the effort to get better…If you don’t, then maybe the travel team isn’t right for you. And that’s okay.”

Asiyah is Muslim and wears a hijab. When she tries out for the travel team, she is nervous about having to explain why she wears a hijab. This brief scene is the only time Asiyah’s religion is mentioned. While the story has diverse characters, the characters are one-dimensional and generic.

While the story has some play-by-play sports action, readers of all types will relate to Asiyah’s insecurities, realistic conflicts, and silly antics. Told from Asiyah’s point of view, Digging Deep allows the reader to understand Asiyah’s conflict. Digging Deep has ten short chapters, easy vocabulary, and a simple plot. The cute black and white illustrations that appear every 4 to 7 pages help keep readers engaged. For those who would like to use Digging Deep as a learning opportunity, the end of the book has a word glossary, discussion questions, writing prompts, and a glossary of volleyball terms. Digging Deep will entertain readers and teach them the value of hard work.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Longboard Let Down

Valeria loves longboarding and going to competitions. She’s always been one of the best downhill longboarders around. But when Valeria injures her arm, she isn’t sure she wants to jump back on a longboard. Valeria is no longer fearless; instead, she’s overwhelmed by doubts and insecurities. When her best friend, Mateo, tries to get Valeria to ride again, she keeps making up excuses.

When Valeria meets Chloe, a new girl at school, Mateo tells Chloe that Valeria can teach her to longboard. Valeria reluctantly agrees, but when Valeria gets back on the board, she crashes. Valeria wonders if she should quit longboarding. The Pro Longboard event is right around the corner, and Valeria has always dominated the local kids’ division. Will Valeria get over her fear in time to participate in the competition?

Valeria is like many of the “Mexican people in Harlow Springs. Some only spoke Spanish. Valeria, like many of her friends, had been born in Colorado. Her parents had come from Mexico.” Valeria and several of the other characters use Spanish words when speaking. While having diverse characters is a positive attribute, Valeria is stereotypically portrayed. Valeria’s family is poor and when injured she goes to the free medical clinic. Valeria lives in a trailer park and “sometimes people looked at her differently after they found out where she lived.”

Unlike Valeria, Chloe is a spoiled, rich white girl, who is a bit outrageous. She never looks down on Valeria, but she obviously doesn’t have to worry about money. Chloe’s outrageous behavior adds humor to the story. For example, during the competition, Chloe wears a gorilla suit in protest against her mother. Chloe says, “That way when people ask, ‘Which one is your daughter’ she’ll have to tell them, ‘The one in the gorilla suit.’”

Valeria is a relatable character who has to overcome her fears. Valeria meets a competitive longboarder champion, Ana, which helps Valeria realize that everyone has moments when they want to quit. However, with Ana’s encouragement, Valeria is able to get back on the board. Even though she doesn’t win the competition, Valeria thinks, “In a way, getting second place today feels more important than all my first place wins. I never would have expected that.”

Longboard Letdown will introduce readers to a sport that is often overlooked. Readers will enjoy the cute black and white illustrations that appear every 4 to 7 pages. The story has a simple plot, easy vocabulary, and realistic conflicts. The ten short chapters and full-page illustrations make Longboard Letdown an easy read. For those who would like to use Longboard Letdown as a learning opportunity, the end of the book has a Spanish word guide, word glossary, discussion questions, writing prompts, and a glossary of rodeo events. Longboard Letdown explores Valeria’s fear and teaches the importance of perseverance.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

 Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

Out of Step

Mercy loves to dance, but she has been having trouble lately. She just can’t seem to get the steps, let alone land her cartwheels, round offs, walkovers, or handsprings. After a particularly hard practice, Mercy’s mom provides some insight into her struggles: Mercy’s four-inch growth spurt has thrown off her center of gravity.

Mercy’s mom suggests asking the dance coach, Sara, for some extra lessons. Mercy is hesitant though because she doesn’t want Coach Sara to think she isn’t good enough for their upcoming competition. One of Mercy’s friends suggests booking a private lesson with another dance coach. Mercy, excited at the prospect of a private lesson but knowing her family doesn’t have a lot of spare money, decides to get a job walking her neighbor’s dog every morning before school in order to save up enough money for the lesson.

Mercy discovers having a job is tiring and now her dancing is worse than ever. When she messes up at a dance competition, she finally comes clean to Coach Sara. Graciously, Coach Sara offers to stay after dance practices to give Mercy extra help. These extra practices, along with Mercy’s determination, finally pay off at the quad city tournament, where her team wins first place.

Out of Step focuses mainly on Mercy’s inner conflict. She is admirable for her resolve, but she relies on herself too much instead of asking others for help. Mercy suffers from a lack of adult leadership; her parents see her struggling but do not intervene. Coach Sara only offers Mercy extra lessons when she messes up at a competition. In addition, Mercy’s feelings are hurt when one of her teammates, Jill, makes a snarky remark about how tall Mercy is. Eventually, the two girls make amends when Mercy finds out Jill takes extra lessons, too.

Mercy is an overall good example for readers, especially dancers. She never gives up and does everything she can to make herself a better dancer, thus making the team stronger. At a competition, she makes the difficult and selfless decision to sit out on their routine because she is too tired to perform. Mercy’s dance team also highlights how teammates should be steadfast in their support for one another.  After reading Out of Step, readers will learn it’s okay to ask for help and being a teammate means doing what is best for the whole team.

Out of Step is part of the Jake Maddox JV Girls series, a series of standalone sports books. It has a simple plot and is separated into short, easy-to-read chapters, making it good for reluctant readers.

Some readers will need to use the glossary to understand the scenes where the choreography is described in detail. However, readers do not need to have an understanding of dance to enjoy the book. The back of the book also has discussion questions and writing prompts. Out of Step is a feel-good book that will inspire readers to overcome their challenges.

Sexual Content

  • None

Violence

  • None

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • None

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

by Jill Johnson

Swing

Despite their love for baseball, Noah and Walt are terrible players. Walt, who now requests to be called Swing (a request that Noah ignores), is undeterred. As with everything else in his life—jazz, love, and becoming cool—Swing is always willing to take a chance and wants to convince Noah to take swings in his life too.

Noah has been pining after his childhood best friend, Sam, since third grade. When Noah uncovers a set of love letters, he uses his art skills to adapt the letters to help him articulate his feelings for Sam. When Walt anonymously sends one of Noah’s letters to Sam, Noah must decide whether to put himself out there, even if it means rejection.

While Noah grapples with his emotions, many American flags are being left around town. Some think it’s a prank, but others seem to think that something more sinister is going on. The rising tensions and prejudices of their town come to light as Noah struggles to find confidence.

Despite being the main character, Noah is a shadowy figure compared to Swing. Swing’s vibrant sense of humor and optimistic outlook never waiver, and he has endless methods for trying to get Noah to see that life can be sunnier with a little effort. Noah, who can be petulant, drags his feet at most of Swing’s suggestions and comments. Many of Noah’s problems could be fixed if he earnestly took Swing’s advice. However, as the story progresses, Noah learns to take life in stride.

Most of the novel focuses on Noah’s conflicts with his unrequited love for Sam. Noah thinks he’s superior to Sam’s current boyfriend, Cruz, who is a varsity baseball player. Much of Swing’s advice for Noah surrounds this topic, as it consumes Noah’s every waking moment. There are moments where Noah’s passion for art comes up, but often it is to impress Sam in some way. Occasionally, Noah’s pining and self-pitying nature can be overbearing. However, he eventually finds the courage to tell Sam how he feels.

Although Swing, Noah, and Cruz all enjoy baseball, the main focus of Swing is not baseball. Instead, baseball is used to highlight Swing’s willingness to go after what he wants. Unlike Swing, Noah’s reserved nature holds him back from going after what he wants, and Noah himself gives up baseball early in the book.

 Swing tackles a lot of themes, including love, friendship, and prejudice. Not all the topics are fully expounded upon, and because of the twist ending some narratives are shortened. Swing is also told in free verse, and various art pieces appear as part of the story. These creative elements enhance Noah’s emotions and the reading experience. Overall, Swing shows that life is what people make of it. The most important lesson Swing offers is that people should find the courage within themselves to swing for worthy goals.

Sexual Content

  • According to Noah, his crush and best friend Sam, “was busy being cool, and fine.” He thinks he’s in love with her, and he claims that she is his inspiration when he draws.
  • Swing says to Noah, “Seven years is a long freakin’ time/ not to hook up with your/ self-proclaimed soulmate.”
  • Swing claims that his cousin, Floyd, is his romance guru because Floyd “used to date a reality TV/ star, and he knows a thing/ or two about love. Girls are always/ fighting over him.”
  • Sam indirectly tells Noah that her boyfriend, Cruz, is trying to pressure her into sexual activities which makes her uncomfortable. She says, “Cruz is kinda putting pressure on/ me…How do I tell him to slow down?”
  • Swing tells his cousin Floyd that he’s “saving [his] paper for some nice frames the chicks will love.” Floyd reprimands Swing for being sexist and calling women chicks.
  • Floyd says to Swing, “Your future stepdad is a lucky man/ Aunt Reina was/ always fine as full-bodied wine.” To this comment there is silence and then Floyd adds, “What? It’s not like Floyd’s trying to Oedipus your mom. . .”
  • Noah wants to write Sam “maybe a love song/ or a sonnet.” Unsure of how to convey his feelings, he listens to Swing’s recommended podcast, The Woohoo Woman, which dispenses love and life advice.
  • In a thrift store, Sam and her boyfriend Cruz kiss twice much to Noah’s chagrin. Noah describes, “they kiss like nobody/ and everybody’s watching.” The second time, Noah’s details about the kiss increase. He thinks, “I try not/ to pay attention to how long it lasts/ –eleven seconds—or how his hands move up and down/ her back (slowly), or/ how her eyes are closed and his are/ looking at—” Cruz then says to Noah, “Hey you, stop staring at my girl’s/ haunches.”
  • The employee in the thrift shop, Divya, shows Swing and Noah a purse. After she explains what it is, Swing says, “Striking. Exquisite…/looking not at the bag, but/ at her.” He makes several more passes at Divya. Swing even “grabs her hand/ with a confidence/ [Noah’s] never seen/ in mixed company/ and kisses it.” From this scene on, Swing is infatuated with Divya and expresses his feelings to Noah frequently.
  • Noah shares his first attempt at writing a song for Sam. The song is crude, and Swing points this out. Some of the lines include, “Your moist lips/ the oboe/ my tender mouth/ sings through.”
  • Noah finds a stack of love letters from the 1960s. In these letters, the writer, Corinthian, sometimes talks about how he wants to kiss Annemarie, his love.
  • Swing asks Noah to think about what he feels while listening to jazz. During a jazz song, Noah imagines “ending the day with a mad kiss/ under the jungle gym.”
  • Noah sees Sam and Cruz kissing at school. Noah notices that “She kisses him/ loudly.”
  • Noah asks who Sam thinks is sending her love letters/art pieces. Sam says, “whoever/ is doing this is/ smart and sexy.” In a separate thought, she muses, “Maybe it’s a girl.”
  • Cruz asks Swing and Noah how to “close the deal with Sam.” In this case, it is implied that Cruz wants to have sex with Sam.
  • Sam tells Noah why her parents got divorced. She says, “five years ago, our German/ shepherd Lucy ate some/ woman’s lingerie. When they/ recovered the skimpy outfit/ from Lucy’s gut, things got a little/ awkward when Mom/ realized the vet tech wasn’t holding/ up her lingerie.”
  • Sam, Noah, and Swing look at a Dali painting with a girl in it. When asked about what he sees, Swing says, “A girl with a big rump-shaker staring out/ the window.”
  • Sam gives Noah a parting kiss, “centimeters from/ [his] lips.”
  • Sam stays over at Noah’s house and they lay in bed. They talk all night and into the morning.
  • Sam says to Noah, “let’s go back to your/ place, and I can show/ you how a sophisticated lady acts.” This is seemingly sexual, but it is not explained further.
  • Sam kisses Noah on the cheek.
  • Noah describes one of his kisses with Sam. He says, “Our noses touch./ Our breath quickens./ We’ve kissed/ at least a dozen times,/ but this feels/ like the first,/ the only.”
  • Swing is miserable because Divya kissed him “on [his] neck.” For Swing, this means that she doesn’t want “to engage in witty/ conversation/ and occasional verbal sparring,” but rather she wants to do potentially more sexually explicit activities.
  • Noah describes his classmates and friends at prom. He notes, “Everyone’s either/ smiling or smirking,/ twirling or twerking,/ posing or posturing,/ kissing or wanting.”
  • Swing tells Noah that Divya kissed him. Swing describes, “Divya kissed me, really kissed me,/ and it was an out-of-body/ experience. It was heaven, Noah,/ and she was an angel.”

Violence

  • While in the third grade, a bully named Zach punched Noah. Sam, in retaliation, “pushed Zach Labrowski/ out of the seat, then/ squeezed in next to me/ and offered a tissue.”
  • Noah thinks that Swing snuck the love letter/art piece that Noah made into Sam’s bag. Noah is furious and thinks, “Never/ been/ a/ violent/ person/ but/ right/ now/ I/ feel/ like/ going/ to/ batting/ practice/ on/ Walt’s/ head.”
  • Noah compares his confrontation with Cruz and Sam to an old cowboy movie. He describes, “and the drunk fool will answer,/ I reckon this is none of your business,/ stranger,/ and clumsily pull out his six-shooter,/ at which point/ he will get shot dead/ between the ears/ by the handsome stranger,/ who will then/ ride off/ into the sunset/ with the lady/ on his arm.”
  • At a party, one of the seniors, who is very drunk, jumps from the upstairs railing to the couch. He’s in a lot of pain, and the students decide to call an ambulance. Much later, it is explained that he “sprained/ his pinky toe/ trying to be Superman.”
  • Swing’s brother, Moses, fought in Afghanistan and seems to suffer from PTSD. Sometimes he makes references to what he saw in combat, though it is never graphic or explained. For example, he yells “BAM!” quite a bit, in reference to the explosions that he heard.
  • Noah has Sam listen to some jazz, and she doesn’t enjoy it. Noah says, “It’s not depressing, it’s yearning.” To this, Sam says, “Yearning for what, a bullet to the/ head?”
  • It is insinuated throughout the book that the police are harassing minorities about the flag vandalism occurring around town. One night, Swing and Noah realize that Swing’s brother Moses is behind the incidents. When Swing and Noah find Moses, Swing takes the baseball bat that Moses is holding because he’s worried that Moses might be unstable due to Moses’ personal history. The police arrive, and they shoot and kill Swing on sight. It is later stated that the officers perceived Swing as a threat because he was holding a baseball bat. It becomes clear that the officer’s prejudices influenced their decision, as Swing was black. Noah describes, “One/ shoots/ two/ shoot/ three/ shots/ slice/ through/ rain/ drops/ Walt/ drops/ blood/ drops/ I run/ I run/ to Walt.” Noah runs to Swing’s aid, but the cops tackle him to the ground. Noah later recalls, “The bat falling/ from Walt’s hands,/ suspended/ for too long./ The sound/ of gunshot/ piercing air/ and flesh.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Swing describes to Noah how they’re going to be cool one day. Swing says, “when people google/ cool a picture of me and you/ spitting seeds and tobacco/ with our hats to the back will pop/ up.” It is expressed later that they themselves do not chew tobacco.
  • Noah’s parents go to Barcelona for the International Hotel Association conference. According to Noah, this trip is where “hotel managers/ talk about hotels/ from sunup/ to sundown,/ then get drunk/ and post videos/ of horrible, late-night/ karaoke sessions.”
  • Before Noah’s parents go to Barcelona, they sit Noah down to talk about the house rules. Noah dryly jokes to his parents, “I think I’m clear on all the rules . . . no beer on an empty/ stomach, right?”
  • One of the love letters that Noah finds states that the writer, Corinthian, and the intended recipient, Annemarie, drank wine.
  • Noah and Swing listen to a podcast called Straight, No Chaser. The podcast’s content is never discussed.
  • Noah looks for the Corinthian, who wrote the love letters. All he can find is a Corinthian who wants to “turn up and sig a little/ drink.”
  • Swing suggests that he and Noah should “get pizza and beer.” Noah replies, “We don’t drink beer.”
  • Sam spreads the word that Noah’s having a party. Sam tells Noah, “I can ask/Cruz to get his older/ brother to bring some beer.” The beer is expressly for the partygoers rather than Swing, Sam, or Noah, who stated several times that they do not like beer.
  • At Noah’s party, there is “some sort of punch/ that some guy,/ who [Noah’s] never seen before,/ starts immediately spiking/ with a bottle/ from his backpack.” Many of the teenagers at the party drink out of it and from the beers they’ve brought.
  • Sam speculates that Moses may have been “on drugs” when he showed up at Noah’s party.
  • Sam admits that she’s tried weed, “just once.”

Language

  • Words like weird, idiot, dang, friggin’, shut up, suck, pissed, and dayum appear infrequently.
  • Sam and Noah have creative insults for each other, though these jabs are light-hearted. For example, they call each other, “Sucknerd,” “Toadlip,” “Horsehead,” and “Big butt.”
  • On The Woohoo Woman Podcast, Marj says, “We’re back for the last half/ hour of Woohoo Woman,/ hopefully with a little less profanity/ in this segment.” Jackie later almost says various swear words, but she catches herself or is cut off by Marj each time. For instance, Jackie says “DAYU-“ instead of damn.
  • Noah’s Granny calls some of her card-playing buddies “SHYSTY FELLAS.”

Supernatural

  • Swing is very superstitious. Noah says that Swing “can’t walk/ up or down/ the same side of the street/ on the same day,/ or in and out/ of the same door/ when he’s coming/ or going somewhere.”
  • Noah describes art to Swing. Noah says, “Art is…finding yourself/ under the spell of/ Gustav Klimt’s/ The Kiss.”

Spiritual Content

  • Many years ago, Noah and Sam went to the same “Jesus camp.”
  • In the third letter, Corinthian makes many religious references. Corinthian tells Annemarie, “i went to church with nothing but a penny for an offering. inside i prayed a thousand prayers sacredly and secretly holding the memory of your hand in mine. . . all the mysterious and magnificent things that make music will be ours under notes of heaven above and earth below. our love provides god’s angels with trumpet and song. . . [you] gave me everything, like the goddess of muses. heaven may be a place where artists go when they die, eternally playing songs, painting scenes, writing plays, or else napping, but i regret to inform the big man that i’m not leaving for eternity until u and i can be seen as an ‘us’ on this same earth.”
  • Swing paraphrases the Bible’s book of Matthew. Swing tells Noah, “If your brother pisses you off, tell him about it. If he listens to you, he is your brother for life.” Noah replies, “I doubt the Bible says pissed off.”
  • Noah and Swing listen to a jazz album. Noah describes the experience by saying, “We listen/ like we’re in church, on/bended knee, and our god/ is Dexter Gordon.”
  • Noah describes art to Swing. Noah says, “Art is…Monet’s/ Impression. Sunrise/ carrying you away on a harbor of dreams/ that only God/ knows about.”
  • After an officer interrogates Noah about Swing, Noah thinks about the officer, “You are not/ God. Here. You are/ not God. You/ are no God. You/ are no good.”

by Alli Kestler

Running with Lions

Sebastian Hughes is excited to start his senior high school soccer season. He’s the starting goalkeeper on his soccer team. His best friends, Mason and Willie, are also on the team. The three friends go to summer training camp where Coach Patrick welcomes everybody, regardless of sexual orientation.

Everything would be great, except Sebastian’s estranged childhood friend, Emir Shah, shows up at camp. Emir’s prickly personality makes team cohesiveness difficult. Sebastian realizes the team’s success may end up in the hands of the one guy who hates him. For the team’s sake, Sebastian reaches out to Emir. When Sebastian finally breaks through the initial barrier, he discovers that he and Emir’s friendship might evolve into something much more romantic.

Running with Lions has diverse characters, and the book tackles ideas about teamwork, friendship, and sexuality. For instance, Sebastian is bisexual and Emir is gay. Emir is also British Pakistani and sometimes talks about his experiences being Muslim. Many of the other characters have equally diverse backstories, but their stories aren’t fully fleshed out. Despite their differences, Sebastian’s teammates have a strong sense of camaraderie and loyalty, especially in the face of adversity from outside forces.

Despite the diverse characters, the plot is somewhat flat. The story primarily focuses on Sebastian and Emir’s budding relationship, and sometimes their relationship takes the focus off of soccer. Although the plot builds up to the first big soccer game after camp, it’s a slow climb to reach that point. The story and dialogue sometimes come off as choppy, cheesy, cliché, and occasionally confusing.

For soccer players, Running with Lions may be difficult to read because the soccer terminology is incorrect. For instance, Sebastian was “head-butting the ball to Zach,” when it should be “heading.” In addition, the Coach yells for “plays” to be run during a game when scripted plays don’t happen in soccer. These details make the action and the soccer camp setting unrealistic.

Although Running with Lions tackles important ideas about sexuality and friendship, soccer fans will find the incorrect soccer facts, the slow plot, and occasionally clichéd writing frustrating. Despite the diverse cast, Running with Lions may be one book readers leave on the library shelf. If you’re looking for a sports book with a diverse cast, look to Jason Reynolds’ Defenders Track Team series instead.

Sexual Content

  • Sebastian’s mom helps him pack for soccer camp. When checking his items, she says, “And you’re at that age where if you need condoms…”
  • When his mom mentions condoms, Sebastian is embarrassed and thinks, “It’s as bad as that time she caught [Sebastian] kissing Julie Hammonds in eighth grade.”
  • When Sebastian’s mom brings up another girl that Sebastian was seeing, Sebastian doesn’t want to tell his parents he’s bisexual.
  • Mason, Sebastian’s teammate and friend, pulls up to Sebastian’s house to pick him up for camp. Mason tells Sebastian’s mom, “You’re looking lovely this morning.” It is later explained that Mason flirts with anything that has a heartbeat.
  • In the car, Mason, Sebastian, and another teammate, Willie, talk about their plans for after high school. They mention seeing a professional soccer team overseas. Willie says he’d also “Hook up with a few babes over in Barcelona.”
  • Mason, Sebastian, and Willie also talk about Mason’s sexual exploits. For instance, Sebastian explains, “Mason flirted and got one guy on the swim team’s number.” Mason also “hooked up with [Miguel, Willie’s friend] at Carl’s last party.”
  • Willie says to Mason, “I suck face better than I cook.”
  • According to Sebastian, “Rumor was, Coach’s nephew Xander went to one of those blazer-and-tie Catholic schools and got kicked off the baseball team when he came out. Coach decided to change the system: sexuality in sports became a non-factor. Whom you were attracted to off the field didn’t matter.”
  • Sebastian also explains that, “No one cared when Willie came out, because he was the best defensive player they had. Mason’s make-out session with Miguel was forgotten the following Monday.”
  • Masturbation jokes occur often, especially with Willie. For example, when Willie and Sebastian get to their cabin, they realize that they have some free time before the first practice. Willie is then “making a suggestive motion with his hand. ‘Do you need a little alone time?’”
  • Sebastian thinks, “For a gay guy, Willie’s maintained a ridiculous crush on Mason’s ex-girlfriend.” Phrases like this and “the gays approve” sometimes occur.
  • During punishment laps at the first training, Coach Patrick yells, “How does one pack of lions suck this bad? What did you all do during the off-season?” Mason replies, “Well, I didn’t suck anyone.” Sexual jokes continue frequently throughout the book.
  • When the boys see Emir, a new kid who has never played, they talk about him. One player says that he won’t help Emir since Emir isn’t nice at school. Hunter, another player, responds with, “Have you tried talking to him? Or is that something you’re just sorry at, like picking up women?”
  • There is a page-long dinner scene where the players discuss their romantic relationships. One player asks Mason, “So you and Val aren’t hooking up this year?” Another replies jokingly, “He’s saving himself for Coach’s daughter, remember?”
  • Coach’s stepdaughter, Grey, is introduced as the person with “a pretty gnarly crush” on Mason. Throughout the book, she openly flirts with Mason.
  • Sebastian talks to Grey about her crush, and Sebastian thinks of his own past crushes. He thinks, “He hasn’t crushed on anyone since he was like, eleven? He met Sam at a party, they exchanged numbers and made out at a movie, and that was it.”
  • At breakfast, Mason calls Sebastian “a boring virgin.” Sebastian replies, “I’m not a virgin, dickhead.” Mason responds, “Oh, that’s right. Just with guys, correct?”
  • Coach Rivera yells at one of the players. Coach says, “Where’s your form?” The player replies, “At your wife’s house.” Coach Rivera responds, “My husband would appreciate it if you picked your crap up one of these days.”
  • Sebastian is attracted to Emir. Often, he fantasizes about what romantic/sexual things he and Emir could be doing. These daydreams range in graphic nature. For instance, he finds himself staring at “Emir’s pink, very kissable lips.” At another point, Sebastian has the urge to “toss Emir on the bed for a wrestling match. But that could lead to—no, would lead to—something involving a lot less clothing.”
  • During Sebastian and Emir’s training sessions, Sebastian breaks personal space. When trying to teach Emir form, Sebastian “fits his arms around Emir’s lean frame; his hands smooth Emir’s waist.” These moments lead to Emir commenting, “I can’t relax with your junk against my bum, mate” and “I usually don’t mix stupid sports and sex.” Sebastian often makes references to others’ genitalia.
  • Two boys are fast asleep in bed, and it is insinuated later that they might be having a fling. Sebastian sees them and describes, “Willie’s face is mashed in Hunter’s neck. Hunter’s fingers are twisted in Willie’s hair; their lower halves are tangled.”
  • Sebastian says that Zach didn’t get a girl’s number because she heard that Zach was “a virgin.” Zach declares, “I get plenty of tail.” This conversation continues for a couple of pages.
  • When training by themselves, “Sebastian kisses [Emir]. It’s so quick, their mouths just smack.” Sebastian thinks, “…this isn’t a real kiss, where you’re lightheaded afterward or shoving your tongue down a hot guy’s mouth to taste the flavor of his gum.”
  • Emir and Sebastian kiss, and the description lasts for a couple of pages. Sebastian describes, “Emir pushes as much as Sebastian pulls. It’s needy. Wet mouths move as if there’s not a second to lose. They’ll never be able to dance around this kiss… He grabs Emir’s hoodie and drags him closer. His thigh fits between them, and Emir uses it like a cat rubbing against a post to scratch an itch.”
  • Emir and Sebastian become sexually intimate, and Sebastian narrates, “He doesn’t know if that’s how fooling around with another guy is supposed to be, but it’s a good start.” The description goes on for four pages. Sebastian “drops kisses under Emir’s jaw. Sebastian waits. Emir chokes back a gasp, and then Sebastian’s fingers dig roughly into Emir’s hips, lifting him up in one quick motion. He pushes Emir against the closest wall… Sebastian’s hips meet Emir’s. He worries Emir might not want that, but the soft hitch in Emir’s voice counters those concerns.”
  • Mason accidentally reveals that Willie has had a crush on Sebastian for a long time. Mason jokes about how he doesn’t understand why Willie would like Sebastian, and “with his head bent uncomfortably close to Sebastian’s crotch, he says, ‘Are you hiding something amazing in your jockstrap, Hughes?’” Mason then proceeds to say, “I’ve seen it, bro. In the shower. You’ve got Thor’s hammer down there.”
  • Sebastian and Emir go skinny dipping. When Emir blushes, Sebastian says, “It’s not like you haven’t seen me naked before.”
  • Emir and Sebastian kiss while skinny-dipping in the lake. Sebastian describes, “The kiss isn’t frantic, but it’s feverish. Emir’s hands are on his shoulders. Sebastian’s mouth parts, gasping, teased by Emir’s tongue. It’s thrilling and purposeful, and Sebastian’s heart is erratic.” The description lasts for a page.
  • After skinny-dipping, Emir and Sebastian shower together. They kiss. Sebastian “goes for broke, curls a finger under Emir’s chin, and angles his face so he can plant a soft peck on Emir’s mouth. Emir kisses back.”
  • Sebastian briefly mentions that one morning, he “let Emir drag him to bed for morning kisses. Sebastian’s fumbling hands highlighted his lack of sexual experience with boys, but Emir didn’t seem to mind at all.”
  • When the band The 1975 comes on in Mason’s car, Sebastian explains to Emir that, “Mace would totally suck face with Matt Healy if he could.”
  • Sebastian explains that there’s an old drive-in movie place in Oakville, and that “during the week, no one shows up except the slackers, elderly folks, and horny parents searching for somewhere to, well.”
  • At the drive-in, “a man older than Sebastian’s dad emerges from a rusty Cadillac. He grins smugly with a hand firmly pressed to his wife’s ass. Sebastian hopes that’s his wife.”
  • Sebastian and Emir get intimate at the drive-in, though Sebastian explains that, “All their fooling around has never quite gone there.” Sebastian also narrates, “Emir crawls—climbs into Sebastian’s lap… Emir is balanced on knees that pin Sebastian’s hips. His left hand cradles the back of Sebastian’s head. A soft sigh breaks his lips, inches from Sebastian’s as he lowers his hips.”
  • Sebastian asks Emir if he’s ever had sex with a guy, and Emir says, “Yes.”
  • Willie says that Mason got playing time years ago because “we had three players out with mono thanks to the lovely Cara Beckman,” who is a cheerleader with “a thing for athletes.”
  • Sebastian thinks about his relationship with Sam. He thinks, “Sam made the first move on him. Sam told him she was his girlfriend. Sam said, ‘I love you’ first, words she didn’t mean. Sam broke up with him. First by text and then in person.”
  • Emir breaks into Sebastian’s room. Sebastian realizes that Emir is wearing Sebastian’s jersey and that Emir doesn’t care what their teammates think. Sebastian thinks, “that threatens to make Sebastian get on one knee for more than one reason.” The innuendo is not explained further.
  • Emir and Sebastian have sex. The buildup is described, but the sex is not. Sebastian narrates, “They kiss. It takes them a moment to find a rhythm between mouths and bodies. Emir’s hand is flat against Sebastian’s chest. Sebastian has fingers in Emir’s hair… [Sebastian] tenses trying to figure out the condom.” This buildup lasts for five pages.
  • Willie passes out water in the locker room, and Sebastian takes one. Willie says to Sebastian, “Don’t choke,” when Sebastian cracks the top and guzzles as if he’s been in the desert. He adds a rude gesture that Sebastian supposes is a reference to oral sex.
  • Carl badmouths Emir in the locker room. When Sebastian won’t agree with Carl, Carl says, “Sounds like [Emir’s] got a stick up you.”
  • Grey challenges Mason to a one-on-one scrimmage, and the first to score gets to pick their prize. Grey says, “If I win, we go on a date.”
  • Mason and Willie juggle soccer balls and mock each other. Mason says to him, “I thought you played with balls in your spare time? You suck!” Willie replies, “I get no complaints about the way I handle balls, thank you.”
  • Mason tells Willie and Sebastian, “I want to ask [Grey] out.”
  • At the hospital, Sebastian discovers that “Hunter and Willie are boyfriends now.”
  • Sebastian “kisses Emir” on the soccer field.

Violence

  • Players sometimes get injured in soccer. For instance, one player runs Emir over during a game, and “Emir’s folded up on the grass.”
  • Emir is rude to Sebastian. Sebastian thinks about how he wants “to shout, ‘What the hell?’ or punch Emir or walk away.”
  • Sebastian asks Grey if she’s wearing eyeliner at dinner one night. Grey “kicks his shin under the table.”
  • Sebastian thinks about how in freshman gym, he “nailed Carl during a friendly baseball game. Carl rolled around the field for half an hour, claiming a dislocated shoulder.”
  • Sebastian “imagines his knuckles bloody and Carl laid out on the cement” when Carl harasses Sebastian and Emir.
  • After an argument with Carl, Sebastian “turns, rolls his shoulders, and then slams his fist into a locker door.”
  • When Grey challenges Mason to a match, Gio says, “Twenty [bucks] says coach murders [Mason] and dumps the body in the lake.” Sebastian “bets [Grey’ll] kick Mason in the junk.”
  • Coach makes Sebastian captain. When Mason and Willie find out, they dogpile Sebastian in celebration. “Mason’s elbow jams his ribs. Willie knees him in the thigh.”
  • Sebastian tells Willie and Mason that he messed up his chance with Emir. Mason responds with, “Do you want me to rough him up?”
  • Hunter gives Sebastian love advice and then ends it with, “And if you ever tell Will about this, I’m gonna use your testicles for keepie-uppies practice.”
  • The other team makes homophobic remarks. Zach says, “They’re family, and I’ll whale on any of you prep pussies that messes with ’em, okay?” He turns to Emir and Hunter and says, “I’ve been wanting to deck one of those shitheads since I was a frosh.”
  • Zach, Emir, and Hunter playfight in the locker room. “Zach drags Emir into a headlock. Emir playfully fights back though Zach’s size overpowers him. Hunter joins them, jumping on Zach’s back. They all stumble into the locker room with a thud.”
  • Two players “are engaged in a furious game of bloody knuckles.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Mason smokes a cigarette on the drive to camp.
  • Sebastian describes one spot at camp where “Guys use the picnic area to sneak cigarettes at night.”
  • Emir has “a half-burnt cigarette” one night.
  • On the weekends, “the seniors usually sneak in cheap beer or rum” to camp. The boys do drink and get drunk during the book. Sebastian carries one of the players, Zach, back to his cabin because Zach is drunk. Zach declares, “I’m not wasted.”
  • Zach “grins, arms stuffed with cheap beer. ‘Brews and tunes, dudes.’”
  • Sebastian says he saved Mason from getting “locked up two years ago for possession of greenery,” or marijuana.
  • Sebastian “was so done with Sam’s shit, he had a healthy hit off Mason’s joint, coughing violently before mellowing out with vodka.”
  • Zach has “a chain-smoking father.”
  • The guy working at the drive-in concession stand says, “I’ve got half a joint out back that I’m dying to finish. Can you guys order already?”
  • Willie tells a story about “that time [Sebastian] drank too many wine coolers and took a dare to do keepie-uppies naked.”
  • Once, Sebastian and Mason were “playing drunk Scrabble in a cemetery.”

Language

  • Profanity is used often. Profanity includes asshole, hell, hellions, shit, ass, douchebag, dickhead, dick, whore, and bastard.
  • Mason flips off Sebastian as he runs past. The middle finger is used occasionally.
  • One player swears at his teammates in Italian. For example, he says, “Vete al infierno” which means “go to hell.” He also says, “Que mierda,” but no English translation is given.
  • Sebastian “nods like a happy stoner” at Emir’s comment. Variations of this expression are used throughout.
  • During an argument, Sebastian says, “Fuck you.” Carl replies, “Yeah, fuck you too, Hughes.”
  • The opposing team makes homophobic remarks towards Sebastian’s team, including, “Did you know you play for a team of homos?” and “You pack of faggots.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Mason keeps joking about camp being hell. Willie says, “This place is a sanctuary. A no-man’s-land, dude. Sacred.”
  • Sebastian mentions that Coach Rivera is “a devout Catholic and often calls on his religion.” Coach Rivera will sometimes say, “Que Dios nos ayude,” or “God help us.”
  • Sometimes characters will say things like, “Well, thank baby Jesus” or “Christ.”
  • Emir is Muslim and tells Sebastian that he prays “Fajr, the dawn prayer.”
  • One player calls Hunter a “Jesus freak,” and Hunter replies, “Let’s hope God blesses me not to humiliate your sorry ass all over the field today. Amen.”
  • Emir talks about how one of the freshmen dropped when he had to room with Emir because “Rooming with a Muslim offended his family.” Emir expresses that he’s dealt with discrimination his entire life.
  • Emir explains to Sebastian that he was praying “Isha’a…the last of the salats, daily prayers.” Sebastian remembers “the adults in Emir’s family fasting during Ramadan and a small backyard gathering to celebrate a feast day Sebastian can’t remember the name of, but he recalls the beautiful clothing, the music, and Emir’s parents passing out gifts to the children.”
  • Sebastian thinks about how he’s “heard of the coaches who refuse to look Coach Patrick in the eye and the parents and faculty who call Coach ‘a supporter of sinners who’ll burn in hell.’”

by Alli Kestler

Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team

In 1907, the Carlisle Indian School in Pennsylvania became one of the most innovative football teams in the United States. Lead by Ivy League graduate Pop Warner and star player Jim Thorpe, this team would go on to challenge the most prominent football teams of the day, including Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania, and Yale.

This narrative nonfiction story highlights the history of football and of the United States’ direct involvement in the mistreatment of Native Americans. The Carlisle Indian Industrial School was the first government-run boarding school meant to assimilate Native Americans into white society. The school opened after the Black Hills war and centuries of violent conflict. Native American children were taken from their homes to live in military-style schools, where they were not allowed to dress in traditional Native American clothing nor speak their native languages. This practice became standard in the U.S., effectively cutting children off from their parents and their cultures. This is the context that surrounded Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School football team. It is a history unknown by most and not widely discussed.

Undefeated weaves the history of football and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team into the United States’ treatment of indigenous people. Sheinkin masterfully presents history without holding back on the grim reality of boarding schools or the overwhelming obstacles Native American students faced both on and off the football field. Sheinkin effectively balances a creative narrative nonfiction style with more strait-laced historical aspects. These two facets create an engaging view of a lesser-known aspect of one of the United States’ favorite sports without sacrificing accuracy or becoming boring.

The football-heavy parts of this story delve into the danger the players faced before football was modernized. Sheinkin makes the game descriptions digestible even to those who don’t know football or the sport’s history well. Undefeated takes readers through the highs and lows of practices and games, giving readers the feeling of being there in real-time. Ultimately, Undefeated shows a love for football that is untarnished by time.

Undefeated is not a typical football story about the underdog team fighting for first place. The story is far more complicated and interesting, and it breathes life into its historical cast of characters. History rarely comes with clean-cut lessons, but Undefeated presents the need for perseverance when the going gets tough. The world that Jim Thorpe and his classmates from the Carlisle Indian School lived in was unfair to them, and their stories deserve recognition in American history. Their legacy lives on in one of America’s favorite pastimes and their influence upon football will carry forward for generations to come.

Sexual Content

  • Jim Thorpe liked classmate Iva Miller and told her upon meeting her that, “‘You’re a cute little thing.’ Iva was not impressed.”

Violence

  • Jim Thorpe attempts to try out for the football team, but Pop Warner sends him out to get tackled by the current varsity players. No one can touch Jim, though, because he’s incredibly agile and fast. Warner yells, “Hit him down so hard he doesn’t get up!”
  • Football-related violence occurs throughout the book. One memorable line comes from the first official American football game in 1869. During the game, “One of the Rutgers men, George Large, took a blow to the head and came up woozy. He stayed in the game. For the rest of his life, Large would boast that he was the first man ever injured playing American football.”
  • The football-related violence is heightened because early football had few real rules. In one description, “[The play] wasn’t over until the man with the ball quit moving. So while he squirmed and wriggled forward, more defenders piled on, and plays ended in massive, writhing mounds, inside of which guys would throw elbows and knees, scratch and bite, spit and choke, until the refs could untangle the heap.”
  • When Jim was young, his father Hiram “strode into the river in his boots, grabbed [Jim], hauled him out to deep water, and dropped him in the current. Hiram then waded back to the bank and watched.” This was Hiram’s way of teaching Jim how to “man up.”
  • Hiram carried “bullets in his belt.”
  • The story discusses the historical treatment of Native Americans by the United States government, including the Indian Removal Act of 1830. For instance, “President Andrew Jackson explained the objective in bluntly racist language. Native Americans were surrounded by what Jackson called ‘a superior race.’” Describing the Trail of Tears, Sheinkin writes “an estimated four thousand people died of disease, cold, and starvation before the nightmare journey ended.”
  • Of a town near Jim’s birthplace, one stagecoach driver said you could, “stay for half an hour and see a man killed.”
  • Losing one of Jim Thorpe’s childhood games came with a price. Anyone who fell behind or lost had to endure the slapping machine. He describes it as, “This consisted of scampering on hands and knees between the legs of others in the game, assisted by a brisk paddling.”
  • Jim hiked 23 miles home from school and Hiram “gave Jim a whipping” and took him straight back to school. This happens several times, as Jim tended to skip school and return home.
  • A player from Georgia died during a football game. The player “hit the ground headfirst . . . The blood drained from his face. His eyes were open, his lips quivering. A doctor ran onto the field and diagnosed a fractured skull . . .  he died the next morning.” Similar injuries and deaths are described in similar detail.
  • Thorpe and two of his teammates were going to the baseball field when a large white man stepped in their path. The white man said, “When a white man approaches, you get off the sidewalk and get into the street.” In response, Thorpe punched the man in the face, and the trio “walked around [the white man’s] fallen body to the baseball field.” They then “spent that night in jail.”
  • The Carlisle Indian School staff mistreated students, and the 1914 Congress investigated the claims. Students “came forward to testify about skimpy meals for non-athletes and cruel treatment, including beatings, by teachers.”
  • Coach Pop Warner reported that “If a player was too good-natured or easygoing . . . the coach would tell one of his own mates to sock him in the jaw when he wasn’t looking and then blame it on the other team so as to make him mad.”
  • As a child, Pop Warner stood up to his bullies. “One of the class bullies grabbed Pop’s hat, tossed it into a slushy puddle, and stomped on it . . . In a burst of rage, [Warner] pounced on the bully, knocked him down, and started pummeling him.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Jim grew up near Keokuk Falls. The story was that “it was a place where even the pigs got drunk—a whiskey distillery near town dumped used corn mash behind the building, and hogs gorged on it and staggered down the dirt streets.”
  • After a game in Chicago, “the [Carlisle] players collapsed onto couches at their hotel and lit up cigars.”
  • Pop Warner smokes during practices with the Carlisle players.
  • The Carlisle football players were allowed to drink at the local bars, which “weren’t supposed to serve Carlisle students, but exceptions were made for football players.”
  • Jim Thorpe occasionally smokes cigars.
  • After a game, “Thorpe and Welch sat together with glasses of beer.”
  • Thorpe and his daughter Charlotte told stories one night “over drinks.”

Language

  • Profanity is limited. Derogatory terms include “sissy” and “crippled.”
  • Many derogatory names are referenced in quotes toward Native Americans. For instance, the founder of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School fought in land disputes against Native Americans on behalf of the U.S. He said, “I had concluded . . . that as an army officer I was there to deal with atrocious aborigines.” In another example, newspapers referred to the Carlisle football team wins as “scalpings” and “massacres.” This occurs somewhat often throughout the book.
  • Pop Warner’s childhood nickname was Butter— “It was not a compliment . . .  [His classmates] pelted his broad backside with beans shot through straws, and pebbles launched from slingshots.”
  • When the first group of Native American students was brought to the Carlisle Indian School, “the townspeople waved their arms and made grunting sounds—mimicking their idea of Indian behavior.”
  • Pop Warner had a colorful vocabulary and used it during some practices with the Carlisle players, who did not appreciate his rudeness. The book quotes Pop as saying such things as, “Play @#$& football!” and “What in the %&*# you think you’re doin’?” It does not use the actual swear words.
  • At one point, Thorpe says to Pop “Aw, hell . . . what’s the use of going through ‘em when I can run around ‘em?”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • None

by Alli Kestler

The Crossover (Graphic Novel)

Twelve-year-old Josh and his twin JB Bell are the kings of the basketball court. Untouchable and unstoppable—the sons of former professional basketball player Chuck “Da Man” Bell couldn’t be anything less than excellent. But when Alexis walks into the twins’ lives and steals JB’s heart, Josh is left without his best friend by his side. Meanwhile, the boys’ father’s health is on the decline, despite Chuck’s utter denial. Josh and JB must deal with the consequences of everyone’s actions—including their own.

The illustrations in the graphic novel, The Crossover, bring the story to life. Illustrator Dawud Anyabwile’s comic book style illustrations match the high-pace action of the novel, especially during the basketball scenes. Most of the illustrations are in black and white with detailed shading, but Anyabwile frequently utilizes orange to help features pop off the page. The text changes in size and shape which helps to capture the rhythm of the poem. Even though this is a graphic novel, the poetic language makes The Crossover a good choice to read aloud.

The pages vary in the amount of text and pictures. Some pages have full-bodied scenes with a few sentences, while others have smaller pictures with mostly narration or dialogue. Alexander’s free-verse poetry moves very well and, thus, lends itself to these variations in page styles. The text placement only serves to emphasize parts of the story. Even though the graphic novel has some difficult vocabulary, the words are often defined and the repetition of the words allows the reader to understand the term. Readers will learn new vocabulary, but the more advanced vocabulary is balanced with realistic dialogue and trash talk during the basketball scenes.

The words themselves rarely vary from the original book, though the verse orientation on the page serves to emphasize different phrases. Those who have read the original text will still find that the graphic novel conveys characters’ moods and personalities in different ways due to the addition of illustrations. Josh, JB, and their friends and family are all vibrant characters and the pictures give them new life and add to the reading experience.

The Crossover was already a moving story, but the story benefits greatly from the addition of illustrations. The illustrations enhance the characters’ emotions and the story’s stakes feel heightened. The story speaks truths about grief, love, and basketball, and the pictures serve to bring those wonderful themes to another dimension. Newcomers and fans of the original story will find this edition to be a worthy addition to their shelves.

Sexual Content

  • Josh and JB’s dad, Chuck “Da Man” Bell, tells his sons about how back in the day, he “kissed/ so many pretty ladies.”
  • Josh says that the only reason why JB has been “acting all religious” is because classmate “Kim Bazemore kissed him in Sunday/ school.”
  • Josh does his homework while “Vondie and JB/ debate whether the new girl/ is a knockout or just beautiful,/ a hottie or a cutie,/ a lay-up or a dunk.”
  • Josh teases JB and asks if “Miss Sweet Tea” (Alexis) is his girlfriend. JB dodges the question. However, it is clear that he likes her a lot because “his eyes get all spacey/ whenever she’s around,/ and sometimes when she’s not.”
  • Chuck faints, and his wife, Crystal, demands that he see a doctor. Chuck refuses, and they argue. In an attempt to diffuse the tension between them, he says, “Come kiss me.”
  • After Crystal and Chuck stop arguing about Chuck’s health in the bedroom, Josh narrates, “And then there is silence, so I put the/ pillow over my head/ because when they stop talking,/ I know what that means./ Uggghh!” This happens a couple times throughout the book, though it is never illustrated.
  • Alexis wants to know “am I [JB’s] girlfriend or not?”
  • Josh likes Alexis romantically as well, but JB doesn’t know that.
  • JB and Alexis walk into the cafeteria, and she’s “holding his/ precious hand.”
  • JB and Alexis kiss in the library, and Josh sees them. The kiss is illustrated.
  • JB tells Alexis “how much she’s/ the apple of/ his eye/ and that he wants/ to peel her/ and get under her skin.”

Violence

  • JB plays with Josh’s locks of hair. Josh “slap[s] him/ across his bald head/ with [Josh’s] jockstrap.”
  • JB accidentally cuts off five of Josh’s locks of hair. Josh gives JB several noogies over the course of a few interactions.
  • Josh nearly breaks JB’s nose with a hard pass during a basketball game. He does it on purpose because he’s upset with JB, and Josh is suspended from the team. The description is only a couple of words long.

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Crystal’s younger brother “smokes cigars.”

Language

  • There are a few rude terms used occasionally by the younger characters. Some terms include crunking, stupid, and jerk.
  • When Josh narrates his plays in games, he talks big about his game and this leads to him occasionally threatening physical contact during the game. For instance, Josh says in part of his beginning speech, “Man, take this THUMPING.”
  • Josh’s nickname is “Filthy McNasty.”
  • JB suggests a bet against Josh. Josh responds with, “You can cut my locks off,/ but if I win the bet,/ you have to walk around/ with no pants on/ and no underwear/ at school tomorrow.”
  • JB responds with, “if you win,/ I will moon/ that nerdy group/ of sixth-graders/ that sit/ near our table/ at lunch?”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • JB only went to one basketball summer camp because “he didn’t want to miss Bible/ school.”
  • The Bells go to church on Sundays before basketball. Josh says, “When the prayers end/ and the doors open/ the Bells hit center stage,” meaning the basketball court. Josh sometimes mentions team prayers or praying to win games.

by Alli Kestler

 

 

Patina

Ever since Patina and Maddy’s mom got diabetes and lost her legs, their lives have changed dramatically. Now they go to the fancy Chester Academy and live with Aunt Emily and Uncle Tony. Patina has fears other than trying to fit in at her school, though. She’s afraid “The Sugar” will take her mom from her too. Patina is finding that no matter how fast she runs, she can’t outrun her fears.

Even worse, Patina’s attitude has slipped, and Coach is making her run in a relay with the people she argues with. Depending on her teammates, especially the ones she doesn’t get along with, seems, well, impossible. When her aunt and Maddy get in a car crash, Patina realizes that depending on others is necessary. When her uncle steps in, it only shows further that she isn’t alone and doesn’t have to be the parent to her younger sister—or herself. She doesn’t have to do everything alone, including the relay. It’s okay to wait for the handoff, both in track and in life.

In the second installment of Reynolds’s Defenders Track Team series, Patina takes over as narrator. Tragedies shape her life: when she was young, one morning her dad never woke up. Her mother then developed Type II diabetes, or what she calls “The Sugar,” and lost her legs. Now, Patina lives with Emily and Tony, and although they’re good people, Patina misses her parents. For someone with her history, it’s no wonder why Patina runs with a chip on her shoulder. Anything less than first place, as far as she’s concerned, is losing. Because she runs for Ma and Maddy, she feels that anything less than first is her failing her family.

Patina is intense and often confrontational, but her fierce loyalty and love for her family make her relatable. With the help of her coaches and teammates, she is able to let go of her independent streak enough to let others in. Patina shows that the world needn’t be entirely on anyone’s shoulders. Not all burdens, especially emotional ones, should be carried alone.

Reynolds has a knack for writing unique characters in specific situations that, despite their specificity, contain universal themes. The power of each book in this series resides within the characters’ capacities to overcome their daunting situations. Patina knows her mom is living on borrowed time and that one day, she will lose her, too. What makes Patina strong is that she’s able to keep running, and she runs for her mom, her sister, her adoptive family, and her teammates. Family, blood-related or otherwise, remains a key component of the Defenders Track Team series, and particularly in Patina’s life.

Patina is a strong sequel to Ghost. The returning cast and newcomers blend together to create a realistic environment for Patina and her cohorts to flourish on and off the track. Track fans and non-sport readers alike will find that this story places importance on friendship and family. Patina’s story emphasizes one of the really beautiful parts of life: no one is ever really alone.

Sexual Content

  • Sunny likes Patina. They stretch together at practice and Sunny stares at her legs. Patina thinks, “Was Sunny checkin’ me out? If he was, now was not the time. Also…no…gross…stop it…right now…seriously.”
  • Cotton, Patina’s friend, likes Lu, who is one of the other runners. Cotton says to Patina, “’You think if I wink at Lu on the track, he’ll wink back?’”

Violence

  • Patina and Krystal, another runner, get into an argument while practicing the relay. Krystal says to Patina, “What makes you better? Your white mother?” To which Patty goes on a page-long rant that ends with her saying, “Better watch who you playin’ with.” Coach Whit “grabbed [Patina] by the arm and dragged [her] off the track to the gate.”
  • Patina has a temper. When she gets mad, she will imagine “breaking invisible teacups.” This is her way of dealing with grief and stress.
  • Patina thinks that she was “about to give Krystal a good old-fashioned Beverly Jones Funky Zone beat-down.” She does not do this.
  • Patina teases Lu, another runner, about Cotton. Then Patina ays to Lu, “Don’t deny my girl, Lu, or I’ll leave you laid out across this track.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • Patina’s aunt Emily is on “heavy-duty pain meds” after her surgery and is a little loopy.

Language

  • Stupid, fool, and shut up are all used frequently.
  • Of two girls in Patina’s class (Taylor and Teylor/TeeTee), Patina thinks, “They’re like attached at the ponytail and call themselves T-N-T, which is funny because most of the time I just wished they’d explode.”
  • Patina has names for the different types of kids in her school. She thinks, “The mess of hair-flippers, the wrath-letes (kids feel like it’s a sport to make everyone’s life miserable), the know-it-alls, the know-nothins, the hush-hushes…The YMBCs (You Might Be Cuckoo)- the girls who wear all black and cover their backpacks with buttons and pins- and the girls whose boyfriends, brothers, and fathers all wear khaki pants.”
  • At one point, Patina’s nicknames for Taylor and Teylor are “Bony McPhony and her cousin Lie-Lie.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Patina’s mom (Ma) references God and Jesus frequently. There is a scene in their church where Patina says that Ma yells, “Yes, Lawd! Yessssss!” After, Patina thinks that Ma is in a good mood because “Ma’s all high off Jesus.”
  • Ma prays for people throughout the book. In one instance, she says to Patina, “You know I pray for you. I pray God put something special in your legs, in your muscles so you can run and not grow weary.”
  • Patina thinks church is “a whole lot of talk about grace and faith and mercy and salvation, which, to me, all just equaled shouting, clapping, and singing in a building built to be a sweatbox.”
  • Patina explains Ma’s religiousness. She thinks, “after Dad passed, that’s when Ma got all churchy-churchy. The beginning of catching the spirit and dancing in the aisle and ‘praying of peace in the eye of the storm.’”

by Alli Kestler

Benchwarmers

Jeff and Andi, both sixth-graders at Merion Middle School, are trying out for the boys’ soccer team. There is just one issue: Andi is a girl, and the head coach, Coach J, thinks having a girl on the team would lower the boys’ moral. The principal forces Coach J to let Andi try out. But, Coach J, who has the final say on who makes the team, cuts Andi despite her more than competent tryout.

Both Andi and Jeff are furious because of the coach’s decision. Jeff made the team, but he knows Andi would be an asset to the team. The situation seems hopeless until he has an idea. His dad works at NBC Sports-Philadelphia as a reporter. Together, Andi, Jeff, and his dad devise a plan to get the media involved in Andi’s situation. They hope to pressure Coach J into letting Andi on the team. They were right; Andi is finally allowed to play soccer on the boys’ team.

It’s not smooth sailing once Andi makes the team. Coach J punishes both Andi and Jeff by benching them during games. There is a division on the team between the boys who think Andi should be included and those who don’t. This division costs the team the first few games of the season. When Andi makes a good play in the short amount of time she is on the field, Coach J realizes he is making a mistake. He learns to value Andi as a skilled player and eventually promotes her to a starter. By reluctantly acknowledging Andi’s skill, Coach J sets an example for the rest of the team. The boys come to appreciate Andi and they become a strong and cohesive team.

Benchwarmers is told in third person and focuses on Jeff, Andi, and Coach J’s points of view. This allows readers to understand each character’s background. Each character has to overcome adversities. For example, Jeff has to work hard to improves his soccer skills. Andi fights for her place on the team, taking a lot of bullying but eventually becoming a valued player. Coach J overcomes his chauvinistic beliefs and learns to appreciate Andi.

 Benchwarmers’ main theme is doing what is best for the team. Andi is such a good player because she “creates chances for other people.” In addition, the team only starts winning games when they play to each other’s strengths. By the end of the book, good sportsmanship is important to all of the players. The boys support each other and Andi on the field. Even the opposing teams apologize for roughhousing Andi and compliment her skill.

While Benchwarmers focuses on soccer, the story also gives a good, age-appropriate insight on how the media works. It shows how a media story is approved, planned, and rehearsed. Learning about the media is interesting, but the many meticulous play-by-play game scenes might get old to readers who are not soccer fans. However, the characters are relatable and admirable for their perseverance and for supporting one another. Andi and Jeff work hard to prove themselves on the field. At the beginning, Coach J is stuck in his ways, but he redeems himself by the end. Although slightly dragged out, Benchwarmers will entertain soccer fans as it encourages them to work hard for what they believe.

Sexual Content

  • O’Shea, a female soccer player from another school, takes Andi aside after their match to warn Andi about the next team they’ll play, King of Prussia-North. O’Shea says King of Prussia-North’s coach doesn’t like girls on the boys’ soccer team, and he “makes your guy [Andi’s coach] look like a leader of the Me Too movement.”
  • After Andi asks Jeff to the Halloween dance, she “gave him a huge hug and a kiss on the cheek.”

Violence

  • During practice, Andi gets hit after scoring a goal. “Arlow, peeling back too late, slammed into [Andi] from behind and took her down.” Jeff and Diskin, another teammate, are furious because they think Arlow did it on purpose. One of the players “slammed into Arlow and sent him flying.”
  • Diskin “jabs a finger into Arlow’s chest.” Diskin asks, “What is your problem, Arlow? Do you have something against girls? Is that it? Just admit it.” In response, Arlow “grabs Diskin’s arm and tries to wrestle him to the ground.”
  • During a match, Andi gets kicked in the head by another player. “She felt a foot slam into her head. She cried out in pain and rolled over, holding the spot where the kick had landed.”
  • A player from the opposing team “piles into” Andi, making her do a “face-plant.” She sees someone running towards the guy who had just taken her down and realizes it’s Arlow. “[Arlow] was screaming angrily as he pushed the guy down and began swinging at him.”
  • During a soccer game, Jeff “slid a pass forward to Arlow, who pushed the ball to his left to Andi just as a KP-North defender plowed into him.” Jeff “went down” but “jumped up” and continued playing in the game.
  • Jeff sees a player from the opposing team angrily rush towards Andi. Realizing the player intended to harm her, Jeff “cut the kid off with a diving tackle before he could pile into Andi.”

Drugs and Alcohol

  • None

Language

  • The boys debate over whether Andi should be on the soccer team. One player says if Andi wants to be on a team with boys, she has to understand she may get knocked around. Another player who supports Andi retorts, “Don’t be such a tool.”
  • After Coach J is rude to Andi, Jeff tries to comfort her. Jeff says, “Just when you think he’s backing off acting like a jerk, he goes and proves again that he’s a jerk. Don’t let it bother you.”
  • Heck is used three times. For example, Andi is upset because Coach J is bullying her. She takes it because she wants to remain on the team. “The worst part of it is, if I just say ‘The heck with you,’ and walk away from this team, he gets what he wants.”
  • During a match, one of the players on the opposing team takes down Andi. Craig yells at him, “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
  • In regards to King of Prussia-North, another middle school female soccer player tells Andi, “I’d love to see you knock those jerks off their pedestal.”
  • Jeff wants to ask Andi to the Halloween dance, but he is nervous. His friend tells him, “You can still be Prince Charming if you get off your butt and do something.”

Supernatural

  • None

Spiritual Content

  • Jeff asks Andi if she is going to church Sunday morning because he wants to take her to an Eagle’s game. Andi laughs and replies, “My parents tried it with my brothers and me until I was about eight. Then they figured out we were all going just for the doughnuts. So we haven’t gone for a while.”

by Jill Johnson

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