In the third book in the New York Times bestselling middle grade series inspired by the life of iconic New York Yankee Derek Jeter, Derek's father keeps his promise to coach his son's youth baseball team.
Derek is sure this will be the best season yet! He has it all planned-his dad will have him start at shortstop, and the team will cruise to a championship. But sometimes life doesn't go according to plan. Change Up focuses on a key life lesson of Derek Jeter's Turn 2 Foundation-Deal with Growing Pains-in the series companion to Hit & Miss and The Contract, about which The Wall Street Journal said, "the play by play action is exciting and the lessons many."
An average kid with an above average talent for predicting baseball pitches tries to help his favorite player out of a slump in this entertaining novel from bestselling authors Tim Green and Derek Jeter.
Jalen DeLuca loves baseball. Unfortunately his dad can't afford to keep him on the travel team. His dad runs a diner and makes enough to cover the bills, but there isn't enough to cover any extras. So Jalen decides to take matters into his own hands and he sneaks into the home of the New York Yankee's star second baseman, James Yager, and steals a couple of balls from his personal batting cage. He knows that if he can sell them, he'll be able to keep himself on the team.
But like the best-laid plans-or in this case the worst!-Jalen's scheme goes wrong when Yager catches him. But Jalen has a secret: his baseball genius. He can analyze and predict almost exactly what a pitcher is going to do with his next pitch. He can't quite explain how he knows, he just knows. And after proving to Yager that he really can do this, using a televised game and predicting pitch after pitch with perfect accuracy, the two agree to a deal. Jalen will help Yager out of his batting slump and Yager won't press charges.
However, when he begins to suspect that the team's general manager has his own agenda, Jalen's going to need his friends and his unusual baseball talent to save not only Yager's career, but his own good name.
Offensive lineman Jake and his best friend, Bobby, were planning on playing for the Immaculate Heart football team together-until an unexpected turn of events finds them competing for one scholarship.
Two weeks of intense competition remain to decide the final teams for the Little League® World Series. This year, the anticipation is high as it's possible that both of the previous final two teams will return, a very rare occurrence. And those are the teams Carter and Liam now play for! These two players, one from each team, are thinking the same thought: How can I play against my best friend?
This is the fourth book in a five-book series that follows Liam and Carter as they work their way to the Little League® World Series. The final book in the series will coincide with the Little League® 75th Anniversary in 2014.
An award-winning, hilariously funny middle-grade series about guinea pigs who act like other pets will move its author, Patrick Jennings, into the ranks of much-loved writers, such as Louis Sachar and Andrew Clements.
When Rufus, Murphy, Lurena, and their pets go camping, they meet Pedro, a shy boy who seems afraid of just about everything--especially the water. One thing leads to another and the kids go into a nearby town to buy him a pet to cheer him up--a guinea pig, naturally. Yet what they bring home may look like a guinea pig, but it can swim--like an otter!
Guinea Dog has appeared not only on many state lists, but on county and school district lists as well. Here are just some of its appearances: Hawaii NeNe Award Nominee, Washington State Sasquatch Award Nominee, Massachusetts Children's Book Award Honor, Florida Sunshine State Master List, Kansas Winner of the William Allen White Award, Colorado Children's Book Award Nominee, New Hampshire Great Stone Face Award Master List, and Texas's Cy-Fair Horned Toad Tales List.
The third book in the #1 New York Times bestselling Field Party series-a southern soap opera with football, cute boys, and pick-up trucks-from USA TODAY bestselling author Abbi Glines.
Two years ago, Riley Young fled from Lawton, Alabama. After accusing the oldest Lawton son, Rhett, of rape, everyone called her a liar and she had no option but to leave. Now she's back, but she's not at Lawton High finishing up her senior year. She's at home raising the little girl that no one believed was Rhett's.
Rhett is off at college living the life he was afraid he'd lose with Riley's accusation, so Riley agrees to move back to Lawton so she and her parents could take care of her grandmother, who is suffering from Alzheimer's. But the town still hasn't forgotten their hate for her, and she hasn't forgotten the way they turned on her when she needed them most.
When town golden boy Brady Higgens finds Riley and her daughter, Bryony, stranded on the side of the road in a storm, he pulls over and gives them a ride. Not because he cares about Riley, of course, but because of the kid.
But after the simple car ride, he begins to question everything he thought he knew. Could Brady believe Riley and risk losing everything?
To Joseph Friedman, middle school might as well be the Running of the Bulls. He's friendless and puny, with ADD to boot, so he spends most of his time avoiding class bully Charlie Kastner and hiding out in the Resource Room, a safe place for misfit kids like him. But then, on the first day of seventh grade, two important things happen. First, his Resource Room teacher Mrs. T encourages (i.e., practically forces) him to join the school track team, and second, he meets Heather, a tough, athletic new girl who isn't going to be pushed around by Charlie Kastner-or anybody else. At first, track is as much of a disaster as everything else in Joseph's life. But slowly Joseph hits his stride, and instead of running from the bulls . . . he's just running.
Cassie must learn that you can't "fix" someone else after a girl with Asperger's joins her softball team in the fourth and final book of the Home Team series from New York Times bestselling author and sports-writing legend Mike Lupica.
Cassie Bennett is great at being in charge. She always knows what to do to lead her teams to victory, keep her many groups of friends together, or fix any problem that comes her way. So when Sarah Milligan, an autistic girl with unreal softball skills, joins Cassie's team, Cassie's sure she can help her fit in with the team.
But before long it's obvious that being around so many people is really hard for Sarah, and the more Cassie tries to reach out and involve her, the more Sarah pushes her away, sometimes literally. It doesn't help that Cassie's teammates aren't as interested in helping Sarah as they are in making sure they make it to the new softball All-Star Tournament that'll be televised just like the Little League World Series.
Soon no one seems to even want Sarah on the team anymore besides Cassie, and the harder Cassie tries to bring everyone together, the worse things seem to get. Cassie Bennett never backs down from a challenge, but can she realize that maybe the challenge isn't fixing a problem in someone else, but in herself? Or will her stubbornness lead her to lose more than just softball games?
A heart-breaking, heart-warming novel for everyone of 10 and older - this book will probably make you cry, and will definitely make you laugh.
Cymbeline Igloo (yes, really!) has NEVER been swimming
Not ever. Not once.
But how hard can it be? He's Googled front crawl and he's found his dad's old pair of trunks. He's totally ready.
What he's not ready for is the accident at the pool - or how it leads his mum to a sudden breakdown.
Now, with the help of friends old and new, Cymbeline must solve the mystery of why his mum never took him near water - and it will turn his whole life upside down...
'A wonderful story, moving and funny' - Ross Welford
Bestselling author Gary D. Schmidt tells a coming-of-age story with the light touch of The Wednesday Wars, the heart of Okay for Now, and the unique presence of a wise and witty butler. Carter Jones is astonished early one morning when he finds a real English butler, bowler hat and all, on the doorstep-one who stays to help the Jones family, which is a little bit broken. In addition to figuring out middle school, Carter has to adjust to the unwelcome presence of this new know-it-all adult in his life and navigate the butler's notions of decorum. And ultimately, when his burden of grief and anger from the past can no longer be ignored, Carter learns that a burden becomes lighter when it is shared. Sparkling with humor, this insightful and compassionate story will resonate with readers who have confronted secrets of their own.
"Should appeal to all rugged individualists who dream of escape to the forest."-The New York Times Book Review
Sam Gribley is terribly unhappy living in New York City with his family, so he runs away to the Catskill Mountains to live in the woods-all by himself. With only a penknife, a ball of cord, forty dollars, and some flint and steel, he intends to survive on his own. Sam learns about courage, danger, and independence during his year in the wilderness, a year that changes his life forever.
"An extraordinary book . . . It will be read year after year."
-The Horn Book
From the New York Times bestselling author Kwame Alexander comes Rebound, the dynamic prequel to his Newbery Award-winning novel in verse, The Crossover. Before Josh and Jordan Bell were streaking up and down the court, their father was learning his own moves.
In this prequel to Newbery Medal winner The Crossover, Chuck Bell takes center stage, as readers get a glimpse of his childhood and how he became the jazz music worshiping, basketball star his sons look up to. A novel in verse with all the impact and rhythm readers have come to expect from Kwame Alexander, Rebound will go back in time to visit the childhood of Chuck "Da Man" Bell during one pivotal summer when young Charlie is sent to stay with his grandparents where he discovers basketball and learns more about his family's past.
