Sport Bits - 4th-8th grade

Fri, 09/03/2010 - 9:33am by ryanikoglu

Mike Lupica, a syndicated columnist for the New York Daily News, writes great sports fiction for youth and adults. You can find many titles by Lupica in the web catalog.

Comeback Kids is a new series for middle school ages.
The books are under 200-pages.
The stories work out everyday kid-issues tangled among school, parents, siblings, and "the game".
The characters are fully-rounded.
The issues are age-appropriate.
Conflict is treated with creative solutions.
The games have great play-by-play details.

Hot Hand, follows ten-year-old Billy, In the wake of his parents' separation. Billy seems to have continual conflict with his father, who is also his basketball coach. Quiet, younger brother Ben, a piano prodigy, is having even more trouble adjusting, and Billy seems to be the only one to notice.