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General Sports & Athletics
Gallo, Donald R., editor. Ultimate Sports : Short Stories by Outstanding Writers for Young Adults.
Sixteen original sports stories featuring young men and women playing basketball and football, running track and cross-country, and training for the triathlon, as well as participating in water sports, racquetball, tennis, boxing, wrestling, and the ultimate sport of the future.
Lynch, Chris. Iceman.
When overweight thirteen-year-old Elvin Bishop is sent to camp at St. Paul's Seminary Retreat Center, he and his two best friends are forced to try out various sports in order to find out where they belong. (SLJ gr 8+)
Rushford, Patricia. Dying to Win.
When sixteen-year-old Courtney, the daughter of a pharmacist, calls for help, Jennie sets off to solve a mystery involving drugs, sports, and competition. (SLJ gr 7+)
Wallace, Rich. Losing is Not an Option: Stories
Eleven episodes in the life of a young man, from sneaking into his tenth football game in a row with his best friend in sixth grade to running his last high school race, the Pennsylvania state championships. (SLJ gr 8+)
Baseball
Carter, Alden. Bull Catcher.
Pete and Jeff continue their friendship and love of baseball as they progress from ninth grade through high school in their small Wisconsin town. (SLJ gr 7+)
Cochrane, Mick. The Girl Who Threw Butterflies
Eighth-grader Molly's ability to throw a knuckleball earns her a spot on the baseball team, which not only helps her feel connected to her recently deceased father, who loved baseball, it helps in other aspects of her life, as well. (SLJ g r5-9)
Crutcher, Chris. The Crazy Horse Electric Game.
Baseball star Willie, frustrated at being handicapped after an accident, runs away from home and is helped back to mental and physical health by a black benefactor and the people in a special school where he enrolls. (SLJ gr 8+)
Deuker, Carl. Heart of a Champion.
Seth faces a strain on his friendship with Jimmy, who is both a baseball champion and something of an irresponsible fool, when Jimmy is kicked off the team. (SLJ gr 6-10)
Deuker, Carl. Painting the Black.
When star baseball athlete Josh Daniels moves in across the street, Remy Ward doesn't realize how much his life will change during his senior year at Seattle's Crown Hill High. (SLJ gr 9+)
Fehler, Gene. Beanball
Relates, from diverse points of view, events surrounding the critical injury of, When popular and talented high school athlete Luke "Wizard" Wallace, is hit in the face by a fastball. (SLJ gr 5-9)
Johnson, Scott. Safe at Second.
Paulie Lockwood's best friend Todd Bannister is destined for the major leagues until a line drive to the head causes him to lose an eye and they both must find a new future for themselves. (SLJ gr 7+)
Koertge, Ron. Shakespeare Bats Cleanup
When a fourteen-year-old baseball player catches mononucleosis, he discovers that keeping a journal and experimenting with poetry not only helps fill the time, it also helps him deal with life, love, and loss of his mother. (SLJ gr 6-9)
Lupica, Mike. Heat
Pitching champ Michael Arroyo is on the run from social services after being banned from playing Little League. Rival coaches believe he’s over twelve-years-old and he has no parents to offer them proof. (SLJ gr 5 -8)
Lynch, Chris. Gold Dust.
In 1975, twelve-year-old Richard befriends Napolean, a Caribbean newcomer to his Catholic school, hoping that Napolean will learn to love baseball and the Red Sox, and will win acceptance in the racially polarized Boston school. (SLJ gr 5 - 8)
Ritter, John H. Over the Wall.
Thirteen-year-old Tyler, who has trouble controlling his anger, spends an important summer with his cousins in New York City, playing baseball and sorting out how he feels about violence, war, and in particular the Vietnamese conflict that took his grandfather's life. (SLJ gr 6-10)
Ritter, John H. Under the Baseball Moon
Andy and Glory, two fifteen-year-olds from Ocean Beach, California, pursue their respective dreams of becoming a famous musician and a professional softball player. (SLJ gr 7-10)
Roberts, Kristi. My Thirteenth Season
Already downhearted due to the loss of her mother and her father's overwhelming grief, thirteen-year-old Fran decides to give up her dream of becoming the first female in professional baseball after a coach attacks her just for being a girl. (SLJ gr 5-8)
Smith, Jennifer E. The Comeback Season
High school freshman Ryan Walsh, a Chicago Cubs fan, meets Nick when they both skip school on opening day, and their blossoming relationship becomes difficult for Ryan when she discovers that Nick is seriously ill and she again feels the pain of losing her father five years earlier. (SLJ gr 9+)
Trueman, Terry. 7 Days at the Hot Corner
Varsity baseball player Scott Latimer struggles with his own prejudices and those of others when his best friend reveals that he is gay. (SLJ gr 6+)
Weaver, Will. Farm Team.
With his father in jail and his mother working full-time, fourteen-year-old Billy Baggs finds himself in charge of running the family farm in northern Minnesota and having to give up the thing he loves most--baseball. (ages 12+)
Weaver, Will. Hard Ball: A Novel.
A fourteen-year-old Minnesota farm boy has to figure out how to get along with the arch-rival in his love life and on the baseball diamond, and both boys must learn how to deal with the unfair expectations of their fathers. ((SLJ gr 7+)
Basketball
Deuker, Carl. Night Hoops.
While trying to prove that he is good enough to on his high school's varsity basketball team, Nick must also deal with his parents' divorce and erractic behavior of a troubled classmate who lives across the street. (SLJ gr 8-10)
Deuker, Carl. On the Devil's Court.
Struggling with his feelings of inadequacy and his failure to make the basketball team in his new school, seventeen-year-old Joe Faust finds himself willing to trade his soul for one perfect season of basketball. (SLJ gr 8-10)
Feinstein, John. Last Shot: A Final Four Mystery
After winning a basketball reporting contest, eighth graders Stevie and Susan Carol are sent to cover the Final Four tournament, where they discover that a talented player is being blackmailed into throwing the final game. (SLJ gr gr 6 - 10)
Foley, John. Hoops of Steel
Passionate about basketball, troubled teen Jackson O’Connell chronicles the ways the game colors the events of his senior. (SLJ gr 9+)
Klass, David. Danger Zone.
When he joins a predominantly black "Teen Dream Team" that will be representing the United States in an international basketball tournament in Rome, Jimmy Doyle makes some unexpected discoveries about prejudice, racism, and politics. (SLJ gr 7-10)
Mackel, Kathy. Boost
Thirteen-year-old Savvy's dreams of starting for her elite basketball team are in danger when she is accused of taking steroids. (SLJ gr 6-9)
Myers, Walter Dean. Hoops: A Novel.
A teenage basketball players from Harlem is befriended by a former professional player who, after being forced to quit because of a point-shaving scandal, hopes to prevent other young athletes from repeating his mistake.
Myers, Walter Dean. Slam!
Sixteen-year-old "Slam" Harris is counting on his noteworthy basketball talents to get him out of the inner city and give him a chance to succeed in life, but his coach sees things differently. (SLJ gr 8+)
Pena, Matt de la. Ball Don’t Lie
Seventeen-year-old Sticky lives to play basketball at school and at Lincoln Rec Center in Los Angeles and is headed for the pros, but he is unaware of the many dangers--including his own past--that threaten his dream. (SLJ gr 9+)
Quick, Matthew. Boy 21
Finley, an unnaturally quiet boy who is the only white player on his high school's varsity basketball team, lives in a dismal Pennsylvania town that is ruled by the Irish mob, and when his coach asks him to mentor a troubled African American student who has transferred there from an elite private school in California, he finds that they have a lot in common in spite of their apparent differences.
Sitomer, Alan Lawrence. The Hoopster
Andre Anderson, an African-American teenager who loves to play basketball, is happy about his summer internship at a magazine, but his life is unexpectedly changed by a random act of violence. (SLJ gr 8+)
Extreme Sports
Bradbury, Jennifer. Shift
When best friends Chris and Win go on a cross country bicycle trek the summer after graduating and only one returns, the FBI wants to know what happened. (SLJ gr 8+)
Doyle, Roddy. Wilderness
As Irish teenager Gráinne anxiously prepares for a reunion with her mother, who abandoned the family years before, Gráinne's half-brothers and their mother take a dogsledding vacation in Finland. (SLJ gr 6-9)
Headley, Justina Chen. Girl Overboard
After a snowboarding accident, Syrah Cheng must rehabilitate both her knee and her self-esteem. (SLJ gr 9+)
Hornby, Nick. Slam
When Sam Jones's girlfriend gets pregnant and Sam's life of skateboarding and daydreaming about Tony Hawk changes drastically. (SLJ gr 9+)
Lopez, Jack. In the Break
Surfing is Juan Barrela's life but when his best friend Jamie faces a violent home situation, the tenth-grader steals his mother's car and drives with Jamie's sister Amber to Mexico to help her brother hide until tragedy strikes the trio. (SLJ gr 9+)
Mancusi, Mari. Sk8er Boy
Dawn’s life has been planned down to every second for her to go to Harvard. Her friend Starr introduces her to parking garage skateboarding and there she meets a smart, nice from the wrong side of town. Just for once, Dawn wants to do what she wants to do.
Nelson, Blake. Paranoid Park
A 16-year-old Portland, Oregon skateboarder, whose parents are going through a difficult divorce, is engulfed by guilt and confusion when he accidentally kills a security guard at a train yard. (SLJ gr 7+)
Walters, Eric. Grind
When Wally is badly injured skateboarding, Phillip must decide what is more important—skating or making things right with friends.
Football
Bissinger,H.G. Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team and a Dream
The book that inspired the movie and TV program. (Adult Non-Fiction 796.33262 B)
Cohen, Joshua C. Leverage
High school sophomore Danny excels at gymnastics but is bullied, like the rest of the gymnasts, by members of the football team, until an emotionally and physically scarred new student joins the football team and forms an unlikely friendship with Danny.
Crutcher, Chris. Running Loose.
Football player Louie, a high school senior in a small Idaho town, learns about sportsmanship, love, and death as he matures into manhood. (PW ages 12+)
Deuker, Carl. Gym Candy
Groomed by his father to be a star player, football is the only thing that has ever really mattered to Mick Johnson, who works hard for a spot on the varsity team his freshman year, then tries to hold onto his edge by using steroids, despite the consequences to his health and social life. (SLJ gr 7-10)
Dygard, Thomas. Backfield Package.
The decision of four high school friends to go to the same college so that they can continue playing football together is shaken when one of them begins to receive attention as a star quarterback.
Dygard, Thomas. Forward Pass.
To improve his struggling football team's chances of winning, Coach Gardner brings in a new wide receiver, Jill Winston.
Dygard, Thomas. Running Wild.
When Coach Wilson and Officer Stowell encourage him to join the high school football team, Pete no longer believes that "nobody does anything for nothing."
Flynn, Pat. Out of His League
In a small West Texas town, an Australian exchange student becomes a star on the football field and soon finds himself torn between the lure of America and the ties that bind him to his home in Australia.
Jenkins, A.M. Damage
Seventeen-year-old football hero Austin, trying to understand the inexplicable depress that has drained his interest in life, thinks that he has found relief in a girl who seems very special.
Korman, Gordon. Pop
Lonely after a midsummer move to a new town, sixteen-year-old high-school quarterback Marcus Jordan becomes friends with a retired professional linebacker who is great at training him, but whose childish behavior keeps Marcus in hot water.
Lynch, Chris. The Inexcusable
High school senior and football play Keir sets out to enjoy himself on graduation night, but when he attempts to comfort a friend whose date has left her stranded, things go terribly wrong.
McKissack Jr., Frederick. Shooting Star
Jomo Rogers, a naturally talented athlete, starts taking performance enhancing drugs in order to be an even better high school football player, but finds his life spinning out of control as his game improves.
Murdock, Catherine GIlbert. Dairy Queen: A Novel
After spending her summer running the family farm and training the quarterback for her school's rival football team, sixteen-year-old D.J. decides to go out for the sport herself, not anticipating the reactions of those around her.
Tharpe, Tim. Knights of the Hill Country
In his senior year, high school star linebacker Hampton Greene finally begins to think for himself and discovers that he might be interested in more than just football.
Hockey
Beam, Matt. Last December
15-year-old Steven is composing a letter to his yet-unborn sister Sam. He writes about the events of his life: school, sports (he’s the goalie on his hockey team), drugs, alcohol and sex, most of which happen in his mind.
Hrdlitschka, Shelley. Disconnected.
Fourteen-year-old Canadians, Tanner and Alex, discover they have a mysterious connection when drug dealers kidnap Tanner while he is on a hockey trip, mistaking him for Alex who met them while running away from an abusive father.
Hughes, Pat. Open Ice
Hockey has been Nick Taglio's life since he was five years old, so when a massive concussion benches him--possibly for good--everything seems to fall apart, including his schoolwork, his family relationships, his friendships, and his love life.
Lynch, Chris. Iceman
Fourteen-year-old Eric, a ruthless hockey player prone to violence on the ice, tries to reconcile his own needs with those of his parents.
Wieler, Diana J. Bad Boy.
A.J. Brandiosa becomes the bad boy of the Cyclone hockey team, and learns that his best friend is gay, as he tries to cope with his own sexuality during his senior year in high school.
Rafting / Kayaking
Hobbs, Will. River Thunder.
Despite some reservations, sixteen-year-old Jessie joins her companions from the previous year's adventure on the Colorado River for a legal rafting trip through the Grand Canyon.
Rottman, S.L. Rough Waters.
After their parents' death in an automobile accident, two teenage brothers are sent to Colorado to live with an estranged uncle, owner of a white water rafting outfit.
Skiing
Creech, Sharon. Bloomability
When her aunt and uncle take her from New Mexico to Lugano, Switzerland, to attend an international school, thirteen-year-old Dinnie discovers an expanding world including skiing, and her place within it.
Gerber, Linda. The Finnish Line
Ski jumper Mo Clark goes to Finland with the Scholar Athlete Exchange Program, trying to get away from her famous and accomplished family and seeking equality in her male-dominated sport. Part of the S.A.S.S. series
Soccer
Bloor, Edward. Tangerine.
Twelve-year-old Paul, who lives in the shadow of his football hero brother Erik, fights for the right to play soccer despite his near blindness and slowly begins to remember the incident that damaged his eyesight.
Esckilsen, Erik. Offsides
Tom Gray, a Mohawk Indian and star soccer player, moves to a new high school and refuses to play for the Warriors with their insulting mascot.
Fitzgerald, Dawn. Soccer Chick Rules
While trying to focus on a winning soccer season, thirteen-year-old Tess becomes involved in local politics when she learns that all sports programs at her school will be stopped unless a tax levy is passed.
Klass, David. Home of the Braves
Eighteen-year-old Joe, captain of the soccer team, is dismayed when a hotshot player shows up from Brazil and threatens to take over both the team and the girl whom Joe hopes to date.
Peet, Mal. Keeper
In an interview with a young journalist, World Cup hero, El Gato, describes his youth in the Brazilian rain forest and the events and experience on a mysterious soccer field in the middle of the jungle, and people that helped make him a great goalkeeper and renowned soccer star. The combination of fast paced soccer story and supernatural mystery make this a different kind of sports book, and yes, a keeper.
Rigby, Robert. Goal II: Living the Dream
The exciting world of professional soccer comes to life as young Santiago Munez from Los Angeles is playing for Newcastle United and then is chosen to play for Real Madrid where he faces the pressures and temptations of fame.
Swimming
Calame, Don. Swim the Fly
Fifteen-year-old Matt Gratton and his two best friends, Coop and Sean, always set themselves a summertime goal. This year's? To see a real-live naked girl for the first time--
Coleman, Evelyn. Born in Sin
Despite serious obstacles and setbacks, fourteen-year-old Keisha pursues her dream of becoming an Olympic swimmer and medical doctor.
Crutcher, Chris. Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes.
The daily class discussions about the nature of man, the existence of God, abortion, organized religion, suicide and other contemporary issues serve as a backdrop for a high-school swimmer's attempt to answer a friend's dramatic cry for help.
Crutcher, Chris. Stotan!
A high school coach invites members of his swimming team to a memorable week of rigorous training that tests their moral fiber as well as their physical stamina.
Crutcher, Chris. Whale Talk
Intellectually and athletically gifted, TJ, a multiracial, adopted teenager, shuns organized sports and the gung-ho athletes at his high school until he agrees to form a swimming team and recruits some of the school's less popular students.
Forde, Catherine. Fat Boy Swim
Teased and abused for being grossly overweight, Jimmy, a fourteen-year-old Scottish teenager who dreams mysterious dreams and secretly aspires to become a chef, decides to turn his self-loathing life around by learning how to swim.
Oates, Joyce Carol. Sexy
Sixteen-year-old Darren Flynn, a popular, good-looking high school athlete who lacks self-confidence, learns that his jock friends are hatching a revenge act against their English teacher for failing a member of the swim team.
Rottman, S.L. Head Above Water.
Skye, a high school junior, tries to find the time for both family obligations and personal interests, which include caring for her brother who has Down's Syndrome, dating her first boyfriend, and swimming competitively.
Tennis
Clippinger, Carol. Open Court
A thirteen-year-old tennis prodigy grapples with her seemingly incompatible desires to be an exceptional athlete and a normal teenager.
Corbet, Robert. Fifteen Love
Mia, a violist, and Will, a tennis player, each relate their feelings about each other, school, friends, and family troubles as they struggle to understand the opposite sex and to survive being fifteen.
Feinstein, John. Vanishing Act
Eighth-grade sports reporters Susan Carol and Stevie reunite at the U.S. Open tennis championships where they investigate the mysterious disappearance of a top Russian player.
Track & Field
Coleman, Michael. On the Run
When a persistent youth offender is caught yet again, he is sentenced to community service as the partner to a blind runner.
Creech, Sharon. Heartbeat
Twelve-year-old Annie ponders the many rhythms of life the year that her mother becomes pregnant, her grandfather begins faltering, and her best friend and running partner becomes distant.
Crutcher, Chris. Ironman.
While training for a triathlon, seventeen-year-old Bo attends an anger management group at school which leads him to examine his relationship with his father.
Levine, Anna. Running on Eggs.
When Karen and Yasmine become friends as well as members of a mixed Arab and Jewish track team in Israel, relatives and friends of both girls disapprove of the relationship.
Levy, Marilyn. Run for Your Life
While living in a housing project in Oakland, California, thirteen-year-old Kisha joins a track team and discovers that she can be a winner.
Lion, Melissa. Swollen
A teenaged girl copes with the death of a star track and field athlete by running.
Newton, Robert. Runner
In Richmond, Australia, in 1919, fifteen-year-old Charlie Feehan becomes an errand boy for a notorious mobster, hoping that his ability to run will help him, his widowed mother, and his baby brother to escape poverty.
Van Draanen, Wendelin. The Running Dream
When a school bus accident leaves sixteen-year-old Jessica an amputee, she returns to school with a prosthetic limb and her track team finds a wonderful way to help rekindle her dream of running again.
Voigt, Cynthia. The Runner.
As a dedicated runner, a teenage boy has always managed to distance himself from other people until the experience of coaching one of his teammates on the track team gradually helps him see the value of giving and receiving.
Watson, Katy. Juice
An Australian teenage track star aiming for the Olympics has trouble balancing her training and the rest of her life.
Wrestling/Boxing/Martial Arts
Courtenay, Bryce. The Power of One
Peekay, a white British boy in South Africa during World War II, between the ages of five and eleven, survives an abusive boarding school and goes on to succeed in life and the boxing ring, with help from a chicken, a boxer, a pianist, black African prisoners, and many others.
Karr, Kathleen. The Boxer.
Having learned how to box while in prison, fifteen-year-old Johnny sets out to discover if he can make a decent living as a fighter in late nineteenth-century New York City.
Lipsyte, Robert. The Brave.
After leaving the Indian reservation for New York, Sonny Bear learns to control his rage in order to train for the boxing ring with Alfred Brooks, an ex-boxer who is now a policeman.
Lipsyte, Robert. The Chief.
On the verge of having a shot at the heavyweight boxing championship, nineteen-year-old Sonny Bear finds himself with conflicting loyalties when trouble erupts on his reservation over the construction of a new gambling casino. Sequel to The Brave.
Lipsyte, Robert. The Contender
A Harlem high school dropout escapes from a gang of punks into a boxing gym, where he learns that being a contender is hard and often discouraging work, but that you don't know anything until you try.
Lynch, Chris. Shadow Boxer.
After their father dies of boxing injuries, George is determined to prevent his younger brother, who sees boxing as his legacy, from pursuing a career in the sport.
Martino, Alfred C. Pinned
Dealing with family problems, girls, and their own competitive natures, high school seniors Ivan Korske and Bobby Zane face each other in the final match of the New Jersey State Wrestling Championship.
Orr, Wendy. Peeling the Onion.
Following an automobile accident in which her neck is broken, a teenage karate champion begins a long and painful recovery with the help of her family.
Pyron, Bobbie. The Ring
Plagued by slipping grades and a budding criminal record, Mardie's heading down a path of self-destruction she can't seem to avoid. Unlike her perfect older brother Michael, who does everything right according to their father, Mardie can't meet those high expectations. Then she discovers a girls' boxing club at the gym, and learns to believe in herself.
Zusak, Markus. Fighting Ruben Wolfe.
Partly because of their family's poor finances and partly to prove themselves, brothers Ruben and Cameron take jobs as fighters and find themselves reacting very differently in the boxing ring.
Comments or Suggestions?
Contact Cathy Lichtman, Teen Librarian
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