Underdog Book

Coach was running us like there was no tomorrow. I guessed that was the idea. For everybody except twelve of us there wasn't going to be a tomorrow because he was picking the ...

Rosemary A. Chase - Children's Literature

This is a story about team play, sportsmanship, and friendship, where boys treat girls as equals, friends, and teammates. When Nick and Kia meet a boy who can really handle a basketball, they invite him to the tryout for the local team. Ashton, the boy from outside of their neighborhood, agrees to join them for the tryout and promptly learns that there is a big difference between organized ball and "street-ball." These fifth-graders all stick up for each other. "Sometimes a coach is hardest on the people he thinks have the most potential," Nick says to Ashton while trying to convince him to come back to practice. Ashton thinks the coach has singled him out because he is black. Nick knows that the coach benched him because Ashton is not a team player. As Nick tells the story he compares neighborhoods—Ashton's feels dangerous, while his and Kia's feels protective. When Kia and Nick find Ashton at his apartment complex watching street ball, he is making rude remarks to a very large man with a tattoo on his arm. Kia calls Ashton stupid for ridiculing the big player—Kia and Nick are both frightened that the brut might take his revenge on all three of them. In spite of their fear, Kia and Nick step between Ashton and the man, proving the sincerity of their friendship. The moral of the story is that team play is the best way, and friendships can and do cross race and neighborhood lines. 2004, Orca Book Publishers, Ages 7 to 11.