Whale Talk

TJ Jones, high school senior whose mixed parentage and rough experiences as a neglected child have made him sensitive to anyone who's mistreated in school, decides to help out a younger kid who's being bullied. How to do it? Create a swim team and make the younger kid a successful athlete. The school doesn't have a pool. but that won't stop TJ and his crew of likable misfits.

Beanball by Gene Fehler

Luke "Wizard" Wallace is a great baseball player. He is popular, good looking, and talented. The team plays better when Luke is there. Life is good for him until the day he is hit in the face by a fastball. The ball crushes his eye and knocks him unconscious. He loses the sight in his left eye. This novel in verse relates how Luke's injury affects him and the people around him, his coach, the team, his friends, his family, the students at his school, the other team, the other coach, the players on the other team. It reads quickly and has a good ending. Luke decides he will try to play ball again. He becomes friends with a girl who cares about him and is an inspiration to his team.

Brett McCarthy: Work in Progress by Maria Padian

Who is Brett McCarthy?
Is Brett doomed to social failure?
Will she become an outcast after the “phone thing”?
Is it possible that Brett is now a juvenile delinquent?
How long will Brett have to eat lunch with No Hare?
Will the mean gossip girls ruin her life forever?
Find out in this hard to put down pageturner. You might find yourself laughing.
You might find yourself experiencing a whole range of emotions as Brett sorts out what has happened, deals with the changes in her life and her story unfolds in this fast read. I truly enjoyed this book and I recommend it highly.
by Ann Gilmartin
(from Nancy Keane's booktalking course)

Peak by Ronald Smith

14-year-old Peak Marcello - yes, that's his real name; his father is a famous mountain climber - has a passion for climbing. But in New York City, where he lives with his mother, stepfather and twin sisters, there aren't any mountains to climb...but there ARE skyscrapers! (Read excerpt pg. 4)

Peak is arrested for scaling and spray-painting graffiti on the Woolworth Building in NYC. And this isn't his first incident - the police have been trying for some time to catch the mysterious climber that has been leaving a blue mountain peak tag on skyscrapers throughout the city. Now Peak is about to be sentenced to nearly 3 years in a juvenile correction center. That is, until Peak's father Josh, who Peak hasn't seen in over 7 years, suddenly bursts into the courtroom and strikes a deal with the judge. The plea bargain ensures that Peak will be long gone and out of sight while also guaranteeing positive publiciy and financial gain for Josh's Himalayan mountain expedition company. Less than 48 hours later, Peak finds himself on his way to Kathmandu in Nepal, to his father's base camp at the foot of Mt. Everest. Slowly, Peak starts to figure out why his father was so anxious to rescue him in New York. (Read excerpt pg. 74).

But, in order to be the youngest climber to summit Everest, Peak has less than 3 months to acclimatize, train, and reach the summit in his first attempt, before his 15th birthday in June. Can he make it? Or will Sun-Jo, the 14-year-old grandson of his father's head Sherpa, who just happens to have a birthday 6 days before Peak, make it ahead of him? Better watch your back, Peak!
by Kelley Gibson
(from Nancy Keane's booktalking course)

The Basket Counts by Arnold Adoff

Free verse poems about basketball from both boys and girls viewpoint.  Possible poems to read: The Basket Counts: Three: p. 14.