"So real it hurts."—David Arnold, New York Times bestselling author of Mosquitoland. A summer of basketball, first love, and the friends who've got your back when life gets crazy, set in a trailer park in small town America. Travis never gives up. Not when his mom takes off. Not when he gets suspended from basketball. Not when he cracks four ribs jumping off a bridge to impress a girl. Not when he and his best friend Creature get into trouble deeper than they know how to handle. From...
THE BIG WIN Midfielder Mark Towers has just struck lucky: his family has won the Lottery! But Chris Weston, captain of Danebridge School football team, wants a different kind of big win - on the football pitch...THE BIG FIX Can Danebridge beat their arch-rivals, Shenby, when the referee seems to be playing against them too? THE BIG FREEZE Chris captains the team in an exciting triangular tournament - on an all-weather pitch!
Naz is nicknamed the "goal machine" because he scores goals for fun. He's the league's top scorer. But then things start to go wrong: fabulous saves, the woodwork, an injury...His confidence wanes and he tries too hard. All of a sudden he can't buy a goal. His place is in doubt for the cup game. An injury gives him a break and he finally gets back on track - with a huge slice of luck - and ends up scoring a hat-trick. Freestylers are a range of reading books with low-level text for readers with...
Ledley is a young centre back with a bright future. But when he comes up against seasoned international centre forward Ryan Strong, he's given a rough ride. Now the two teams are to meet again in the cup quarter final. Ledley needs to learn fast and stand up tall if he's to come out on top and help Sheldon to the semi-finals. Freestylers are a range of reading books with low-level text for readers with a reading age of 5-7. The engaging stories are perfect for older, struggling readers as well a...
Robbie is sent off for punching an opponent. His manager gives him a final warning. Sheldon's assistant coach Dougie Brown shows Robbie some old film footage that makes him think about his behaviour. But will he get his place back in the team? Freestylers are a range of reading books with low-level text for readers with a reading age of 5-7. The engaging stories are perfect for older, struggling readers as well as emerging readers. All texts have been checked by reading consultant Dee Reid.
Teenager Tim Temples must decide if he wants to leave his comfortable life in a small town and go to college.
The Slammers are going well. Practising hard. Getting those skills. Working as a team. But can they raise money for new boots and singlets? How will they go against the Mighty Mixtures? And who will be rookie of the year...? More great basketball action!
Three boys, one summertime goal: to see a real-live naked girl.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 - quite a challenge, given that none of the guys have the nerve to even ask a girl out on a date. But catching a girl in the buff starts to look easy compared to Matt's other summertime aspiration: to swim the 100-yard butterfly (the hardest stroke known to...
Jonty's father is the Red Fox - a superstar in the pop world. And now Jonty's dad is helping the young footballers of Great Catesby Primary School in recording a special football song: Come on, you Greats!The third tale about Tom, Jonty and their friends in the school football team.
A dying boy on a dying planet plays a dangerous, sophisticated, and addictive game that could save his life-if it doesn't kill him first. A complex, gorgeous, literary thriller for fans for Ernest Cline, Brandon Sanderson, Orson Scott Card, and M.T. Anderson. In a futuristic version of Earth, society is mostly controlled by a company that produces an addictive virtual reality game called Chimera. Everyone plays Chimera. Defeating the levels is how you earn enough points for clothes, food, even...
Bloomsbury High Low books encourage and support reading practice by providing gripping, age-appropriate stories for struggling and reluctant readers, those with dyslexia, or those with English as an additional language. Printed on tinted paper and with a dyslexia friendly font and illustrations, The Football Trials is aimed at readers aged 12+ and has a manageable length (80 pages) and reading age (9+). Produced in association with reading experts at Catch Up, a charity which aims to address und...
The Scoreboard Series: East Break / the Lunch Bowl / Side Kick / Strike Zone / in the Running (The scoreboard)
by Bob Wright and Steven A Boga
The Academy is the hottest international sports school for teen athletes. There are only two ways in: money - and lots of it - or enough talent to earn a scholarship. Young tennis star Maya's dreams have finally come true! She's got the scholarship. She's got the drive. She's on her way from small town to pro career . . . But when Maya starts boarding at the sports training school, her fantasy of the Academy doesn't quite match the reality - because where there are beautiful, talented teens, t...
Avi Greenbaum is Jewish and lives in West Jerusalem. Moussa Shakir is Palestinian and lives in East Jerusalem. Both are 15 years old, live without their fathers and belong to the same soccer club. In the spring of 2006, they face reminders of the conflict that has dogged the region for the past three generations.
They’re from two different worlds.He lives in the estate house, and she spends most of her time in the stables helping her father train horses. In fact, Savannah has always been much more comfortable around horses than boys. Especially boys like Jack Goodwin—cocky, popular and completely out of her league. She knows the rules: no mixing between the staff and the Goodwin family. But Jack has no such boundaries. With her dream of becoming a jockey, Savannah isn’t exactly one to follow the rules ei...
“Packed full of emotion. . . . An influential read with a powerful message.”—Booklist Whether goose or swan, I have wings. And I'll fly. Gus's life is about one thing—swimming. And he knows that the only coach in town who can get him to the Olympics is Coach Marks. So it seems like a simple plan: convince Coach Marks to train him, and everything from there on in is just hard work. Gus has never been afraid of hard work. But there are a few complications. For one thing, Coach Marks was Danny'...
Taylor’s a star on the soccer field, but she’s going to need a new game plan to protect her heartCaptain of the soccer team, president of the Debate Club, contender for valedictorian: Taylor’s always pushed herself to be perfect. After all, that’s what is expected of a senator’s daughter. But one impulsive decision—one lie to cover for her boyfriend—and Taylor’s kicked out of private school. Everything she’s worked so hard for is gone, and now she’s starting over at Hundred Oaks High.Soccer has...
Fans of Sarah Dessen and Jenny Han will feel right at home in this heartfelt coming-of-age story about a homesick girl who gives up her summer plans to help her distant family—only to find everything she was looking for, including love.Ocean breeze in her hair and sand between her toes, Anise can't wait to spend the summer before her senior year surfing and hanging out on the beach with friends. Santa Cruz is more than her home—it's her heart. But when her aunt, a single mother, is in a serious...
“A frank view of life in a juvenile detention center. . . . Absorbing and wrenching.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review) Sadie has always been the responsible one. Not like her older sister, Carla, who leaves her three-year-old daughter, Lulu, with Aunt Sadie while she parties and gets high. But when both sisters are caught up in a drug deal — wrong place, wrong time — Sadie does the responsible thing and confesses to a crime she didn’t commit. Her choice keeps Carla out of jail and Lulu out...
Celebrate the 20th anniversary of the global smash hit film! If you're 18, love football and can bend a ball like Beckham, the world must be your oyster, right? Wrong. If you're Jess - 18, Indian and a girl - forget it.Jess just wants to play football but her wedding-obsessed parents have other ideas so she hides it from them. But when Jess and her friend Jules join a ladies team and get spotted by a talent scout, it all kicks off ... The Bend it Like Beckham movie was a box-office hit, starri...
Together, they won college football's highest award. This is a true, memorable, compassionate story of courage and love between two brothers. In 1973, while John Cappelletti was winning the Heisman Trophy as the outstanding college football player in America, his younger brother Joey was suffering from leukemia. But John, now a running back for the Los Angeles Rams, had a very special medicine for Joey. It was called touchdowns. And John scored them in bunches because they were "Something for...