RIPTIDE

RIPTIDE, by Lindsey Scheibe (Flux, May 2013)(ages 12+).  It's the summer before senior year.  Best friends and fellow surfers Ford and Grace are at different crossroads:  Ford wants to move their relationship to the next level while padding his resume with an internship at Grace's father's law firm.  Grace wants to somehow break free from the Ivy League track her parents have placed her on.

But that means she'll have to pay for college on her own.  So she enters a major surfing competition, one being judged by the coach of the UCSD surfing team, in hopes of winning and landing a scholarship.

And that means, she doesn't have time for Ford.  At least not in that way...

RIPTIDE offers an engaging narrative told in alternating voices -- a thoroughly entertaining read about an epic summer of change.

A PASSION FOR VICTORY

A PASSION FOR VICTORY: THE STORY OF THE OLYMPICS IN ANCIENT AND EARLY MODERN TIMES, by Benson Bobrick (Knopf/Random House 2012)(ages 10+). In this year of the XXXth Games of the Modern Era, Benson Bobrick looks back on the history of the Olympics from its origins in ancient Greece to its reawakening in 1896.

Bobrick's accounts of both the ancient and early modern games (up to 1948) is fascinating, filled with anecdotes about athletes the politic of the day.  A must-read for anyone interested in how today's Olympics came to be. (And, personally, I wish they would bring back chariot racing.).

HENRY AARON'S DREAM

HENRY AARON'S DREAM, by Matt Tavares (Candlewick 2010)(ages 8-10). Young Henry Aaron had always dreamt of becoming a major league baseball player. So he dedicated himself to that task, practicing at every opportunity. It still seemed impossible, in the 1940s, in segregated Alabama. But, then, Jackie Robinson burst onto the scene and Henry's dream seemed just a little more real.

So he worked even harder, playing first in the Negro League and then in the minors, until in 1954, he earned a position with the Milwaukee Braves. And, then, twenty years later, he broke Babe Ruth's home run record...

HENRY AARON'S DREAM is an uplifting and heartwarming account of how, through perseverance and ignoring the nay-sayers, Hank Aaron made it to the Major Leagues to become baseball's home run king.

Personal Note: I remember how excited my brother and I were when my mom took us to see the Braves play the Cubs at Wrigley Field that summer, and especially the ovation Hank Aaron received when he came up to bat. It was the first time I'd ever seen the fans stand up en masse and applaud a player on another team.

Sports and more

I tend to be kind of indifferent about professional sports as a whole (and I include big-time college sports in that category), especially those that involve a ball and hand-eye coordination. I try to go to the gym and swim or run regularly but am usually not that interested in paying attention to what other people are doing (also, I myself have absolutely no hand-eye coordination :-)).

I do, of course, follow the Longhorns (somewhat avidly) and the Cubs (guardedly), and every four years, the Olympics, but that's pretty much it as a spectator. So this month, I was kind of surprised to discover that, this (last) month, I actually paid some attention to Wimbledon (the longest tennis match), the World Cup (the US game and officiating), and the Tour de France (that Austinite on Team RadioShack and really great coverage on Versus).

All this got me thinking about my reading choices and books having sports or athletics in them...

So, anyway, linked or set in below are some "sports" books that I've covered on the blog or over at Cyn's web site. By "sports books," I mean books in which sports and/or athletics are or were important to the protagonist or the plot, and can include those in which the climax is other than the "big game." This does not include books involving swordplay - those are for another post :-). Oddly enough, all are YA.

BUG BOY, by Eric Luper
IN THE BREAK, by Jack Lopez
JUMP, by Elisa Carbone
OPEN ICE, by Pat Hughes
PINNED, by Alfred C. Martino
SHIFT, by Jennifer Bradbury
THAW, by Monica Roe

Some older ones from the web site:

ROUGHNECKS by Thomas Cochran (Harcourt, 1997). Oil Patch, Louisiana, is a town where football is king and where Travis Cody is responsible for the team's only loss. Travis's championship game-day preparations are a vehicle for Travis to reflect on his past as an Oil Patch Roughneck and his future as . . . he doesn't know what. Ages 12-up.

SLAM! by Walter Dean Myers (Scholastic, 1996). SLAM! is the story of Greg, 17, who's hot on the basketball courts but not in class. A strong voice and well-drawn character who's part of the crowd that looks to athletics for escape and a future. Ages 12-up.

WRESTLING STURBRIDGE by Rich Wallace (Knopf, 1996). Sturbridge, PA, is a wrestling town. Ben is the second-best wrestler in his weight class. The first-best is his friend, who's counted on to win the state championship. Ben has other plans. Compelling guy voice and well-drawn characters. Wallace is also the author of SHOTS ON GOAL, also set in Sturbridge, Pennsylvania, focusing this time on soccer, friendship, teamwork, girls, and feuding about all four. Ages 12-up

JUMP

JUMP, by Elisa Carbone (Viking, May 2010)(ages 12+). At sixteen, P.K. decides that boarding school is not in her future, whatever her parents might think. So she grabs her climbing gear and plans to run away. Joined by a gorgeous and mysterious boy from her climbing gym by the name of "Critter" (who has a secret past of his own), she hitchhikes across the country on a quest for the perfect rock and self-discovery.

Told in alternating points-of-view, JUMP is compelling and suspenseful, part thriller, part romance, and part coming-of-age story.

BUG BOY

BUG BOY, by Eric Luper (FSG 2009)(12+). It's the height of the Great Depression and 15 year old Jack Walsh is senior exercise boy for his stable at Saratoga racetrack, but aspires to be a world-famous and winning jockey. It's all he can do at the moment, though, to keep his mind on his job, eke out a meager existence, and send modest sums back home.

But Jack gets his chance when his stable's premier jockey suffers an accident at the gate. Jack immediately becomes an unexpected success and celebrity. But between the mobsters who want to fix the races and the fat cats who own them, can Jack make it to the finish line in one piece?

Replete with period detail, BUG BOY exposes in compelling fashion both the glamor and dubious ethics of the 1930s horse-racing culture. Jack is likeable, engaging, and sympathetic. In short, BUG BOY is the fascinating story of a young man deciding who he is and wants to be in a world of temptation, corruption, and (sometimes) integrity.

SHIFT, by Jennifer Bradbury

SHIFT, by Jennifer Bradbury (Atheneum, May 2008). In SHIFT, first-time novelist Jennifer Bradbury presents a textured and moving portrait of a friendship and lives in transition.

The summer before they head off to college, Chris Collins and his best friend Win Coggans are on the adventure of a lifetime: a cross-country bicycle trip from their home in West Virginia to Seattle. But after two months in the saddle during which their friendship (and sometime rivalry) is tested to the breaking point, they separate. Chris ultimately makes it to the coast without Win and hops a bus back home.

Win, however, isn't there. And he still isn't back when Chris leaves for Georgia Tech.

Win's well-connected father suspects Chris has something to do with Win's disappearance...and then the FBI show up at Chris's dorm.

Making skillful use of flashbacks to tell the story, Bradbury does a terrific job of balancing details of the bicycle trek with development of the relationship between the friends (and their parents), and Chris's attempts to uncover/accept what really happened. Part road trip, part mystery, SHIFT is at all times compelling and thought-provoking.

THAW, by Monica M. Roe

THAW, by Monica M. Roe (Front Street, April 2008): In this finely-wrought first novel, Monica Roe presents the story of eighteen-year old Dane Rafferty: handsome, brilliant, and a gifted athlete, Dane is intolerant of failure and more than a little arrogant. In the midst of his senior year of high school, he's afflicted with Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a rare and debilitating disease which causes almost complete paralysis. In response, Dane's emotionally distant parents send him away from his home in upstate New York to a rehabilitation clinic in Florida. There, Dane encounters an oddball set of patients and therapists who alternately cajole, irritate, and profoundly affect him. Although seventy-five percent of patients with GBS make a full recovery, there are twenty-five percent who don't and Dane comes to realize he might just be in the latter category...

Told in a compelling first person voice (with flashbacks to his life prior to the illness), THAW artfully traces Dane's progression from self-centered and exquisitely arrogant to being aware of what his aloofness might be costing him (and others around him).

Best of all, throughout the novel -- even when he's at his worst -- Dane is portrayed as three-dimensional and real. In short, Roe engages the reader into Dane's character, situation, and growth in a resonant and affecting manner.

In the Break, by Jack Lopez

IN THE BREAK, by Jack Lopez (Little, Brown 2006)(Ages 12 and up). Publication Date: July 2006.

Fifteen year old surfer Juan steals his mother's SUV and he and his best friend Jamie flee to Mexico (with Jamie's sister and their surfboards) after Jamie beats up his (Jamie's) abusive step-father. It's not the most well thought out idea in the world, but they figure that while hiding out, there's also the waves...

According to the jacket copy, the author, Jack Lopez, surfed in the U.S. Open Championships in Huntington Beach, as well as in Baja California and mainland Mexico. This insider expertise comes through in Juan's voice, which is redolent with passion for the sea, the waves, and the bonds of friendship. IN THE BREAK eschews "surfer dude" cliches while letting the reader understand the lure of the surf, as it explores the trio's bittersweet past and present, while offering hope for the future.

Open Ice, by Pat Hughes

Open Ice, by Pat Hughes (Random House, 2005).

Sophomore Nick Taglio is passionate about one thing (other than girls): hockey. When he suffers yet another concussion, amid fears that a further injury could result in permanent damage, his doctor and parents are adamant that he quit playing. Nick struggles to come to terms with his new circumstance, while having to deal with family, friends, girlfriends, teammates, and that splitting headache, as he tries to recover.

Open Ice was nominated for the ALA's Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers.

PINNED

Pinned, by Alfred C. Martino (Harcourt, 2005). Martino's first novel, Pinned, offers the story of two wrestlers, Ivan Korske and Bobby Zane, and their respective quests to win the New Jersey State Wrestling Championship. Ivan, a driven outcast at a middle class school (his only friend is Shelley, the girl next door), is mourning the death of his mother and desperately needs to win to land a scholarship to college in Arizona, as far away from his hometown as possible. Bobby, from an upper middle class family (his parents are a lawyer and a real estate agent) finds his focus on the mat even as his parents' marriage is dissolving, and he discovers that having sex with his girlfriend can have consequences. Martino, a former wrestler and wrestling coach, adroitly captures the grit and passion of the sport as the wrestlers strive for victory and to make weight.

Also of interest to fans of wrestling: Wrestling Sturbridge, by Rich Wallace (Knopf, 1996)(scroll down for mini-review)