Teens Sports Booklist

Baseball and Softball

Bull Catcher Alden Carter Pete and Jeff continue their friendship and love of baseball as they progress from ninth grade through high school in their small Wisconsin town.

Summerland Michael Chabon Ethan Feld, the worst baseball player in the history of the game, finds himself recruited by a 100-year-old scout to help a band of fairies triumph over an ancient enemy.

CPainting the Black Carl Deuker When star 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.

Dean Duffy Randy Powell Eighteen-year-old Dean, a former high school baseball star whose future has been ruined by a batting slump and a bad arm, is offered a college baseball scholarship and finds himself uncertain of whether to take it.

Farm Team Will Weaver With his father in jail and his mother working full-time, 14-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.

Bat 6 Virginia Euwer Wolfe In small town, post-World War Oregon, twenty-one 6th grade girls recount the story of an annual softball game, during which one girl's bigotry comes to the surface.

Basketball

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian Sherman Alexie Budding cartoonist and basketball player Junior leaves his troubled school on the Spokane Indian Reservation to attend an all-white farm town school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

Ball, Don't Lie Matt de la Pena 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.

Night Hoops Carl Deuker While trying to prove that he is good enough to be on his high school's varsity basketball team, Nick must also deal with his parents' divorce and erratic behavior of a troubled classmate who lives across the street.

On The Devil's Court Carl Deuker 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.

Danger Zone David Klass 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.

Hoops Walter Dean Myers A teenage basketball player 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.

Slam! Walter Dean Myers 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.

Life, Love, and The Pursuit of Free Throws Jeanette Rallison High school freshmen Josie and Cami try to remain best friends as they compete for basketball awards and boys.

Black and White Paul Volponi Two star high school basketball players, one black and one white, experience the justice system differently after committing a crime together and getting caught.

BoxingThe Brave Robert Lipsyte Having left the Indian reservation for the streets of New York, seventeen-year-old boxer Sonny Bear tries to harness his inner rage by training with Alfred Brooks, who has left the sport to become a policeman.

Fighting Ruben Wolfe Marcus Zusak 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.

Dance and Ballet

On Pointe Lorie Ann Grover In this novel written in free verse, Clare and her grandfather must deal with changes in their lives when Clare's summer growth spurt threatens to end her dream of becoming a ballet dancer and her grandfather suffers a stroke.

Marie, Dancing Carolyn Meyer A fictionalized autobiography of Marie Van Goethem, the impoverished student from the Paris Opéra ballet school who became the model for Edgar Degas's famous sculpture, "The Little Dancer."

Another Way to Dance Martha Southgate Vicki's dream has been to attend the summer program at the School of American Ballet, and she is ready. What she wasn't ready for, though, was to be one of only two African American students in the entire program.

FootballImitate the Tiger Jan Cheripko A high school football player struggles with alcohol dependency and ends up at a rehab school for teenagers.

Roughnecks Thomas Cochran Travis Cody prepares for the final game of his high school football career, a rematch with his school's chief rival.

Running Loose Chris Crutcher A boy's senior year in high school goes awry when he's kicked off the football team for taking a stand against the coach, and his girlfriend is killed in a car accident.

Invisible Pete Hautman Doug and Andy are unlikely best friends--one a loner obsessed by his model trains, the other a popular student involved in football and theater--who grew up together and share a bond that nothing can sever.

Rash Pete Hautman In the year 2074, French fries are illegal, football has been banned, and running isn't just for your health anymore....

Necessary Roughness Marie Lee Sixteen-year-old Korean American Chan moves from Los Angeles to a small town in Minnesota, where he must cope not only with racism on the football team but also with the tensions in his relationship with his strict father.

Anything to Win Gloria Miklowitz To increase his chances of winning a college scholarship, a talented high school quarterback risks his health by taking anabolic steroids to gain weight.

Dairy Queen Catherine Murdock 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.. (Sequel: The Off Season)

Three Clams and an Oyster Randy Powell During their humorous search to find a fourth player for their flag football team, three high school juniors are forced to examine their long friendship, their individual flaws, and their inability to try new experiences.

Crash Jerry Spinelli Seventh-grader John "Crash" Coogan has always been comfortable with his tough, aggressive behavior, until his relationship with an unusual Quaker boy and his grandfather's stroke make him consider the meaning of friendship and the importance of family.

Hockey

Iceman Chris Lynch 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.

RunningHeartbeat Sharon Creech 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.

Rash Pete Hautman In the year 2074, French fries are illegal, football has been banned, and running isn't just for your health anymore....

SkiingThe Prince and the Snowgirl Simon Cheshire Tom Miller has been performing as a look-alike of Prince George of England for several years, but he finally decides to change his appearance and try to figure out who he really is when the real prince makes a surprise appearance while Tom is competing at the UK Inter-Schools Ski Championships in Scotland.

Bloomability Sharon Creech When her aunt and uncle take her from New Mexico to Lugano, Switzerland, to attend an international school, thirteen-year-old Dinnie discovers her world expanding.

SurfingGingerbread Rachel Cohn After being expelled from a fancy boarding school, Cyd Charisse's problems with her mother escalate after Cyd falls in love with a sensitive surfer and is subsequently sent from San Francisco to New York City to spend time with her biological father. (Sequel: Shrimp)

Amaryllis Craig Crist-Evans Jimmy and his older brother Frank share a love of surfing and their problems with a drunken father, until Frank turns eighteen and goes to Vietnam.

After Summer Nick Earls An Australian teen surfer feels bored while vacationing at his mother's beach house and is worried about passing his final examinations until he meets an attractive local girl.

Swimming

Whale Talk Chris Crutcher TJ 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.

These Are The Rules Paul Many Having quit his school's swim team, Colm tries to swim the lake at his family's summer home, at the same time working on his difficult relationship with his father and pondering the mystery of girls.

Tennis

Skeleton Key Anthony Horowitz Reluctant teenage-spy Alex Rider, on a routine mission at the Wimbledon tennis championships, gets caught up in Chinese gangs, illegal nuclear weapons, and the suspect plans of his Russian host, General Sarov.

The Whistling Toilets Randy Powell While coaching tennis for a group of inner city "runts" as well as for his friend Ginny, a star player, sixteen-year-old Stan grows in understanding himself and others.

Amazing Grace Megan Shull Grace “Ace” Kincaid, international teen tennis star, can’t take it any more.