This booklist was contributed by Appleton Public Library Reference and Information Services Staff, 1/07
Baseball | Basketball | Football | Soccer | Swimming | Other Sports |
The Fred Field
(1996)The summer after he finishes seventh grade, Oren is occupied with turning an empty lot into a memorial ball field honoring his best friend, who was murdered there, and with finding the killer and making him confess.
Bull Catcher
(1994)Pete and Jeff continue their friendship and love of baseball as they progress from ninth grade through high school in their small Wisconsin town.
High Heat
(2003)When sophomore Shane Hunter's father is arrested for money laundering at his Lexus dealership, the star pitcher's life of affluence and private school begins to fall apart.
Samurai Shortstop
(2006)While obtaining a Western education at a prestigious Japanese boarding school in 1890, sixteen-year-old Toyo also receives traditional samurai training which has profound effects on both his baseball game and his relationship with his father.
Shakespeare Bats Cleanup
(2003)When a fourteen-year-old baseball player catches mononucleosis, he discovers that keeping a journal and experimenting with poetry not only helps fill the time, it also helps him deal with life, love, and loss.
Heat
(2006)Pitching prodigy Michael Arroyo is on the run from social services after being banned from playing Little League baseball because rival coaches doubt he is only twelve years old and he has no parents to offer them proof. (View First Chapter/Excerpt)
Extra Innings
(2001)After a tragic airplane crash that claims the lives of most of his family, sixteen-year-old Tate goes to live with his wealthy great-grandfather and his adopted black great-aunt Vidalia and he finds unexpected solace in the stories of her childhood spent travelling with a Depression-era Negro baseball team. (View First Chapter/Excerpt)
Dean Duffy
(1995)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: a Billy Baggs Novel
(1999)With his father in jail and his mother working full-time, fourteen-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. (View First Chapter/Excerpt)
The Perfect Shot
(2005)Brian uses basketball to block out memories of his girlfriend and her family who were gunned down a year ago, but the upcoming murder trial and a high school history assignment force him to face the past and decide how far he should go to see justice served. Includes facts about miscarriages of justice in American history.
The Squared Circle
(1995)Sonny, a university freshman and star basketball player, finds that the pressures of college life, NCAA competition, and an unsettling relationship with his feminist cousin bring up painful memories that he must face before he can decide what is important in his life.
Night Hoops
(2002)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 the erractic behavior of a troubled classmate who lives across the street. (View First Chapter/Excerpt)
Tears of a Tiger
(1994)The death of high school basketball star Rob Washington in an automobile accident affects the lives of his close friend Andy, who was driving the car, and many others in the school.
Last Shot: a Final Four Mystery
(2005)After winning a basketball reporting contest, eighth graders Stevie and Susan Carol are sent to cover the Final Four tournament, where they discover that a talented player is being blackmailed into throwing the final game. (View First Chapter/Excerpt)
Danger Zone
(1996)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.
Travel Team
(2004)After he is cut from his travel basketball team--the very same team that his father once led to national prominence--twelve-year-old Danny Walker forms his own team of cast-offs that might have a shot at victory. (View First Chapter/Excerpt)
Slam!
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.
Ball Don't Lie
(2005)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. (View First Chapter/Excerpt)
Black and White
(2005)Two star high school basketball players, one black and one white, experience the justice system differently after committing a crime together and getting caught.
Love, Football, and Other Contact Sports
(2006)A collection of stories about high school students from one end of the social spectrum to the other.
Imitate the Tiger
(1996)A high-school football player has to face his collapsing world brought on by his drinking problem.Syndetic Solutions, Inc.
Roughnecks
(1997)Travis Cody prepares for the final game of his high school football career, a rematch with his school's chief rival.
The Chocolate War
(1974)A high school freshman discovers the devastating consequences of refusing to join in the school's annual fund raising drive and arousing the wrath of the school bullies. (View First Chapter/Excerpt)
Crackback
(2005)Miles barely recalls when football was fun after being sidelined by a new coach, constantly criticized by his father, and pressured by his best friend to take performance-enhancing drugs.
Damage
(2001)Seventeen-year-old football hero Austin, trying to understand the inexplicable depression that has drained his interest in life, thinks that he has found relief in a girl who seems very special. (View First Chapter/Excerpt)
Inexcusable
(2005)High school senior and football player Keir sets out to enjoy himself on graduation night, but when he attempts to comfort a friend whose date has left her stranded, things go terribly wrong. (View First Chapter/Excerpt)
Dairy Queen
(2006)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. (View First Chapter/Excerpt)
Three Clams and an Oyster
(2002)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.
Tangerine
(1977)Twelve-year-old Paul, who lives in the shadow of his football hero brother Erik, fights for the right to play soccer despite his near blindness and slowly begins to remember the incident that damaged his eyesight. (View First Chapter/Excerpt)
Offsides: a novel
(2004)Tom Gray, a Mohawk Indian and star soccer player, moves to a new high school and refuses to play for the Warriors with their insulting mascot.
Soccer Chick Rules
(2006)While trying to focus on a winning soccer season, thirteen-year-old Tess becomes involved in local politics when she learns that all sports programs at her school will be stopped unless a tax levy is passed.
Keeper
(2005)In an interview with a young journalist, World Cup hero, El Gato, describes his youth in the Brazilian rain forest and the events, experiences, and people that helped make him a great goalkeeper and renowned soccer star. (View First Chapter/Excerpt)
Going for the Record
(2004)Seventeen-year-old Leah's chance to make the national soccer team does not seem so important when she learns that her father has cancer and may only have months to live.
Born in Sin
(2001)Despite serious obstacles and setbacks, fourteen-year-old Keisha pursues her dream of becoming an Olympic swimmer and medical doctor. (View First Chapter/Excerpt)
Many Stones
(2000)After her sister Laura is murdered in South Africa, Berry and her estranged father travel there to participate in the dedication of a memorial in her name.
Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes
(1993)The daily class discussions about the nature of man, the existence of God, abortion, organized religion, suicide and other contemporary issues serve as a backdrop for a high-school senior's attempt to answer a friend's dramatic cry for help. (View First Chapter/Excerpt)
Stotan
(1986)A high school coach invites members of his swimming team to a memorable week of rigorous training that tests their moral fiber as well as their physical stamina. (View First Chapter/Excerpt)
Whale Talk
(2001)Intellectually and athletically gifted, TJ, a multiracial, adopted teenager, 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.(canoeing) (View First Chapter/Excerpt)
Show Me a Hero : Great Contemporary Stories About Sports
(1995)A collection of twenty-one sports stories which explore aspects of everyday life experiences.
Between a rock and a hard place
(1995)Although neither fifteen-year-old Mark Severson nor his diabetic cousin Randy are looking forward to the canoe trip that is a family rite of passage, they begin to enjoy themselves as they make their way through Minnesota's lake country, until the trip becomes a fight for survival.
Athletic Shorts : six short stories
(1991)A collection of short stories featuring characters from earlier books by Chris Crutcher. (View First Chapter/Excerpt)
Ironman : a novel
(1995)While training for a triathlon, seventeen-year-old Bo attends an anger management group at school which leads him to examine his relationship with his father.(triathlon) (View First Chapter/Excerpt)
Runner
(2005)Living with his alcoholic father on a broken-down sailboat on Puget Sound has been hard on seventeen-year-old Chance Taylor, but when his love of running leads to a high-paying job, he quickly learns that the money is not worth the risk.(running)
Vanishing Act
(2006)Eighth-grade sports reporters Susan Carol and Stevie reunite at the U.S. Open tennis championships where they investigate the mysterious disappearance of a top Russian player.(tennis) (View First Chapter/Excerpt)
Open Ice
(2005)Hockey has been Nick Taglio's life since he was five years old, so when a massive concussion benches him--possibly for good--everything seems to fall apart, including his schoolwork, his family relationships, his friendships, and his love life.(hockey)
Pinned
(2005)Dealing with family problems, girls, and their own competitive natures, high school seniors Ivan Korske and Bobby Zane face each other in the final match of the New Jersey State Wrestling Championship.(wrestling) (View First Chapter/Excerpt)
Slalom
(2004)Seventeen-year-old Sandro, having always lived in poverty with his mother in a wealthy ski resort town, finds his life transformed when the father he has never met suddenly returns and wants to be part of the family.(skiing)
Fighting Ruben Wolfe
(2001)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.(boxing)