Lupica, Mike. Travel team.LUPICA, Mike. Travel team. Penguin penguin, originally the common name for the now extinct great auk of the N Atlantic and now used (since the 19th cent.) for the unrelated antarctic diving birds. , Philomel phil·o·mel n. A nightingale. [Alteration (influenced by French philomèle) of Middle English phylomene, from Medieval Latin philom . 274p. c2004. 0-399-24150-7. $16.99. J This is Lupica's first YA novel; he is well known for his sports novels for adults and as a sports writer Noun 1. sports writer - a journalist who writes about sports sportswriter journalist - a writer for newspapers and magazines for The New York Daily News New York Daily News Morning daily tabloid newspaper published in New York City. It was founded in 1919 by Joseph Medill Patterson and his cousin Robert McCormick as a subsidiary of the Tribune Co. of Chicago. The first successful tabloid-format newspaper in the U.S. . He has four children and has coached youth basketball, so writing about a team of talented basketball players and their struggling season is not a big reach for him. The main character is 12-year-old Danny, small for his age, a smart, fast basketball player who understands the game better than most. He is the child of a successful basketball player (not so successful as a husband and father), whose career was cut short by an accident; Danny's father is staying around this season to coach Danny's team. So the story of basketball games, players' problems and injuries, family tensions, is also about fathers and sons, friendship, and competition. Fathers who use their sons to satisfy and fulfill ful·fill also ful·fil tr.v. ful·filled, ful·fill·ing, ful·fills also ful·fils 1. To bring into actuality; effect: fulfilled their promises. 2. their own dreams is a theme throughout. Lupica has great respect for the boys struggling to deal with their own skills, their fathers, their teammates, and their coaches. It's a fairly long story for a YA novel, but all the details of basketball games and practices will be welcome to true basketball fans. It's such a relief to have a sports tale written by someone who truly understands the game--and Lupica knows how to create believable be·liev·a·ble adj. Capable of eliciting belief or trust. See Synonyms at plausible. be·liev  a·bil characters as well. An excellent sports story.
J--Recommended for junior high school students. The contents are of particular interest to young adolescents and their teachers. |
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