Sports-oriented stories score

Continued from last week, we bring you the second half of our fall sports-oriented round-up. These books combine scoreboards and riveting stories, with plot lines written around goal lines.

WILD CARD. By Tiki & Ronde Barber with Paul Mantell. Simon & Schuster. Ages 8-12. 156 pages. $15.99.

This is the third book for the Barber brothers, real-life NFL football players. Their first two books were picture books, and their latest book steps up their game into the chapter-book arena.

Identical twins Ronde and Tiki are the star football players on their junior-high team. After two ugly losses in the beginning of the season, the team members become accustomed to their new coach, and they win their next six games. But their dream of making it to the state championship crashes and burns when the team's MVP, the kicker, fails his midterms.

Coach Wheeler puts Tiki in the game as both running back and replacement kicker. Playing two positions is tough, especially when you have the superstar kicker's shoes to fill. The team leans heavily on Ronde's touchdowns and tackles and Tiki's speedy dashes toward the end zone. Plays that once seemed easy are now proving difficult. The team struggles through its next few games. Meanwhile, the prodigal kicker struggles through his makeup tests, and the twins take up tutoring.

Wild Card shows how one player's mistakes can affect a whole team. This is a great high-action book for boys.

SOCCER TEAM UPSET. By Fred Bowen. Peachtree. Ages 7-12. 141 pages. $5.95.

Tyler's best friend and teammate faces a tough choice when asked to leave his recreation soccer team to join an elite travel team. Zach decides to leave the Cougars and Tyler and play for the Panthers. Tyler is a bit bitter about Zach's decision, even if Zach's defection pushes Tyler into the starting midfielder position. Tyler learns that a single play can determine a game's outcome and that friendship trumps team selection. Tyler's soccer season brings many lessons with hard-fought victories as well as losses.

Fred Bowen has written many sports action-oriented books that are high-interest/age appropriate/low difficulty selections -- not always an easy trio of traits to master. Bowen, however, writes them well. Also check out TOUCHDOWN TROUBLE. By Fred Bowen. Ages 7-12. 123 pages. $5.95.

BOOST. By Kathy Mackel. Penguin. Ages 12 and up. 248 pages. $16.99.

Being the new kid is hard enough. But when you are a 6-foot-tall eighth-grade girl, moving across the country makes fitting in even more challenging. Savvy (short for Savannah) makes the local AAU 18U fall basketball team. Her teammates are all older high-school students and either ignore the giant superstar or treat her with disdain. Her only friend on the team is a fellow eighth-grader, the point guard.

Savvy's older sister, Callie, has much more success on her high-school cheerleading squad. Although her weight gain impairs her flying at the first practice, Callie quickly bounces back with the help of her new friends. Callie's rapid weight loss and dramatic mood swings indicate a problem, one that is attributed to Savvy, with drastic consequences.

Both girls have to work hard to keep their positions on their teams. How far will these sisters go to boost their game?

REALITY CHECK. By Peter Abrahams. HarperCollins. Ages 12 and up. 336 pages. $16.99.

Cody might not be the most stellar student, but he excels on the football field, with few close to his talent level. Clea, his beautiful, rich girlfriend, makes the top grades in school. When one grade drops to a B and she is caught alone in the house with Cody, her controlling father erupts and sends her to a prestigious boarding school in Vermont after a summer in Hong Kong. Clea is pacified by being able to have her horse at her new school.

Meanwhile, Cody's depression over missing Clea spirals even lower when a torn ligament ends any dream of playing college football. Bad goes to worse when Clea turns up missing. Cody cannot stand to stay in Colorado without knowing what has happened to Clea. He drives across the United States and the former football player turns into a detective.

Peter Abrahams, a well-known suspense novelist, spices up the young-adult thriller genre with this mesmerizing page-turner.

cyoung9@triad.rr.com. View book reviews at the Journal in Education site at
www.jie.journalnow.com. Keep up with what Hannah is reading on her blog: www.cheeReader.com.