Embedded Files
Fiction
Fiction
After the Shot Drops by Randy Ribay
From the Publisher
A powerful novel about friendship, basketball, and one teen's mission to create a better life for his family in the tradition of Jason Reynolds and Walter Dean Myers, from National Book Award Finalist Randy Ribay.
Bunny and Nasir have been best friends forever, but when Bunny accepts an athletic scholarship across town, Nasir feels betrayed. While Bunny tries to fit in with his new, privileged peers, Nasir spends more time with his cousin, Wallace, who is being evicted. Nasir can't help but wonder why the neighborhood is falling over itself to help Bunny when Wallace is in trouble.
When Wallace makes a bet against Bunny, Nasir is faced with an impossible decision--maybe a dangerous one.
Told from alternating perspectives, After the Shot Drops is a heart-pounding story about the responsibilities of great talent and the importance of compassion.
-- NOVEL IN VERSE --
The Crossover (Crossover, Book 1) by Kwame Alexander
From the Publisher
* Newbery Medal Winner * Coretta Scott King Honor Award * 2015 YALSA 2015 Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults * 2015 YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers * Publishers Weekly Best Book * School Library Journal Best Book * Kirkus Best Book *
"With a bolt of lightning on my kicks . . .The court is SIZZLING. My sweat is DRIZZLING. Stop all that quivering. Cuz tonight I’m delivering," announces dread-locked, 12-year old Josh Bell. He and his twin brother Jordan are awesome on the court. But Josh has more than basketball in his blood, he's got mad beats, too, that tell his family's story in verse, in this fast and furious middle grade novel of family and brotherhood from Kwame Alexander.
Josh and Jordan must come to grips with growing up on and off the court to realize breaking the rules comes at a terrible price, as their story's heart-stopping climax proves a game-changer for the entire family.
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Rez Ball by Byron Graves
From the Publisher
* William C. Morris Award * Lincoln Award * American Indian Youth Literature Award * Boston Globe Horn Book Award Honor Book * New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age *
This compelling debut novel by new talent Byron Graves tells the relatable, high-stakes story of a young athlete determined to play like the hero his Ojibwe community needs him to be.
These days, Tre Brun is happiest when he is playing basketball on the Red Lake Reservation high school team--even though he can't help but be constantly gut-punched with memories of his big brother, Jaxon, who died in an accident.
When Jaxon's former teammates on the varsity team offer to take Tre under their wing, he sees this as his shot to represent his Ojibwe rez all the way to their first state championship. This is the first step toward his dream of playing in the NBA, no matter how much the odds are stacked against him.
But stepping into his brother's shoes as a star player means that Tre can't mess up. Not on the court, not at school, and not with his new friend, gamer Khiana, who he is definitely not falling in love with.
After decades of rez teams almost making it, Tre needs to take his team to state. Because if he can live up to Jaxon's dreams, their story isn't over yet.
This book is published by Heartdrum, an imprint that publishes high-quality, contemporary stories about Indigenous young people in the United States and Canada.
Nonfiction
Nonfiction
Becoming Boston Strong : one woman's race to run and conquer the world's greatest marathon by Amy Noelle Roe
From the Publisher
Named One of the "Best Nonfiction Books to Read" by Woman's Day, here is Amy Roe's hilarious and heartfelt tale of falling in love with the Boston Marathon and its community, for better or for worse.
It's 2004 and twentysomething Amy Noelle Roe is living by herself in Portland, Oregon, with few friends, little money, and no job. It's not her year. With lots of free time on her hands, she remembers watching the Boston Marathon years ago and, inspired by that memory, decides to join a marathon training group, hoping that running 26.2 miles will give her something show for an otherwise entirely unproductive time in her life. A few months later, she crosses the finish line but is far from a Boston qualifying-time.
But Amy has caught the marathon bug, and is determined to qualify for Boston, even if it's just as a squeaker, a runner who just manages a BQ time. Eleven marathons later, and Amy finally squeaks by, signing up for the 2011 Boston Marathon. She completes it, qualifying again for the following year, and then again for 2013, the fated year of the Boston Marathon Bombing.
Due to an injury, Amy crosses the 2013 finish line in a little over four hours, minutes before the bombs goes off. Her world is forever changed as she is shaken to her core. She chronicles the ups and downs of her training, delving into the mystical appeal of the greatest marathon in the world and how it attracts those who return to it year after year.
Inspiring and funny, Becoming Boston Strong is for every person who ever dreamed of belonging to something bigger than themselves.
-- GRAPHIC NOVEL--
The Comic Book Story of Baseball : the heroes, hustlers, and history-making swings (and misses) of America's national pastime by Alexander Irvine; Illustrated by C. P. Smith
From the Publisher
A graphic novel-style history of baseball, providing an illustrated look at the major games, players, and rule changes that shaped the sport.
This graphic novel steps up to the plate and covers all the bases in illustrating the origin of America's national pastime, presenting a complete look at the beginnings (both real and legendary), developments, triumphs, and tragedies of baseball. It also breaks down the cultural impact and significance of the sport both in America and overseas (including Japan, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic), from the early days of America to the flying W outside Wrigley Field in 2016.
Featuring members of Baseball's Hall of Fame and modern day stand-outs--including Cy Young, Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron, the 1930s New York Yankees, the 2004 Boston Red Sox, the 2016 Chicago Cubs, and more--The Comic Book Story of Baseball spotlights the players, teams, games, and moments that built the sport's legacy and ensured its popularity.
-- GRAPHIC NOVEL--
The Comic Book Story of Basketball : a fast-break history of hoops by Fred Van Lente; illustrated by Joseph Cooper
From the Publisher
A fast-break history of basketball--from its humble beginnings to its all-time great players--featuring engaging true tales from the court and vivid, dynamic illustrations.
Whether it's millionaire pros facing off in an indoor arena full of screaming fans or a lone kid shooting hoops on an outdoor court, basketball is one of the most popular and widely played sports in the world. The Comic Book Story of Basketball gives you courtside seats to the history of hoops. It chronicles the sport from its beginnings in a YMCA in Massachusetts to its current status as a beloved international game for men and women of all ages. Learn the true stories behind the college game, the street game, the women's game, and the international game, with legendary players and coaches like Dr. J, Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Steph Curry profiled throughout.
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Dream : the life and legacy of Hakeem Olajuwon by Mirin Fader
From the Publisher
The life and legacy of pioneering international basketball superstar Hakeem Olajuwon, a two‑time NBA champion whose Hall of Fame career forever changed the game, both in the United States and around the globe-from the New York Times bestselling author of Giannis, Mirin Fader.
It's now the norm for NBA and collegiate teams to have international players dotting their rosters. The Olympics are no longer a gimme for Team USA. Both via fans streaming from all over the globe and leagues starting in countries throughout the world, the international presence of the game of basketball is a force to be reckoned with.
That all started with Hakeem "the Dream" Olajuwon. He was the first international player to win the MVP, which is hard to believe now considering the last time an American‑born player won it was in 2018. Award-winning hoops journalist Mirin Fader explores this phenomenal shift through the lens of what Olajuwon accomplished throughout the 1980s and '90s. Dream ignites nostalgia for Phi Slama Jama and "the Dream Shake," while also exploring the profound influence of Olajuwon's commitment to Islam on his approach to life and basketball, and how his devotion to his faith inspired generations of Muslim people around the world.
Olajuwon's ongoing work with NBA Africa, his status as an international ambassador for the game, and his consultations with today's brightest stars, from LeBron James to Giannis Antetokounmpo, brings the story right up to the present moment, and beyond. Synthesizing hundreds of interviews and in-depth research, Fader provides the definitive biography of Olajuwon as well as a crucial understanding of his pivotal impact on the ever-shifting game.
The Formula : How Rogues, Geniuses, and Speed Freaks Reengineered F1 into the World's Fastest-Growing Sport by Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg
From the Publisher
* An NPR Best Book of 2024 * A Sports Illustrated Best Book of 2024 *
Wall Street Journal reporters and authors of The Club, Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg tell the riveting saga of how Formula 1 broke through in America, detailing the eclectic culture of racing obsessives, glamorous settings, gearheads, engineering geniuses, dashing racers, and bitter rivalries that have made F1 the world's fastest growing sport.
For decades in America, car racing meant NASCAR, and to a lesser extent IndyCar, with Formula 1--the wealthiest racing league in the world--a distant third. Fast forward to 2023, and F1 has emerged at the front of the pack powered by a passionate yet nascent American fanbase. The F1 juggernaut has arrived, but this checkered flag was far from inevitable.
In The Formula, Wall Street Journal reporters Joshua Robinson and Jonathan Clegg tell the epic story of how F1 saved itself from collapse and finally conquered America through guile, fearlessness, and above all, reinvention. With fast cars, big money, glamorous locales, and beautiful people as the backdrop, The Formula reveals how F1's sudden arrival in the US was actually decades in the making, a product of the sport's near-constant state of transformation and experimentation. Bringing unique insight and access to F1's most storied teams and personalities--from Ferrari to Bernie Ecclestone to Christian Horner to Lewis Hamilton -- The Formula offers a riveting portrait of the drivers, corporations, cars, rivalries, and audacious gambles that have shaped the sport for half a century.
The end result is a high-octane history of how modern F1 racing came to be--the first book to tell the story of the outrageous successes and spectacular crashes that led F1 to this extraordinary yet precarious moment. More than just a sports story, The Formula is the tale of a disrupter that broke into the crowded American sports marketplace and claimed its place through cash, personality, and a new understanding of what a sport needs to be in the age of wall-to-wall entertainment.
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Letters to a Young Athlete by Chris Bosh
From the Publisher
Legendary NBA player and beloved teammate shares his hard-earned wisdom about finding your true purpose and mastering your inner game, whatever that game might be.
Chris Bosh is on any list of the Top 100 NBA players of all time--an eleven-time All Star, two-time Finals winner, Olympic gold medalist, and currently the league's Global Ambassador. Always an uncommonly philosophical NBA star, he found himself needing all the mindfulness he could muster in 2017, when his career was cut short at its prime by a freak medical condition. Suddenly, he was thrown out of the work that had given so much more than just a livelihood, and had to think deeply about his identity in the world. This game had taught him so much; what could he make of it all?
Out of that place of deep reflection has emerged an uncommon book for a retired superstar to write. While it has the best elements of a memoir--the portraits of the great players and coaches, from LeBron and Kobe to Pat Riley and Coach K, and the accounts of extraordinary competitive moments -- it is really a wisdom book, a blend of The Inner Game of Tennis, Wynton Marsalis's To a Young Jazz Musician, and Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet. It is rich with insight about basketball, but even richer with insight about life. It's a book about finding a purpose that is deep and real, not shallow and external, and about navigating success and failure as the twin mirages they are--pushing past fear, past ego, past fatigue to the pure flow of sustained accomplishment in a mesh with teammates who have given themselves to the same thing. Chris Bosh found that flow, and sustained it at the highest level. He misses basketball keenly still, but he has no regrets. Deep, honest, unflinching, this book is his friend's hand up to those coming up behind, whatever their pursuit might be.
Narcoball : love, death and football in Escobar's Colombia by David Arrowsmith
From the Publisher
Pablo Escobar had one obsession. Not drugs, not money, not power... football.
Narcoball uncovers the incredible story of Colombian football during the early 1990s - shaped by drug lords, rivalries, and ambition. It uncovers a football empire backed by cartels - where victory was a currency of its own, and defeat, a matter of life and death.
This is a different story of Pablo Escobar and his rivals. A tale of clandestine deals that reshaped Medellin's football clubs, where fortunes were won and lost. It unveils the extraordinary bonds that Escobar forged with football's luminaries and why his influence reached unprecedented heights, leading to the astonishing 5-0 victory over Argentina in Buenos Aires, the murder of referees, and the ruthless coercion of officials culminating in the killing of Andres Escobar - the Colombian defender who paid the ultimate price for an own goal in the 1994 World Cup. It is also an examination of a people's relationship with both the sport and the nefarious leaders that brought both pride and terror to their communities.
Set against the U.S War on Drugs, international threats, and government clampdowns, this is a gripping exploration of Colombian club football under Escobar's rise and fall.
The New York Game : baseball and the rise of a new city by Kevin Baker
From the Publisher
* A New York Times Notable Book * Sports Illustrated #1 Book of 2024 *
A hugely entertaining history of baseball and New York City, bursting with larger-than-life figures and fascinating stories from the game's beginnings to the end of World War II.
Baseball is "the New York game" because New York is where the diamond was first laid out, where the bunt and the curveball were invented, and where the home run was hit. It's where the game's first stars were born, and where everyone came to play or watch the game. With nuance and depth, historian Kevin Baker brings this all vividly back to life: the still-controversial, indelible moments--Did the Babe call his shot? Was Merkle out? Did they fix the 1919 World Series? Here are all the legendary players, managers, and owners, in all their vivid, complicated humanity, on and off the field.
In Baker's hands the city and the game emerge from the murk of nineteenth-century American life--driven by visionaries and fixers, heroes and gangsters. He details how New York and its favorite sport came to mirror one another, expanding, bumbling through catastrophe and corruption, and rising out of these trials stronger than ever.
From the first innings played in vacant lots and tavern yards in the 1820s; to the canny innovations that created the very first sports league; to the superb Hispanic and Black players who invented their own version of the game when white baseball sought to exclude them. And all amidst New York's own, incredible evolution from a raw, riotous town to a new world city. The New York Game is a riveting, rollicking, brilliant ode to America's beloved pastime and to its indomitable city of origin.
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Side Quest : a visual history of roleplaying games by Samuel Sattin
From the Publisher
For fans of dungeon crawls and dice rolls--and anyone wanting to know more about them -- Side Quest is a stand-alone graphic novel history of roleplaying games (RPGs), from ancient games to those played today, with personal stories from creators throughout!
With a meld of history, fantasy, and memoir, Side Quest: A Visual History of Roleplaying Games gives existing fans of tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs) insight into the history of the medium--and provides a gateway for anyone new to the phenomenon.
The creators, Steenz and Samuel Sattin, narrate the book, switching between personal stories about their RPG experiences and concrete information that reveals the fascinating and often little-known history of these games. (Did you know that H. G. Wells created an RPG in the early 1900s You will soon, along with so much more!)
This is an inviting introduction to what TTRPGs are, why they matter, and how readers can get involved. And like any popular guide to arcana, this book is geared toward an audience of gamers, non-gamers, and general readers alike. Equal parts enlightening, adventurous, and approachable, this appealing graphic nonfiction book is one that everyone can enjoy!
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Streetball is Life : lessons earned on the asphalt by Paul Volponi
From the Publisher
From award-winning young adult author Paul Volponi comes the true story of his unforgettable summer spent proving himself as a legitimate New York City streetballer, only later discovering that he had gained a set of skills that would enhance his life off the court, as well.
During the sweltering summer of seventeen-year-old Paul Volponi's life, he had only one goal--he wanted, no, needed to become a legitimate and respected New York City street basketball player. It was a passion that consumed him night and day, and at times even isolated him from his friends and family. So he entered through the gates of the Proving Ground, the roughest streetball yard in the city. It was a place where the fouls resembled felonies, and the atmosphere mirrored that of the Roman Coliseum more than Madison Square Garden. It was where teens and adults contested pickup games with a ferocity seemingly greater than that of the NBA Finals. The Proving Ground was a difficult place to cultivate friendships and an easy environment to make enemies.
This is the story of Paul's summer-long initiation at the Proving Ground. It is truly a streetball testament of a teenager who wanted more than anything else to earn his stripes in streetball society. Only what he didn't understand at the time was that this experience would deliver to him, as it does today for so many young adults, a set of skills that would enhance his life far beyond the boundaries of a basketball court.
-- GRAPHIC NOVEL--
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Victory. Stand! : raising my fist for justice by Tommie Smith
From the Publisher
* Winner of the 2023 YALSA Excellence in Young Adult Nonfiction Award * Finalist for the 2022 National Book Award for Young People's Literature * A Coretta Scott King Award Author and Illustrator Honor Book * A Washington Post Best Book of the Year * A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year * A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year * A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year * A Booklist Best Book of the Year * A Horn Book Fanfare Title *
On October 16, 1968, during the medal ceremony at the Mexico City Olympics, Tommie Smith, the gold medal winner in the 200-meter sprint, and John Carlos, the bronze medal winner, stood on the podium in black socks and raised their black-gloved fists to protest racial injustice inflicted upon African Americans. Both men were forced to leave the Olympics, received death threats, and faced ostracism and continuing economic hardships.
In his first-ever memoir for young readers, Tommie Smith looks back on his childhood growing up in rural Texas through to his stellar athletic career, culminating in his historic victory and Olympic podium protest. Cowritten with Newbery Honor and Coretta Scott King Author Honor recipient Derrick Barnes and illustrated with bold and muscular artwork from Emmy Award-winning illustrator Dawud Anyabwile, Victory. Stand! paints a stirring portrait of an iconic moment in Olympic history that still resonates today.
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When You're Ready : a love story by Kareem Rosser
From the Publisher
An unforgettable and heartrending love story that will break your heart and piece it back together.
Kareem Rosser and Lee Lee Jones were young, beautiful, and deeply in love. Their love was a real-world romance that felt like a fairy tale: Kareem was raised in the Bottom -- one of the most impoverished neighborhoods in Philadelphia -- while Lee Lee was raised in the wealth of the Pennsylvania suburbs. They met and fell in love in the world of horses: Kareem, a nationally ranked polo player and Lee Lee, a legacy equestrian. The world was at their feet, a lifetime of joy and adventure ahead of them. But their love story is interrupted by a devastating accident, which almost costs Lee Lee her life, and destroys every plan and dream that Lee Lee and Kareem had made together.
In the months and years that follow, while Lee struggles to heal, Kareem is crippled by ambiguous grief, for the woman that he loves and for the future he imagined for them both. He feels buried alive. In the space between debilitating grief and bursts of anxiety, he's forced to finally face his demons: his tumultuous childhood, his latent mental health issues, the murders of his older brother and his best friend, and a life constantly lived in the grip of panic and fear.
Honest and captivating, When You're Ready is a narrative that honors love in all its forms: first love, parental love, renewed love, and, most importantly, self-love. With notes on unresolved loss and second chances, it's a story that will grab you by the heartstrings and uplift your soul.
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The Why is Everything : a story of football, rivalry, and revolution by Michael Silver
From the Publisher
When Kyle Shanahan became the NFL's youngest offensive coordinator in 2008, he had one prevailing rule: Tell me the why. If a colleague couldn't justify his position by providing the unassailable reasoning behind it, he was told to get the hell out of Shanahan's office. Shanahan and the members of his coaching tree -- including Sean McVay, Mike McDaniel, Raheem Morris, and Matt LaFleur -- came up in a sport where innovation was the exception, not the rule. There had been brilliant football minds before, from Paul Brown to Bill Walsh to Bill Belichick. But for the most part, coaches learned a particular system and stuck to it no matter what--no matter the players on their team, no matter what the opponent might do.
This group of young coaches would change all that. The Why Is Everything is the story of old dogmas falling before astonishingly creative new strategies and game plans. Drawing on unmatched access across the league, longtime NFL reporter Mike Silver takes us into the key moments in this still-unfolding revolution, from the education of Mike Shanahan, Kyle's father and a two-time Super Bowl champion, in the 1980s; to the Washington Redskins' football laboratory in the early 2010s, where the coaches first worked together, shocking the league with their cutting-edge scheme for rookie quarterback Robert Griffin III; to McVay's Super Bowl victory in 2022 and Kyle Shanahan's Super Bowl agony in 2019 and 2024.
Less than a decade after their emergence, these men are the stars of their profession and have helped propel the NFL to new heights of viewership and drama. With The Why Is Everything, Silver reveals how it all happened, and in the process gives us a timeless account of friendship, rivalry, and the never-ending pursuit of perfection.
Why We Love Football : a history in 100 moments by Joe Posnanski
From the Publisher
A moving celebration of the history of American football from the New York Times bestselling author of Why We Love Baseball.
After his bestselling home run books Why We Love Baseball and The Baseball 100, Joe Posnanski turns from the national pastime to the number one sport in America. Why We Love Football is Posnanski's newest must-have deep dive into the archives and legends of the sport, and the result is a rousing tale of the 100 greatest moments in football lore.
This is the best kind of sports writing. Entertaining, enlightening, heartbreaking, hilarious, and always fascinating, these stories of the sport offer a panoramic look across its history. From hidden gems and classic tales to famous moments told from previously unheard perspectives, this book is the football book for even its most ardent fans.
From Patrick Mahomes' magic to the Ice Bowl, from Doug Flutie's Hail Mary pass to a plethora of football "miracles," Why We Love Football is an unforgettable, conversational masterpiece you won't ever want to end, and a can't-miss take on football from one of the greatest sportswriters of our time.
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