Sports

Choose one title from the following titles to read for class and include in your literature log. New category Spring 2026. No specific due date.

All the Noise at Once

by DeAndra Davis (2025)

All Aiden has ever wanted to do was play football just like his star quarterback brother, Brandon. An overstimulation meltdown gets in the way of Aiden making the team during summer tryouts, but when the school year starts and a spot unexpectedly needs to be filled, he finally gets a chance to play the game he loves.

However, not every player is happy about the new addition to the team, wary of how Aiden’s autism will present itself on game day. Tensions rise. A fight breaks out. Cops are called.

Brandon interferes on behalf of his brother, but is arrested by the very same cops who, just hours earlier, were chanting his name from the bleachers. When he’s wrongly charged for felony assault on an officer, everything Brandon has worked for starts to slip away, and the brothers’ relationship is tested. As Brandon’s trial inches closer, Aiden is desperate to figure out what really happened that night. Can he clear his brother’s name in time?

The Butterfly's Sting

by Abbie Harlow (2025)

Never again. That’s what seventeen-year-old Bo Clark has promised her two younger siblings ever since they were put in separate foster homes―a situation that nearly turned deadly for her little brother, and that they have vowed never to repeat. Bo will do anything to keep that promise. Even if it means enduring the abuse of Uncle Jack, their new guardian. When Jack discovers that Bo has a talent for boxing, he signs her up for an underground fight club tournament, which could bring in enough money for her to move out with her siblings as soon as she turns eighteen.

But the ring is a brutal place, and when Bo’s cutman is arrested, Jack is forced to bring a new one onto the team. Liam turns out to be a schoolmate of Bo’s, and even as the two of them grow closer, she worries that he will go to the authorities if he ever finds out Jack is hurting her.

As Bo makes her way closer to the big prize, Jack starts to set his sights beyond the tournament, and in an explosive finale, the violence moves outside the ring, putting everything Bo loves at risk.

Dogsred

by Satoru Noda (vol 1, 2025)

Rou once chased figure-skating glory. Now he chases redemption in the ice hockey rink.

After winning the national championship, 15-year-old figure skater Rou Shirakawa was on his way to the Olympics. But with his mother’s tragic death on his mind, he threw it all away in an outburst of rage. Banned from figure skating, he and his sister move to Hokkaido. When he meets some local kids at the skating pond, they convince him to be a stand-in player for their soon-to-be-disbanded hockey team. The team has never won a game, and they’re up against the local champs—but if they’ve got to go down, they want to score at least one goal before it’s all over. Rou hasn’t got a clue how to play ice hockey, but he sure knows how to skate!

The Incredibly Human Henson Blayze

by Derrick Barnes (2025)

In the small town of Great Mountain, Mississippi, all eyes are on Henson Blayze, a thirteen-year-old football phenom whose talents seem almost superhuman. The predominately white townsfolk have been waiting for Henson to play high school ball, and now they’re overjoyed to finally possess an elite Black athlete of their own.

Until a horrifying incident forces Henson to speak out about injustice.

Until he says that he might not play football anymore.

Until he quickly learns he isn’t as loved by the people as he thought.

Overnight, Henson’s town is divided into two chaotic sides—those that support his decisions, and those that don’t—when all he wants is justice. Even his best friends and his father can’t see eye to eye. When he is told to play ball again or else, Henson must decide whether he was born to entertain those who may not even see him as human, or if he’s destined for a different kind of greatness.

Written for children ages 10 and up, Derrick Barnes’s groundbreaking novel masterfully combines a modern-day allegory with classic-style tall tales to weave a compelling story of America’s obsession with relegating Black people to labor or entertainment. Spanning the 1800s to today, this exceptional novel shows how much has changed over centuries . . . and, at the same time, how little.

It’s a Love/Skate Relationship

by Carli J. Corson (2025)

Charlie Porter is a force to be reckoned with, both on and off the hockey rink. When she accidentally starts a brawl after a game, she’s suspended from school, meaning no hockey this season—and no chance to play in front of college scouts.

Alexa Goldstein’s pairs skating partner was hurt in the fight, and with only four months until their next competition, pickings for a replacement are slim. So she strikes a deal with Charlie—skate with her at the competition well enough to place, and her Olympian mother will use her formidable connections to get Charlie in front of scouts at D-1 schools, even without her team.

It seems impossible, and not just because Charlie has never figure skated before. Where Charlie is powerful, Alexa is elegant; where Charlie is quick to blow up, Alexa is cold as ice. But as the frostiness between them starts to thaw, they begin to wonder if they’ve found a partner for more than just skating.

It's All or Nothing, Vale

by Andrea Beatriz Arango (2025)

"A poignant novel in verse in which, after a life-changing accident, one girl finds her way back to her life’s passion. From the Newbery Honor-winning author of Iveliz Explains It All.

All these months of staring at the wall?

All these months of feeling weak?

It’s ending—

I’m going back to fencing.

And then it’ll be

like nothing ever happened.

No one knows hard work and dedication like Valentina Camacho. And Vale’s thing is fencing. She’s the top athlete at her fencing gym. Or she was . . . until the accident.

After months away, Vale is finally cleared to fence again, but it’s much harder than before. Her body doesn’t move the way it used to, and worst of all is the new number one: Myrka. When she sweeps Vale aside with her perfect form and easy smile, Vale just can’t accept that. But the harder Vale fights to catch up, the more she realizes her injury isn’t the only thing holding her back. If she can’t leave her accident in the past, then what does she have to look forward to?

In this moving novel from the Newbery Honor-winning author of Iveliz Explains It All, one girl finds her way back to her life’s passion and discovers that the sum of a person's achievements doesn’t amount to the whole of them."

Mid-Air

by Alicia D. Williams (2024)

"It’s the last few months of eighth grade, and Isaiah feels lost. He thought his summer was going to be him and his boys Drew and Darius, hanging out, doing wheelies, watching martial arts movies, and breaking tons of Guinness World Records before high school. But now, more and more, Drew seems to be fading from their friendship, and though he won’t admit it, Isaiah knows exactly why. Because Darius is…gone."

One of the Boys

by Victoria Zeller (2025)

Grace Woodhouse was a star kicker with a D1 future, but that was before she came out as transgender and quit football. Now, as senior year begins, Grace is navigating a new life with queer friends and a fresh perspective.

But when her old teammates beg her to rejoin the Pageland High football team, Grace can't resist the call of the game. Can she be both a star football player and a trans girl? As Grace steps back onto the field, she'll face transphobia, navigate complicated feelings for her ex-girlfriend, and learn to unite her past and present. One of the Boys is a heartfelt, funny, and inspiring story about self-discovery, breaking stereotypes, and the power of solidarity, all wrapped up in an unforgettable season of high school football.

The Queen Bees of Tybee County

by Kyle Casey Chu (2025)

After making the buzzer-beating shot at the Georgia basketball state championships, Derrick Chan becomes the star of Bayard Middle School, and Derrick’s single dad could not be prouder. But there are parts of Derrick that no one knows about, like the toenail polish he wears under his basketball sneakers, his secret lip-sync performances in the bathroom mirror, and the feelings he’s developing for his best friend and teammate, JJ.

As the school year comes to a close, Derrick’s dad takes an out-of-town job and ships Derrick off to spend the summer with his estranged, eccentric grandmother, Claudia. Soon, Claudia introduces Derrick to the world of small-town southern beauty pageants, and Derrick suddenly feels he’s found where he belongs. But when the opportunity arises to compete in the town pageant, Derrick is forced to decide just how much of himself he’s ready to show the world.

Can he learn to love and accept the most unique parts of himself? And what will happen if others—like his father and JJ—can’t do the same?

Rhapsody Smith

Ice Angel

by Lorna Schultz Nicholson (2025)

Rhapsody "Rap" Queen Smith lives with her grandparents and plays for the Ice Angels hockey team, a tight group of girls who spend time together outside of hockey and school.

Her focus is on improving her power plays and crossovers until she meets Marion, an older woman who spends her days sitting on a bench outside the arena. Nobody seems to know who she is, but there are two mysterious things about her: she has an in-depth knowledge of hockey strategy and she wears a 1990 Women's World Cup ring.

When Marion's ring goes missing, Rap and her friends are determined to find it. Who is Marion, and why does she know so much about hockey? The Ice Angels work together to find out.

Run Like a Girl

by Amaka Egbe (2025)

Dera Edwards knows her life is over when she's shipped off to live with her estranged father in the middle of White Suburbia. To make matters worse, Dera learns that her new school doesn’t have a girls’ track team, shattering her dreams of getting a track scholarship and, one day, competing in the Olympics.

Not one to give up easily, Dera joins the boys’ team instead. But while she has the school administration’s blessing, her new teammates and classmates are less than welcoming. Between that and her frustratingly distant father, Dera is positive her junior year is ruined.

Just as she starts to accept her status as an outsider, Dera’s approached by her classmate Rosalyn, who wants to feature Dera’s story in her blog. Eager to change the narrative and spend more time with Rosalyn's gorgeous cousin Gael—also known as one of the few teammates who will talk to her—Dera agrees.

But when she goes viral and gains attention across the state, Dera’s new notoriety opens the door for trolls both online and at school. Paired with her deteriorating relationship with her father, she soon finds everything to be too much. Will Dera be able to keep outrunning her problems, or will her dream be the very thing that derails her?

We are Big Time

A Graphic Novel

by Hena Khan (2024)

Aliya is new to Wisconsin, and everything feels different than Florida. The Islamic school is bigger, the city is colder, and her new basketball team is… well, they stink.

Aliya’s still excited to have teammates (although Noura's not really Aliya's biggest fan) and their new coach really understands basketball (even if she doesn't know much about being Muslim.) This season should be a blast...if they could just start to win.

Join Aliya and the Peace Academy on a headline-making season where they strengthen their skills and their Muslim identities--all while discovering that it takes more than talent to be great, and that teamwork and self-confidence can define true success.

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