4.4/6 Airball My Life in Briefs ­ Harkrader, L. D. Uncoordinated Kansas seventh-grader Kirby Nickel braves his coach's ire and becomes captain of the basketball team in order to help him prove that NBA star Brett McGrew is the father he has never known.

5.8/6 Backfield Package ­ Dygard, Thomas. The decision of 4 high school friends to go to the same college so that they can continue playing football together is shaken when one of them begins to receive attention as a star quarterback.

5.0/2 Baseball Fever ­ Hurwitz, Johanna. Ten-year-old Ezra tries to convince his scholarly father that his baseball fever is not wasting his mind.

4.8/6 Basement Baseball Club ­ Kelly, Jeffrey. The Roader team members spend the summer trying to beat their local rivals in sandlot baseball.

4.3/2 The Basket Counts ­ Christopher, Matt. Mel Jensen is new to the Titans basketball team, but he knows he could be a vital part of the starting lineup if only two other players would give him a chance to show his stuff. But Caskie and Stoney seem bent on ignoring him, and Mel knows it's because he's black. Shoud Mel fight fire with fire, or should he try to get along, if only for the sake of the team?

5.1/8 Bat 6 ­ Wolff, Virginia. In small-town post-World War II Oregon, twenty-one 6th-grade girls recount the story of an annual softball game, during which one girl's bigotry comes to the surface.

4.6/7 Bradley and the Billboard ­ Farrell, Mame. When thirteen-year-old Brad, a baseball hero, gets a job as a fashion model, he must come to terms with his ideas of what it is to be a real guy.

3.3/2 Catcher with a Glass Arm ­ Christopher, Matt. Jody is a catcher who does not throw well, and after he is hit by a ball, is afraid of pitched balls; but he is able to overcome his fear and humiliation.

4.4/6 Choosing Sides ­ Cooper, Ilene. Jonathan doesn't want his father to think he's a quitter, but middle school basketball--under the lash of a gung-ho coach--is turning out to be anything but fun.

4.5/5 The Contender - Lipsyte, Robert. Alfred Brooks is scared. He's a high school dropout and his grocery store job is leading nowhere. His best friend is sinking further and further into drug addiction. Some street kids are after him for something he didn't even do. So Alfred begins going to Donatelli's Gym, a boxing club in Harlem that's trained champions. There he learns it's the effort, not the win, that makes the man, that last desperate struggle to get back on your feet when you thought you were down for the count.

3.6/3 Counterfeit Tackle ­ Christopher, Matt. Identical twin brothers with very different personalities change places and find surprising complications.

5.8/4 Crash Course ­ Reilly, Matthew. Book 1. Fourteen-year-old Jason Chaser races hover cars. Jason and his brother, "the Bug," have been accepted to the International Race School, where they race against great difficulties. Jason Chaser has the need for speed-hyper speed. With his brother, the Bug, navigating, the fourteen-year-old hover car racing phenom is geared up to take the world by storm. Jason's first stop, however, is the prestigious International Race School, where he has to match skill and will against tyrannical instructors, sabotaged equipment, and the planet's best teenage fliers. Included in that mix are Jason's hometown rival and all-around cretin, Barnaby Becker; American Ariel Piper, the first girl to ever be accepted into race school; and a mysterious driver in black-who never seems to lose. The chills and thrills (and awe-inspiring spills) come fast and furious as New York Times best-selling author Matthew Reilly delivers a pulse-pounding, hard-driving, high-octane, no-holds-barred teen techo-thriller sure to have readers enthralled from starting line to checkered flag.

4.5/2 Diamond Champs ­ Christopher, Matt. An auro of intrigue surrounds a baseball coach obsessed with the idea of turning a bunch of handpicked beginners into champions in one season.

5.3/5 Dirt Bike Runaway ­ Christopher, Matt. An unhappy sixteen-year-old runs away from his foster home and gets involved with a variety of people, both good and bad.

4.5/8 Farm Team ­ Weaver Will. 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.

3.5/6 Finding Buck McHenry ­ Slote, Alfred. Jason gets cut from the baseball team and will have to play on the "reject" team - which doesn't even have a coach. Jason thinks he's found a coach - the school custodian, who might be the great Buck McHenry, who pitched in the old Negro leagues when blacks were excluded from the majors. Mr. McHenry says his identity is a secret, but soon everybody knows, and that's when the trouble really begins!

6.3/7 Forward Pass ­ Dygard, Thomas. To improve his struggling football team's chances of winning, Coach Gardner brings in a new wide receiver, Jill Winston.

4.1/4 Friday Nights by Molly ­ Holohan, Maureen. Molly and her friends learn the valuable lesson of sportsmanship during a summer league basketball championship.

4.6/7 Gold Dust ­ Lynch, Chris. In 1975, twelve-year-old Richard befriends Napoleon, a Caribbean newcomer to his Catholic school, hoping that Napoleon will learn to love baseball and the Red Sox, and will win acceptance in the racially polarized Boston school.

3.8/2 Great Quarterback Switch ­ Christopher, Matt. Twelve-year-old Michael, confined to a wheelchair after an accident, uses mental telepathy to communicate football plays to his quarterback twin brother Tom, then suddenly finds himself on the field in his brother's place.

5.1/7 Halfback Tough ­ Dygard, Thomas. New at Graham High, Joe joins the football team and begins to change his tough-guy outlook.

3.7/5 Hang Tough, Paul Mather ­ Slote, Alfred. A baseball pitcher with an incurable blood disease is determined to get in as much time on the mound as possible.

4.4/7 Hard Ball ­ Weaver, Will. A fourteen-year-old Minnesota farm boy has to figure out how to get along with the arch-rival in his love life and on the baseball diamond, and both boys must learn how to deal with the unfair expectations of their fathers.

5.3/9 Heat ­ Lupica, Mike. 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.

4.2/8 Heart of a Champion ­ Deuker, Carl. Seth faces a strain on his friendship with Jimmy, who is both a baseball champion and something of an irresponsible fool, when Jimmy is kicked off the team.

4.2/10 High Heat ­ Deuker, Carl. Wehn 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.

6.0/3 How Angel Peterson Got His Name and Other Outrageous Tales about Extreme Sports ­ Paulsen, Gary. Author Gary Paulsen relates tales from his youth in a small town in northwestern Minnesota in the late 1940s and early 1950s, such as skiing behind a souped-up car and imitating daredevil Evel Knievel.

4.9/7 Joey Pigza Loses Control ­ Gantos, Jack. Sequel to Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key. Joey, who is still taking medication to keep him from getting too wired, goes to spend the summer with the hard-drinking father he has never known and tries to help the baseball team he coaches win the championship.

5.2/4 Journal of Biddy Owens, the Negro Leagues ­ Myers, Walter Dean. Teenager Biddy Owen's 1948 journal about working for the Birmingham Black Barons includes the games and the players, racism the team faces from New Orleans to Chicago, and his family's resistance to his becoming a professional baseball player. Includes a historical note about the evolution of the Negro Leagues.

4.8/9 Last Shot: A Final Four Mystery ­ Feinstein, John. 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. Steven Thomas is one of two lucky winners of the U.S. Basketball Writer's Association's contest for aspiring journalists. His prize? A trip to New Orleans and a coveted press pass for the Final Four. It's a basketball junkie's dream come true! But the games going on behind the scenes between the coaches, the players, the media, the money-men, and the fans turn out to be even more fiercely competitive than those on the court. Steven and his fellow winner, Susan Carol Anderson, are nosing around the Superdome and overhear what sounds like a threat to throw the championship game. Now they have just 48 hours to figure out who is blackmailing one of MSU's star players - and why.

5.0/7 Life, Love and the Pursuit of Free Throws ­ Rallison, Janette. Josie is a high school basketball player with natural ability on the court, but fears falling on her face when it comes to classmate Ethan Lancaster. Josie can't seem to help Cami with her on-the-court chops, but Cami claims to be able to help Josie get Ethan to talk to her.

3.5/2 Look Who's Playing First Base ­ Christopher, Matt. When Yuri, a young Russian immigrant, joins Mike's baseball team, everyone is surprised at the baseball player he becomes.

4.5/4 Million Dollar Strike ­ Gutman, Dan. Best friends Ouchie and Squishy, who love bowling and horror movies respectively, meet the eccentric owner of a local bowling alley and try to help him save Bowl-A-Rama from the wrecking ball and a destructive psychotic lunatic.

3.4/2 Miracle at the Plate ­ Christopher, Matt. Skeeter is the best batter in the league but seems to be all thumbs when fielding or trying to make friends.

4.4/2 Moon Runner ­ Marsden, Carolyn. When Mina discovers that she can run faster than her athlete friend, Ruth, she thinks she must choose between running and friendship.

3.4/2 No Arm in Left Field ­ Christopher, Matt. A young black boy faces special problems when he moves to a small town and joins the local baseball team.

4.5/5 No More Dead Dogs ­ Korman, Gordon. Eighth-grade football hero Wallace Wallace is sentenced to detention attending rehearsals of the school play where, in spite of himself, he becomes wrapped up in the production and begins to suggest changes that improve not only the play but his life as well.

4.9/9 On the Devil's Court ­ Deuker, Carl. Struggling with his feelings of inadequacy and his failure to make the basketball team in his new school, 17-year-old Joe Faust finds himself willing to trade his soul for one perfect season of basketball.3.4/1 Strike Two ­ Shea, George. Despite his best efforts, Al strikes out and his team loses the game.

5.8/5 Outside Shooter ­ Dygard, Thomas. Bobby Haggard is the Bulldogs' only hope to wind the state basketball championship. The fans love him - but they're the only ones that do. His teammates know he's a lot of trouble. Then Bobby gets suspended on the eve of and important game, and who knows what will happen. . .

4.2/10 Over the Wall ­ Ritter, John H. Thirteen-year-old Tyler, who has trouble controlling his anger, spends an important summer with his cousins in New York City, playing baseball and sorting out how he feels about violence, war, and in particular the Vietnamese conflict that took his grandfather's life.

5.0/3. Pressure Play ­ Christopher, Matt. Travis, less obsessed with baseball than his fellow team members, tries to balance his playing with his hobby of horror videos and starts receiving anonymous threats warning him to spend more time on baseball.

6.3/7 The Rebounder ­ Dygard, Thomas. Doug Fulton, coach of the Hamilton High Panthers, is certain that transfer student Chris Patton can lead the team to a championship but a tragic accident has made Chris decide to never play basketball again.

4.1/3 Return of the Home Run Kid ­ Christopher, Matt. Sylvester Coddmyer III is having a dismal baseball season until he takes advice from a mysterious ex-ballplayer named Cheeko and starts to play more aggressively.

4.2/2 Roar of the Crowd ­ Wallace, Rich. After years of playing nothing but soccer in Hudson City, New Jersey, Manny has to work very hard to play on the middle school football team, using determination, speed, and smarts to make up for being small and inexperienced.

5.2/7 The Rookie Arrives ­ Dygard, Thomas. Cocky Ted Bell moves from being star of his high school baseball team directly into playing in the major leagues and finds that he has a lot to learn before becoming the world's greatest third baseman.

6.3/5 Running Scared ­ Dygard, Thomas. A football coach whose job is on the line discovers a talented quarterback who is afraid to run.

4.0/9 Sammy Keyes and the Search for Snake Eyes ­ Van Draanen, Wendelin. When thirteen-year-old Sammy finds herself with an abandoned baby on her hands, she sets out to find the young mother, who may belong to a gang, and accidentally jeopardizes her position on the softball team.

5.2/8 Sammy Keyes and the Sisters of Mercy ­ Van Draanen, Wendelin. Sammy continues to make life with her grandmother interesting as she tries to discover who is stealing from St. Mary's church, befriends a homeless girl, and plays in a softball tournament against a bitter rival.

3.5/2 Shoot for the Hoop ­ Christopher, Matt. When Rusty is diagnosed with diabetes, his parents want him to stop playing basketball. But that doesn't fit in with Rusty's plans - and when he learns that his friends have formed a summer league team, coached by an energetic newcomer, he's determined to persuade his parents to let him join. However, that is but one obstacle he must overcome before the can wear the Cannerville Lakers uniform.

3.4/2 Shortstop from Tokyo - Christopher, Matt. When the new boy from Tokyo takes over Stogie Crane's position as shortstop, the two boys encounter the first of several barriers to their friendship.

4.5/3 Skateboard Tough ­ Christopher, Matt. When Brett's skateboarding abilities dramatically and inexplicably improve after using the Lizard, a skateboard mysteriously unearthed in his front yard, his friends start to wonder if the skateboard is haunted.

5.1/9 Slam! - Myers, Walter Dean. 5.9/7 Soccer Duel ­ Dygard, Thomas. A former football star finds he must share the spotlight with other players when he decides to play soccer.

4.0/2 Smitty - Gutman, Bill. To crack the gender barrier, a great athlete has to prove herself to the coach and players in a new high school.

4.4/3 Some Kind of Pride ­ Testa, Maria. Named after the greatest baseball player of all time, eleven-year-old Ruth dreams of becoming a major league baseball player until she overhears her father lamenting the fact that she is a girl.

3.8/9 Stanford Wong Flunks Big-Time ­ Yee, Lisa. After flunking sixth-grade English, basketball prodigy Stanford Wong must struggle to pass his summer-school class, keep his failure a secret from his friends, and satisfy his academically demanding father.

4.2/4 Strike, Two ­ Koss, Amy Goldman. Gwen's hope of spending the summer playing softball and hanging out with her cousin is ruined when her father and her uncle land on opposite sides of the local newspaper strike.

3.4/1 Strike Two - Shea, George. Despite his best efforts, Al strikes out and his team loses the game.

3.3/2 Submarine Pitch ­ Christopher, Matt. When he learns why his best friend taught him an unbeatable pitch instead of using it himself, Bernie learns a sad lesson about friendship.

4.5/3 Supercharged Infield ­ Christopher, Matt. Penny Farrell, captain and third baseman of the Hawks softball team, tries to uncover the reason for the strange behavior of two teammates who have also suddenly turned into super athletes.

4.1/3 Tackle Without a Team ­ Christoopher, Matt. Unjustly dismissed from the football team for drug possession, Scott learns that the only way to clear himself with his parents is to find out who planted the marijuana in his duffel bag.

4.3/13 Tangerine ­ Bloor, Edward. Paul Fisher's older brother Erik is a high school football star, but to Paul he's no hero. Paul's own game is soccer, which he plays even though he has to wear thick glasses because of a mysterious eye injury. When the Fishers move to Tangerine, Florida, Paul tries to make sense of things. Like why people live in a place where underground fires burn for years, a sinkhole swallows his school, and lightning strikes the same practice field everyday. Why he fits into the toughest group around, which just happens to be his new soccer team. And most of all, why no one but he can see the terrifying truth about Erik.

5.6/3 Throwing Smoke ­ Brooks, Bruce. When his teammates on the Breadhurst Newts baseball team continue their losing ways, Whiz uses an unusual printing press to create several star players in hopes of winning a game.

4.3/4 Tight End ­ Christopher, Matt. A high school football player believes the harassment he is experiencing on and off the field is due to his father's prison record.

3.3/2 Too Hot to Handle ­ Christopher, Matt. 3 A young baseball player has trouble living up to his family's reputation on a baseball diamond.

.7/3 Top Wing ­ Christopher, Matt. Dana competes with a soccer teammate on the field and off as he tries to discover the truth about a mysterious fire.

3.6/3 Touchdown for Tommy ­ Christopher, Matt. A young boy worries about making the football team and convincing his foster parents to adopt him.

5.4/11 Travel Team ­ Lupica, Mike. 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.

4.8/10 Vanishing Act: Mystery at the U. S. Open ­ Feinstein, John. 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.

4.3/2 Wingman on Ice ­ Christoopher, Matt. Tod Baker is sure his new hockey stick will improve his game significantly. But when his team loses to its archrival, he realizes that good stickhandling and passing require hard work and practice more than top-notch equipment. Blaming himself for the team's loss, he hides his new stick in his closet with a vow not to use it until he deserves it. But will he earn that right before the end of the season, or will he forfeit the new stick until another year?

5.2/3 Woodsie ­ Brooks, Bruce. At the start of the new ice hockey season, Woodsie alone believes that his teammates can pick themselves up after several key players defect to a rival team.

5.3/5 Wrestling Sturbridge ­ Wallace, Rich. Stuck in a small town where no one ever leaves and relegated by his wrestling coach to sit on the bench while his best friend becomes state champion, Ben decides he can't let his last high school wrestling season slip by without challenging his friend and the future.