KID ATHLETES
Hilarious childhood biographies and full-color illustrations show how Tiger Woods, Gabby Douglas, Bruce Lee, Bille Jean King, and other budding sports champions faced kid-sized challenges growing up.
Forget the gold medals, the championships, and the undefeated seasons. When all-star athletes were growing up, they had regular-kid problems just like you. Baseball legend Babe Ruth was such a troublemaker, his family sent him to reform school. Race car champion Danica Patrick fended off bullies who told her “girls can’t drive.” And football superstar Peyton Manning was forced to dance the tango in his school play. Kid Athletes tells all of their stories and more with full-color cartoon illustrations on every page. Other subjects include Billie Jean King, Jackie Robinson, Yao Ming, Gabby Douglas, Tiger Woods, Julie Krone, Bruce Lee, Muhammad Ali, Bobby Orr, Lionel Messi, and more!
KID COACH
Scott and his teammates can’t find an adult to coach their team, so they must find a leader among themselves.
The Tigers are in trouble. Baseball season is underway, and Coach Skelly has just quit. When Scott and his teammates can’t find an adult to coach the team, it looks as if the Tigers’ season might be over before it really begins. But then the players have an idea: what if one of them became coach? They learn about leadership and discover unique and unrecognized talents among their own friends.
Author Fred Bowen continues his Sport Story Series with play-by-play action that’s sure to keep readers on the edge of their seats! An afterword provides the real stories of player-managers in Major League Baseball history.
LEGENDS: BASEBALL
“With the LEGENDS series, Howard Bryant brings to life the best that sports has to offer—the heroes, the bitter rivalries, the moments that every sports-loving kid should know.”—Mike Lupica, #1 bestselling author of Travel Team, Heat, and Fantasy League
Experience baseball’s most exciting moments, World Series heroics, greatest players, and more!
Baseball, America’s pastime, is a sport of moments that stand the test of time. It is equally a sport of a new generation of heroes, whose exploits inspire today’s young fans. This combination makes for a winning debut in Legends: The Best Players, Games, and Teams in Baseball.
This is no traditional almanac of mundane statistics, but rather a storyteller’s journey through baseball’s storied game. Told in fun, accessible chapters and accompanied by iconic photos, a slew of Top Ten lists for kids to chew on and debate, and a Timeline of the 40 Most Important Moments in Baseball History, this collection covers some of the greatest players from Babe Ruth to Hank Aaron; the greatest teams to take the field and swing the bats; the greatest social triggers, such as Jackie Robinson’s breaking of the color barrier; the greatest playoff rivalries, including the 2004 showdown between the Red Sox and Yankees that turned into an instant classic; and, of course, the edge-of-your-seat World Series moments that left some cheering while others wept. This is the perfect book for young fans eager to learn more about the sport that will stay with them for a lifetime.
Praise for LEGENDS:
* “A terrific gathering of heroic hacks and legendary near misses.”—Kirkus Books, starred review
LEGENDS: FOOTBALL
From Lombardi’s Packers through Brady and the Patriots, here is the ultimate look at the greatest sporting event in America — the Super Bowl — through its greatest quarterbacks, coaches, and highlight-reel plays.
In the second book of the LEGENDS series, ESPN’s Howard Bryant delivers THE gridiron guide to the most exciting event in sports: the Super Bowl!
In this day and age, the gridiron reigns supreme. Football is America’s most popular sport and the NFL’s star players are instant celebrities with die-hard fans who live and die with each win or loss. And our collective obsession with the game begins when we’re just kids and culminates each year on what has become the equivalent of a national holiday—Super Bowl Sunday.
Recounting momentous stories of football’s past and present, and accompanied by iconic photos, Top Ten Lists to chew on and debate, and a Top 40-style Timeline of Key Moments, this comprehensive collection details twenty of the greatest Super Bowls in NFL history—and expands on their relevance within the larger scope of dynasties, giants of the coaching world, and marquee players making history. From the upsets to the blowouts to the nail-biting finishes, this is the perfect book for young fans eager to kick off their football schooling.
“With the LEGENDS series, Howard Bryant brings to life the best that sports has to offer—the heroes, the bitter rivalries, the moments that every sports-loving kid should know.”—Mike Lupica, #1 bestselling author of Travel Team, Heat, and Fantasy League
LIONEL MESSI
Readers (Grades 4-6) will learn about Leo’s favorite foods and pastimes and find out how he likes to spend time with his family. They will also learn how he got his start as a soccer player and how he became an international superstar.
LONG-ARM QUARTERBACK
Cap Wadell loves football, but it seems unlikely that he’ll ever get to play on a real team-his hometown is so small that there aren’t enough boys in his school to fill a regulation squad. Then his grandfather tells him how he solved that same problem years before: He and his schoolmates started a six-man football league. If Cap wants to do the same thing, Grandpa will be happy to help. He’ll even coach the team if the league gets off the ground. It does, and soon Cap and his friends are learning the rules of six-man football. Cap is in competition for the starting quarterback spot with Jimmy Cash, but that’s not a problem. What is a problem is that Grandpa and Jimmy’s grandfather have reignited an old football feud. When their rivalry starts to affect the team, Cap wonders if the team will survive. For a complete list of all of Matt Christopher’s titles, please turn to the last pages of this book.
LUCKY ENOUGH
Trey is overjoyed when his lucky charm helps him make the travel team, but will his luck hold out?
When Trey’s treasured lucky charm—a piece of blue sea glass he found near his grandmother’s beach house—”helps” him make it onto the Ravens travel team with his friend Cole, he is overjoyed. This stroke of good fortune reinforces his superstitious behavior, and the rituals become more and more important to him. In spite of some teasing and even some sarcasm from his teammates, Trey persists—he never steps on the foul line, he obsessively taps the corners of home plate when he’s at bat, he always chooses the same lucky bat—and the list just keeps getting longer. Why stop? After all, his tactics are working; he’s doing quite well on the field and in the batter’s box. Then one day he can’t find his lucky sea glass. He and Cole search everywhere—but it’s no use. Trey’s performance begins to slip, and he is convinced that his future with the Ravens is doomed. It is no comfort to him to learn that many pro baseball players also depended on lucky charms or rituals. Things don’t start to improve for Trey until his uncle reminds him of his grandmother’s favorite saying: “The harder you work, the luckier you get.”