Travel Team

by Mike Lupica (Author)

Travel Team
Reading Level: 6th − 7th Grade
Mike Lupica sinks a three-pointer with this #1 New York Times bestselling basketball novel for any kid who has been told he's not good enough.

Twelve-year-old Danny Walker may be the smallest kid on the basketball court--but don't tell him that. Because no one plays with more heart or court sense. But none of that matters when he is cut from his local travel team, the very same team his father led to national prominence as a boy. Danny's father, still smarting from his own troubles, knows Danny isn't the only kid who was cut for the wrong reason, and together, this washed-up former player and a bunch of never-say-die kids prove that the heart simply cannot be measured.

Travel Team is an inspirational tale in the tradition of The Bad News Bears and Hoosiers. It will leave readers of all ages cheering.

"In a story every bit as exciting and tear-jerking as any novel or movie in its genre - Hoosiers, Mighty Ducks, The Bad News Bears - Danny gets his chance at glory. Lupica . . . has the knowledge of the game and the lean prose to make this a taut, realistic story not just about the game but about heart, character, and family. A winner." -Kirkus Reviews

"Lupica . . . sets the scene for on-court action, and delivers play-by-play descriptions . . . that will thrill basketball buffs. Genuinely affecting." -Publishers Weekly
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School Library Journal

Gr 5-8-Danny is a basketball fanatic. He is smart, talented, fast, and dedicated, but short. When he fails to make the seventh-grade travel team, he also fails to follow in the footsteps of his legendary father, Richie Walker, who led his own 12-year-old team to win the nationals and whose career was tragically ended by a car accident. Danny, who lives with his warm and supportive mom, has a somewhat stilted relationship with his less-reliable father. Danny did not make the squad because of the machinations of Richie's childhood nemesis, Mr. Ross, a controlling man who is determined to build a winning team. Although this text lacks only the stage directions and music cues to make the transition to the small screen as a Hallmark special, it really is a fun book for sports fans. Danny and the others cut from the travel team predictably form their own squad, coached by his father who battles alcoholism (and another car accident!) to lead them, with Danny's leadership, to the climactic game against their arch rivals. Although the kids compare themselves to the Bad News Bears, they are strictly old-school, harkening back to Stephen W. Meader's Sparkplug of the Hornets (Harcourt, 1968; o.p.). There's even a sweetly innocent romance with a wise-beyond-her-years girl who uses IM/chat to provide Danny with support just when he needs it most. A round-ball heart-warmer.-Joel Shoemaker, Southeast Junior High School, Iowa City, IA Copyright 2004 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Publishers Weekly

Sports columnist Lupica (Red Zone) clearly shoots from the heart in this appealing novel centering on a talented basketball player. Danny, after playing for two years for the Vikings, fails to make the seventh-grade travel team because he is "too small." The team is coached by the overly intense Jeff Ross who, as a boy, was always the second-best player on the Vikings-just behind Danny's father, Richie, who led the Vikings to a World Series victory. Richie went on to become an NBA star until a car accident ended his career. Now divorced from Danny's mother, the man returns to town and offers to organize and coach a second travel team, the Warriors. Lupica thus sets the scene for on-court action, and delivers play-by-play descriptions of the team practices and games that will thrill basketball buffs. The novel's emotional pitch intensifies when Richie is seriously injured in yet another car accident, Danny takes over as coach of his team, and Ross's son, Ty, the star of the Vikings, defects from his father's team to join the Warriors. Danny's budding romance with his long-time friend Tess adds a sweet, pleasingly corny sideline to the plot, which culminates with the showdown between the rival teams. To Lupica's credit, the narrative never lingers too long on the fathers' rivalry, instead keeping the focus on Danny, his teammates and his family. The novel includes some genuinely affecting moments, especially those depicting Danny's rapport with each parent. Ages 10-up. (Nov.) Copyright 2005 Publishers Weekly Used with permission.

Review quotes

Praise for Travel Team

"In a story every bit as exciting and tear-jerking as any novel or movie in its genre - Hoosiers, Mighty Ducks, The Bad News Bears - Danny gets his chance at glory. Lupica . . . has the knowledge of the game and the lean prose to make this a taut, realistic story not just about the game but about heart, character, and family. A winner." -Kirkus Reviews

"Lupica . . . sets the scene for on-court action, and delivers play-by-play descriptions . . . that will thrill basketball buffs. Genuinely affecting." -Publishers Weekly
Mike Lupica
Mike Lupica is one of the most prominent sportswriters in America and is the recipient of the prestigious Damon Runyon Award for excellence in journalism. His longevity at the top of his field is based on his experience and insider's knowledge, coupled with a provocative presentation that takes an uncompromising look at the tumultuous world of professional sports. Today he is a syndicated columnist for the New York Daily News, which includes his popular "Shooting from the Lip" column, which appears every Sunday.

He began his newspaper career covering the New York Knicks for the New York Post at age 23. He became the youngest columnist ever at a New York paper with the New York Daily News, which he joined in 1977. For more than 30 years, Lupica has added magazines, novels, sports biographies, other non-fiction books on sports, as well as television to his professional resume. For the past fifteen years, he has been a TV anchor for ESPN's The Sports Reporters. He also hosted his own program, The Mike Lupica Show on ESPN2.

In 1987, Lupica launched "The Sporting Life" column in Esquire magazine. He has published articles in other magazines, including Sport, World Tennis, Tennis, Golf Digest, Playboy, Sports Illustrated, ESPN: The Magazine, Men's Journal and Parade. He has received numerous honors, including the 2003 Jim Murray Award from the National Football Foundation.

Mike Lupica co-wrote autobiographies with Reggie Jackson and Bill Parcells, collaborated with noted author and screenwriter, William Goldman on Wait 'Till Next Year, and wrote The Summer of '98, Mad as Hell: How Sports Got Away from the Fans and How We Get It Back and Shooting From the Lip, a collection of columns. In addition, he has written a number of novels, including Dead Air, Extra Credits, Limited Partner, Jump, Full Court Press, Red Zone, Too Far and national bestsellers Wild Pitch and Bump and Run. Dead Air was nominated for the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best First Mystery and became a CBS television move, "Money, Power, Murder" to which Lupica contributed the teleplay. Over the years he has been a regular on the CBS Morning News, Good Morning America and The MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour. On the radio, he has made frequent appearances on Imus in the Morning since the early 1980s.

His previous young adult novels, Travel Team, Heat, Miracle on 49th Street, and the summer hit for 2007, Summer Ball, have shot up the New York Times bestseller list. Lupica is also what he describes as a "serial Little League coach," a youth basketball coach, and a soccer coach for his four children, three sons and a daughter. He and his family live in Connecticut.

Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9780142404621
Lexile Measure
930
Guided Reading Level
23
Publisher
Philomel Books
Publication date
August 20, 2005
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV039000 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | General
JUV032020 - Juvenile Fiction | Sports & Recreation | Basketball
Library of Congress categories
Fathers and sons
Schools
Basketball
Texas Lone Star Reading List
Commended 2005 - 2006
Black-Eyed Susan Award
Nominee 2005 - 2006
Massachusetts Children's Book Award
Nominee 2005 - 2006
Sequoyah Book Awards
Nominee 2006 - 2007
Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Award
Nominee 2008 - 2008
Nevada Young Readers' Award
Nominee 2008 - 2008
Iowa Teen Award
Nominee 2008 - 2008
Flicker Tale Children's Book Award
Nominee 2009 - 2009

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