Summer Reading 2021: Sports Fiction & Novels in Verse

Stephen Satlow, 8 years old and living in Brooklyn, New York in 1948, loves the Dodgers. He knows all their stats and facts. When Steve hears a rumor that an African American family is moving to his all-Jewish neighborhood, some of his neighbors are against it. Steve knows this is wrong. His hero, Jackie Robinson, broke the color barrier in baseball the year before. Then it happens — Steve’s new neighbor is none other than Jackie Robinson! Based on a true story.

When sixth grader Silas Wade does a school presentation on former Major Leaguer Glenn Burke, it’s more than just a report about the irrepressible inventor of the high five. Burke was a gay baseball player in the 1970s—and for Silas, the presentation is his own first baby step toward revealing a truth about himself he's tired of hiding. Soon he tells his best friend, Zoey, but the longer he keeps his secret from his baseball teammates, the more he suspects they know something’s up—especially when he stages one big cover-up with terrible consequences.

Middle schooler Nikki’s passion is basketball, and she is thrilled when she’s selected to play on an elite-level club team. But in a league with taller, stronger, and faster girls, Nikki is struggling to figure out who she is and how she fits in. The stress piles on as Nikki's best friend spends more and more time with another girl on the team, and when her science teacher assigns a family tree project that will be impossible to complete unless Nikki reveals her most embarrassing secret about her biological father.

Disguising herself as a boy to try out for the 1958 Little League season, talented 10-year-old Katy easily makes the team but is immediately ousted when her sercret is discovered, prompting her to tap her classroom knowledge of the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement to prove that girls can do anything that boys can do.

Jonas’ future looks bright with a college basketball scholarship within reach, but a team member is dead and Jonas knows who is responsible. Should he keep his head down or confront the killer and put his future in jeopardy?

Biracial Donte and his brother attend Middlefield Prep, and Donte presents as black while his brother Trey presents as white. Their school experiences couldn’t be more different, especially when Donte gets unjustly arrested after being bullied and framed by the captain of the fencing team. Terrified, searching for a place where he belongs, Donte joins a local youth center and meets former Olympic fencer Arden Jones. With Arden's help, he begins training as a competitive fencer, setting his sights on taking down the fencing team captain, no matter what.

At Jack Logan's sports-crazy New Jersey high school, the new rule is that all kids must play on a team. So, Jack and a ragtag group of anti-athletic friends start a rebel JV soccer team whose mission is to avoid victory at any cost, setting out to secretly undermine the jock culture of the school. But as the team's losing formula becomes increasingly successful at attracting fans and attention, Jack and his teammates are winning in ways they never expected--and don't know how to handle.

For as long as he can remember, Malcolm has never felt like he was good enough. Not for his parents, who have always seemed at odds with each other, with Malcolm caught in between. And especially not for his dad, whose competitive drive and love for sports Malcolm has never shared. That is, until Malcolm discovers miniature golf, the one sport he actually enjoys. Soon he is signed up for lessons and entered in tournaments. And yet, even as he becomes a better golfer and finds unexpected friends at the local course, be wonders if he might not always be a disappointment.

Thirteen-year-old Annabelle struggles in school, no matter how hard she tries. But as soon as she dives into the pool, she’s unstoppable. When she’s asked to join the high school team over the summer, everything changes. Suddenly, she’s got new friends, and a high school boy starts treating her like she’s somebody special—and Annabelle thinks she’ll finally stand out in a good way. But after a prank goes wrong, Annabelle is abandoned by her new friends and can’t swim. Who is she without the one thing she’s good at?

Told in verse, this story is about twelve-year-old Kasienka who immigrates to England from Poland with her mother in search of Kasienka’s father. Sadly, everyone is not friendly except for one neighbor and a cute boy she meets at the swimming pool, which is her only refuge from bullies and an unfamiliar society.

A bright lad who survived a childhood illness but lost his hearing, Henry is six years old in 1939, when he arrives at Riverview, a home for the feeble-minded. Considered “unteachable,” the boys are provided with substandard food and living conditions but ample punishments for small infractions. In 1942, a young conscientious objector named Victor is assigned to Henry’s ward. Victor treats the boys kindly, recognizes Henry’s intelligence, and begins a correspondence with his family.

When twelve-year-old Maddie hatches a scheme for a secret sleepover, she ends up waking up to a nightmare. She's alone--left behind in a town that has been mysteriously evacuated and abandoned. With no one to rely on, no power, and no working phone lines or internet access, Maddie slowly learns to survive on her own. As months pass, she escapes natural disasters, looters, and wild animals. But Maddie's most formidable enemy is the crushing loneliness she faces every day.

This novel in verse is inspired by the real-life story of Clara Lemlich, a spirited young woman who emigrated from Russia to New York at the turn of the twentieth century and fought tenaciously for equal rights. Bucking the norms of both her traditional Jewish family and societal conventions, Clara refuses to accept substandard working conditions in the factories on Manhattan's Lower East Side. For years, Clara devotes herself to the labor fight, speaking up for those who suffer in silence. In time, Clara convinces the women in the factories to strike, organize, and unionize, culminating in the famous Uprising of the 20,000.

In a new city, at a new school, twelve-year-old Emmy has never felt more out of tune. Things start to look up when she takes her first coding class, unexpectedly connecting with the material—and Abigail, a new friend—through a shared language: music. But when Emmy gets bad news about their computer teacher, and finds out Abigail isn’t being entirely honest about their friendship, she feels like her new life is screeching to a halt. Despite these obstacles, Emmy is determined to prove one thing: that, for the first time ever, she isn’t a wrong note, but a musician in the world's most beautiful symphony.

Sent to Cuba to visit the father he barely knows, Edver is surprised to meet a half-sister, Luza. Looking for something, anything, they might have in common, the siblings sneak onto the Internet, despite it being forbidden in Cuba, and make up a fake butterfly. Maybe now their cryptozoologist mother will come to visit. But their message is intercepted by a dangerous poacher, and the plan turns dangerous.