THE SUPER BOWL. America's biggest sports spectacle. More than 95 million fans will be watching, but Steve Thomas and Susan Carol Anderson know that what they'll be watching is a lie. They know that the entire offensive line of the California Dreams have failed their doping tests and that the Dreams' owner is trying to cover up the test results. These two teens are sitting on the biggest sports scandal of the decade. What they don't know -yet - is how to prove it.
The year is 1899, and the Travelin' Nine are crisscrossing the good ol' U.S. of A., raising money to pay off the Payne family's big-league debt!
As the team heads into the River City, Griffith is beginning to realize that there's more at risk than meets the eye, something beyond the need to raise money -- something involving the ball that could put his entire family in danger.
Ruby is eager to help solve the mystery of the ball and plans on keeping her eyes and ears wide open and writing everything down. She knows the answer is out there. All she has to do is see the things that others don't. And figure out what those things mean.
Then there's Graham, who usually only thinks about how to get more time on the baseball field. Even he's beginning to notice that there are strange and shady characters at just about every turn.
Finally there's the Chancellor, one of the wealthiest and greediest businessmen in the entire world. And it looks like he's got his eye on the ball!
House Jackson, age twelve, star pitcher and team captain of the Aurora County All-Stars, has a secret. For the past year, while sidelined with a broken elbow, he has spent every afternoon at the bedside of a mysterious old man the other kids call Mean-Man Boyd-and he doesn't want anyone to know. Now House is finally ready to play ball again, but his team's biggest (and ONLY) game of the year might be canceled, thanks to the very girl who caused his broken elbow. It's almost too much to bear. But in the standoff that ensues, House finds a courage he didn't know he possessed-and discovers that just about everyone in Aurora County, Mississippi, has a secret.
Jake is part of a very special family. A rowdy bunch of siblings and an incredible mom and dad. They have a life filled with art, music, long summer nights on the cape, and lots and lots of baseball. But no one is more special in Jake's mind than his younger brother Edward. From the moment he was born it seemed Edward was destined for greatness. He could make anyone laugh and everyone think. And he was the only kid in the whole town who could learn how to throw the perfect knuckleball. Jake looks back on one year in particular. It was a magical time, where everything seemed perfect--until the unimaginable happens and Edward dies. But looking back, Jake learns so much about himself by remembering his brother. He realizes what a gift Edward was to his family and those around him, and he sees firsthand the amazing gift Edward is able to give a stranger who is in desperate need of a miracle.
Violet's camping out too, but her friends don't want Arthur around. So Arthur decidesto collect slimy things he knows Violet wouldn't like. But he doesn't count on slippery rocks and swooping bats, or hunger pangs. Then he smells hot dogs roasting over a warm fire...
Griffith, Graham, and Ruby's father passed away in the war. And now they must join their mother and their father's wartime traveling baseball team, The Travelin' Nine, on a a tour of America to raise money. No one will tell the kids why the team needs money so badly. Their only clue is a baseball with a hole the size of an acorn in it that their Uncle Owen gave to them the night of their father's funeral. They know very little about its significance except that their father made it with his own two hands and carried it with him throughout the war. And when all three kids hold the ball, strange things begin to happen...
New York City. The U.S. Open.
With 128 athletes competing in dozens of matches for millions in prize money, you expect drama. You expect blistering serves, smashed returns, and sliced shots that kiss the line. You do not expect kidnapping.
But Stevie Thomas and Susan Carol Anderson can’t come up with any other explanation. These two aspiring sportswriters were sitting in the press box, amazed at their luck in scoring media credentials to cover the tournament. Like everyone else, they were eagerly awaiting the first-round match of the hot, new Russian phenom–Nadia Symanova. She was young, glamorous, and talented enough to win it all. But she never made it on court. Somehow, on the short walk from the locker rooms to Louis Armstrong Stadium, the most-watched player in tennis simply vanished.
The media frenzy is staggering. Everyone’s looking for Nadia. Can two eighth-grade rookies really hope to scoop the pros? Well, they’re certainly going to try! And as they chase down the mystery, they’ll get a crash course in what a sweet racket the game of tennis can be. . .
A championship surfer, Jack Lopez accurately depicts the art of surfing in this tale described as The Outsiders for a new age. In the Break tells the story of fifteen year-old Jamie and Juan, best friends who live and breathe surfing. They don't have a care in the world when they're out on the water. But when an argument between Jamie and his abusive step-father comes to blows, Jamie turns to the one person who can help. Together the two (plus Jamie's sister Amber) head for Mexico-surfboards stowed in the back.
Winner of the National Book Award, Pete Hautman pens a futuristic satire brimming with wry humor and honored by a Booklist starred review. Welcome to the United Safer States of America in 2076! Here, prisoners perform all manual labor. And the country is finally safe. Sixteen-year-old Bo ignores governmental protective devices capturing every action and word. He endures the avalanche of safety regulations. But when he's accused of spreading a rash at school, anger and jealousy threaten to override his daily dose of calming Levulor and earn him a "job" in the Canadian tundra.
Fourteen-year-old Matt Collier, a die-hard New York Yankee fan, gets a chance to time travel to any baseball game in history. Accompanied by the universe's guardian of Time, Matt becomes the batboy for his beloved team and tries to change the outcome of the 1960 World Series, the first ever to end with a homerun.
Danny Jordan is one of two lucky winners of the US 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. Danny and his fellow winner, Brigid-Ann Robinson, are nosing around the Superdome ad 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.
From the Compact Disc edition.
The sponsor of his baseball team tells Stosh about the bum rap Shoeless Joe Jackson got for his part in the scheme to fix the 1919 World Series. Now Stosh decides to use his special talent of traveling back in time to warn Jackson against becoming involved. The trouble is, some vicious gangsters stand to make a bunch of money if the fix is on-and they'll do anything to keep Stosh from interfering. Popular author Dan Gutman's previous Baseball Card Adventures include Honus & Me and Babe & Me.
