Good Sports, Good Books

With the NCAA Tournament and the NIT kicking into gear this week, sports are certainly in the air at our house.  We've dabbled a bit in sports books by Jake Maddox and Matt Christopher, but I've wondered what else might be out there for young sports enthusiasts.

Turns out, Dean Schneider offered some ideas in his article "What Makes a Good Sports Novel?" (pp. 68-72) in the January/February 2011 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.  For Schneider, "all good sports novels start --- with the game"  --- as well they should!   He notes that for older teen readers, sports books need to be "honest novels with mature content ... that ... reflect the world as they are beginning to experience it."  For the younger set, he believes that sports books "work best when they even more closely mirror the age, lives, and interests of their fans."  He calls for authors of sports novels to write "with an emphasis on active verbs and concrete nouns and spare sentences that dance" and he points out that such "writing can demonstrate the power of story, the power of good writing on subjects kids care about."  Ultimately, he thinks that the best we can hope for for young readers are "stories by writers who care enough to make the words matter."  Yes please!

So what does Schneider recommend?  Here is a sampling for the 9-12 age group*:

Girl Protagonists:



Youngest readers in the age group (2nd, 3rd Grade):



General 9-12 Age Group:



*As with all books for children, these titles should be reviewed for content by parents to be certain that the ideas/issues discussed are acceptable in your family.

Parents Read Too!

The children aren't the only ones reading at LP!  In fact, did you know that there is a whole section of the LP Library dedicated to books for parents?  That's right, and to make it a bit easier for parents to find out what those titles are, the LP Reads Team has started a Goodreads.com account for LP parents.

The "LP Parents Read" account on Goodreads.com has a shelf that is called "Available at the LP Library," so no longer will you have to make your way to the library to see if Mrs. Helton is currently stocking the title you are interested in.  The Goodreads.com account currently has 114 books featured and you can search shelves dedicated to "Parenting and Discipline," "Bullying," "ADD/ADHD," "Child Development," "Education Reform," "Motivation," and more!

The current book selection for "LP Parents Read" is Education Nation by Milton Chen.

You can become friends with "LP Parents Read" by following this link, signing up for your own account, and then adding "LP Parents Reads" as a friend.*

If you have read a book that you don't see on the shelves that you'd like to recommend to other parents, please be sure to send an email to lpreads@gmail.com.  

*Note:  LP Parents Read and LP Reads are not "groups" on Goodreads.com.  You can find them as friends by looking under the Friends tab to search current Goodreads' members.