Tag Archives: sports fiction

#BookFaceFriday “Rez Ball” by Byron Graves

Posted on January 26, 2024 by Tessa Timperley

This #BookFaceFriday is a slam dunk!

Get your game face on, because it’s #BookFaceFriday! If you’re interested in staying up-to-date on the latest and greatest in young adult books, check out this week’s episode of NCompass Live, Best New Teen Reads of 2023, presented by NLC’s Coordinator of Children and Young Adult Library Services, Sally Snyder, and Fremont High School librarian, Dana Fontaine. Today’s #BookFace selection, “Rez Ball” by Byron Graves (‎Heartdrum, 2023), was one of the titles featured in Sally’s teen list. Sally does two presentations like this each year on NCompass Live, one on YA books and another on children’s books. “Rez Ball” is a William C. Morris Debut Book Award winner and an American Indian Library Association Youth Literature Award winner. You can find it as both an eBook and audiobook in Nebraska OverDrive Libraries. If you’re looking for more information about NCompass Live or Sally Snyder’s Best Books lists, check out the NCompass Live Archive.

“Debut author Graves, who is Ojibwe like Tre, doesn’t shirk from showing his community’s ugly experiences, but he never languishes in them. Well-paced and exciting—the action of the basketball games is exceptionally well written—this is a solid piece of sports fiction.”

— Booklist

Find this title and many more through Nebraska OverDrive! Libraries participating in the Nebraska OverDrive Libraries Group currently have access to a shared and growing collection of digital downloadable audiobooks and eBooks. 194 libraries across the state share the Nebraska OverDrive collection of 26,174 audiobooks, 36,611 ebooks, and 5,210 magazines. As an added bonus it includes 130 podcasts that are always available with simultaneous use (SU), as well as SU ebooks and audiobook titles that publishers have made available for a limited time. If you’re a part of it, let your users know about this great title, and if you’re not a member yet, find more information about participating in Nebraska Overdrive Libraries!

Love this #BookFace & reading? Check out our past #BookFaceFriday photos on the Nebraska Library Commission’s Facebook page!

Posted in Books & Reading, Education & Training, Youth Services | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Friday Reads: Ten Thousand Tries by Amy Makechnie

Posted on October 14, 2022 by Aimee Owen

The other players on the team looked at me funny when I borrowed a ball to take this photo at the end of their practice, but my kid just rolled his eyes and smiled. “Yeah, my mom does stuff like this all the time.” Being a a recurring #BookfaceFriday model has jaded him to the weird things I do with book covers. (He’s even better at lining up the shot than I am now.)

This book is also about a boy whose parents spend a lot of time with him on the soccer field. Golden Maroni’s dad was a pro soccer player, and now coaches the local high school team. His mom coaches Golden’s middle school team – she’s referred to as Coach or Mom depending on the chapter’s setting.

The title refers to Malcolm Gladwell’s assertion in his book “Outliers” that it takes 10,000 hours to achieve mastery of a skill. While Amy Makechnie specifies in her end-of-book acknowledgements that this rule doesn’t apply to sports, our hero Golden is sure that 10,000 hours of soccer practice will make him as phenomenal as his idol Lionel Messi. But off the field, things aren’t going as well.

Lucy, his team co-captain and best friend (and maybe more?), will move soon if Golden can’t drive away her annoying future stepfather. His older sister Jaimes certainly needs another 10,000 hours of driving practice before Golden feels safe riding with her. And worst of all, a year and a half after a surprising diagnosis, Golden’s dad is losing his battle with ALS; no amount of positive thinking and hard work can stop the progression of this terrible disease. It feels like Golden’s whole world is crashing down around him. The Maroni family motto is “We do hard things.” They work hard, play hard, and never give up on each other. But this year will be different, and Golden must learn that letting go isn’t the same as giving up.

This book was chosen as one of the 10 nominees that young adults across the state will read and vote on for the 2023-24 Golden Sower Novel Award next school year.

Makechnie, Amy. Ten Thousand Tries, ‎ New York, New York : Simon & Schuster, 2021.

Posted in Books & Reading, General | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment