Planet Middle School
Nikki Grimes
A series of poems describes all the baffling changes at home and at school in twelve-year-old Joylin's transition from tomboy basketball player to not-quite-girly girl.

by Mike Lupica (2008)
Pedro Morales has always been content helping others look great. The epitome of a point guard, he plays the game to set up his teammatesNed, in particular, the star forward on the receiving end of Pedros pinpoint passes. Pedro wants to make his father proud, and so he runs for class president. Yet doing so means going one-on-one against Ned, easily the most popular boy in school. And Pedro learns the hard way that being a good teammate doesnt mean that others will return the favor. Now Pedro wants to win more than everbut this time, its for himself.
Nikki Grimes
A series of poems describes all the baffling changes at home and at school in twelve-year-old Joylin's transition from tomboy basketball player to not-quite-girly girl.
Timothy Tocher
When her father accepts a job as girls' basketball coach in another town, fifth-grader Laurie reluctantly leaves old friends and teammates and faces new challenges with a new basketball team at a new school.
Elena Yates Eulo
Returning to high school in the fall, brainy Joey Eastland, the football team's waterboy, is determined to reinvent himself by becoming a star player and a "chick magnet."
Jane O'Connor
As her third-grade class makes its selections for the "Graveyard of Boring Words" and learns about "superb synonyms," slow-footed Nancy enthusiastically plays on the soccer team, with the goal of just being mediocre, or maybe even a little better than average.