Written by Jeff Savage
Clay Matthews is one of the star defensive players in the National Football League. His fearless playing style and physical size make him a beast on the field. However, Matthews was not always a defensive powerhouse, as Jeff Savage’s biography explains.
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Written by Kurtis Scaletta
Illustrated by Eric Wright
Teddy “Bear” Larrabee, a slugger on the Pine City Porcupines, gets his 823rd base hit on his birthday, August 23—and it’s a home run! The Bear is a big believer in the power of numbers, so he asks Pines batboy Chad to retrieve the ball from the stands. There’s only one problem: the crabby fan in the ballpark who caught it. Chad really wants to keep the Bear happy and slugging, so he’s just got to figure out what the fan would be willing to trade for that 823rd ball.
The 823rd Hit is a book in a Topps League Story series. The book features the adventures, and misadventures, of the Pine City Porcupines and their two batboys: Chad, an avid baseball fan with a huge baseball card collection, and Dylan, who doesn’t know a thing about the sport. The fictional series has a unique twist: Chad solves problems by using information from Topps cards of real figures from modern baseball history.
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Written by Jeff Archer
Even people who don’t follow football have heard of Tim Tebow. For one thing, he’s famous for dropping to one knee on the football field and praying. It’s now called Tebowing. But who is the man behind the quarterback? This volume of the “Amazing Athletes” series attempts to answer that question.
Born in the Philippines and moved to the United States at the age of three, he returned to Asia with his family each summer to work at the orphanage they started. He is known for being home schooled. Despite that, he was allowed to participate in team sports at the local high school, where he was a fantastic player. He worked so hard that his college strength coach limited the amount of weight lifting he was allowed to do. He was the first college sophomore ever to win the Heisman Trophy. When he entered the National Football League (NFL), he was one of the first to point out that he had a lot to learn from the more experienced players. He tries to give back to the fans in many ways. His religious faith is very important to him.
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Written by Lisa Wheeler
Illustrated by Barry Gott
The Greenblade Slackers and the Redscales go head to head in the action-packed Mega Bowl game in Dino-Football. If a teacher is looking to interest a very sports-minded boy in reading, this is a great option because it draws the reader into its plot.
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By Laurie Calkhoven
Illustrated by Arcana Studios
As part of the “Innerstar University” series, A Winning Goal is about a girls’ soccer team and how teams work. With much of the text written in second person, the reader becomes one of the team and participates in all activities, on and off the field. This approach works well for third grade reading, making the reader feel a part of the story.
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