"There was a time when running the mile in four minutes was believed to be beyond the limits of human foot speed. In 1952, after suffering defeat at the Helsinki Olympics, three world-class runners each set out to break this barrier: Roger Bannister was ayoung English medical student who epitomized the ideal of the amateur; John Landy the privileged son of a genteel Australian family; and Wes Santee the swaggering American, a Kansas farm boy and natural...

If Harlem high school senior Drew Lawson is going to realize his dream of playing college, then professional, basketball, he will have to improve at being coached and being a team player, especially after a new--white--student threatens to take the scouts' attention away from him.

Playing a sport requires training and skill. But many believe winning also involves luck. Athletes often have good luck charms or pregame rituals. Coaches and fans do too. From college and professional leagues to the Olympics, superstitions are everywhere in the world of sports. But do these interesting items and peculiar practices actually help teams win? Space 8, a Hi-Lo nonfiction series for young adults, reads like an infinity of facts. This series...

A coming-of-age novel in verse set in 1980s Southern California, about a Persian American girl who rides the waves, falls, and finds her way back to the shore Thirteen-year-old Ava loves to surf and to sing. Singing and reading Rumi poems settle her mild OCD, and catching waves with her best friend, Phoenix, lets her fit in-her olive skin looks tan, not foreign. But then Ava has to spend the summer before ninth grade volunteering at the hospital,...

This title introduces fans to innovations in the world of auto racing.

This absorbing book describes the details of three real case studies of investigative journalism about sports. Stories include journalists exposing the FIFA soccer scandal and Olympic committee wrongdoings, the promotion of violence in hockey leading to death, and the abuse of USA gymnasts by their team doctor and the attempt to cover it up. Readers will gain an understanding of the research process, the ethical standards journalists must follow,...

When Mia Cox finds out she can't donate her kidney to save her younger sister's life, she doesn't hesitate to jump on a plane to New York, convinced she can talk their estranged birth mother, Carmen, into donating hers instead. She doesn't know the city or how she'll find Carmen when she gets there, but she has to try. If she doesn't, Maddy's going to die. On the cross-country flight, Mia figures she'll have more than enough time to make a plan for...

Twenty-year-old American gymnast Shawn Johnson is a four-time Olympic gold and silver medalist; a national- and world-champion athlete. Already a popular role model to all ages, in 2009 she captured the national spotlight again when she won the widely popular Dancing with the Stars. Yet Shawn is no stranger to hard work and adversity. Her loss of the major gymnastics prize everyone expected her to win in Beijing, the all-around Olympic gold medal,...

A young swimmer is marginalized and bereft after her Olympics ambitions are dashed, compelling her to work as a coach for three popular boys with whom she forges a unique bond that is shaped by their different social statuses at school.

Tessa knows a soccer scholarship is her best chance at going to college. She's the best player on her small-town high school team-but that doesn't mean much in the big world of college soccer. Luckily, her best friend's sister plays for a nearby university. She offers to help Tessa make the team-but not for free. Tessa must join her snobby sorority, and ditch her high school boyfriend, who is simply not fraternity material. Tessa wonders if it's all...