Reaching Deep, Aiming High: Summer Ball by Mike Lupica

Danny Walker should be on top of the world. His travel team has just won the championship, school's out, and he and two teammates are off to a top basketball camp with some of the best junior players in the country. But Danny has reason to feel a bit low--he's thirteen years old and the size of a ten-year-old. In a sport whose currency is height, Danny is just praying he'll make the 5'10" his dad claimed as an NBA player. But no growth spurt is in sight, and Danny sees his girlfriend Tess begin to tower over him and spending a lot of time on the courts with a tall tennis ace.

Things get even more down for Danny at camp. He's assigned to a bunk with younger kids far from his friends, threatened by two tall Black players who accuse him of faking a foul to win the travel tournament, and stuck with a dour retired coach who has a major grudge against his father and forces a game plan which doesn't play to Danny's quick, ball-handling style. Danny spends most of his game time on the bench and hits an all-time low when Coach Ed, in a rare heart-to-heart talk, tells him that he'll never be big enough for basketball. "Basketball will break your heart," he says, and advises Danny to switch to soccer.

With vital encouragement from Tess and his teammates, Danny finally begins to fight his way back up, befriending Rasheed, one of his former enemies, with whom he shares a passion for basketball and, with Rasheed's support, leading his team to the camp playoffs. After the final game, Danny deftly soccer kicks the game ball through the gym door. "I could play soccer if I wanted," he tells Coach Ed, "but I'm a basketball player."

In Summer Ball Mike Lupica has extended the character of Danny Walker, whom he introduced in his best-selling Travel Team. Lupica's ear for young teen dialog and his game play descriptive writing takes the reader right on court with a tight, insightful feel for the drama of the sport like no one else.

Other top-selling sports novels by Lupica include Miracle on 49th Street and Heat.