Summer Ball

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Summer Ball Pub. Date: 6/28/2008 Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)

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Overview

When you're the smallest kid playing a big man's game, the challenges never stop-especially when your name is Danny Walker. Leading your travel team to the national championship may seem like a dream come true, but for Danny, being at the top just means the competition tries that much harder to knock him off. Now Danny's leaving Middletown for the summer and heading to Right Way basketball camp, where he's out of his element and maybe out of his league. The country's best ballers are in attendance, and Danny will need to raise his game if he wants to match up. But it won't be easy. Old rivals and new battles leave Danny wondering if he really has what it takes to stand tall.

Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

Danny Walker, the economy-sized hoopster of Travel Team, is back for another exciting drive to the basket. Danny led his travel team five to a national championship, but he isn't gloating: He knows that his reputation has only made him a bigger target. At Right Way basketball camp, he's not only the smallest kid but also perhaps the least confident. In the fierce competition, he'll have to step up just to stay in the game. A perfect slam dunk.

Booklist

Lupica is at his best when he puts the reader right in the center of the action on the court. Young sports-fiction fans will eat this up.

More Reviews (6) Fewer Reviews

Children's Literature

It is all about ball for Danny Walker, a thirteen-year-old basketball player who may be small in stature but certainly is not diminutive in his love for the game. Danny's travel team has recently won the national championship, which was a dream come true. It places a lot of pressure on Danny, however, to prove that just because he is small, he can still play with the big guys at one of the most challenging basketball camps around. If this were his only concern it would be way too easy. Factor in a coach who not only cannot see past the vertically challenged person in front of him, but also seems to have it out for Danny due to some unknown situation from his Dad's basketball history. The relationships that are depicted—Danny with his parents, his friends, his girlfriend, his "enemies," his superiors, and one young boy in particular—are written with amazing clarity and honesty. All drama aside, the on-court sequences are understandable to non-ball players yet detailed enough for those who know the game and keep all audiences cheering for Danny. Boys and girls alike will enjoy this book, which is the sequel to "Travel Team." The author's first two novels for young readers were bestsellers. He also writes for the New York Times and is regularly featured on sports television. Highly recommended.

VOYA

Summer Ball is a great book for teen boys who play basketball and also for those who don't! It deals with the stress in the life of a teenager, including bullies, friends, and girls. This allows teenagers to compare their lives with the characters in the book. If you play or understand basketball, then this book has an extra bonus because it has exhilarating step-by-step plays, shots during games, and suspenseful last-second moves. Lupica brings a teenager's life alive, so this is a book that must be read by all teens!

VOYA

Danny Walker of Travel Team (Philomel, 2004/VOYA December 2004) fame continues to live for basketball-even though he still is waiting for his growth spurt. With eighth grade behind him, Danny is on his way to the summer basketball camp run by NBA player Josh Cameron. Danny wonders whether he really can measure up in a camp league of eleven- to fifteen-year-olds. His mother and father are back together, but Danny and basketball-playing friend Tess seem to be at odds for the first time, and he heads to camp full of uncertainties. The first days of camp crush Danny to where he considers faking an injury to go home. But when Tess arrives at her uncle's home across the lake from Danny, the two of them have a heart-to-heart talk, and Danny regains his confidence. Other challenges materialize in an old-fashioned coach, who tells Danny that he should play soccer instead of basketball, and a hot-shot player who seems to have it out for Danny. As always, it all comes down to the buzzer of the last game at camp. Both fans of basketball and fans of underdogs will love this story of Danny and his irrepressible friends. Lupica knows his basketball and knows how to spin a page-turner of a story. Those who enjoyed the first installment of Danny's story will be thrilled to read a sequel, and even those middle school readers who are not huge sports fans will want to cheer for Danny Walker, who proves that determination can be a whole lot bigger than height.

KLIATT

Danny, the hero of Travel Team, is back in this sequel, but it can stand alone, and certainly basketball fans won't want to miss it. Danny is now almost 14 and off to basketball summer camp in Maine, where he's afraid he won't be good enough to compete with older, taller boys. It doesn't help that he's in a different bunk than his old friends Ty and Will and new friend Tarik, from the Bronx, but he does find some satisfaction in helping out a younger bunkmate. It also doesn't help that he's on rigid Coach Powers's team. But never fear, Danny's not a quitter, and it helps that he and Tess are close again: he even sneaks out to the girls' camp across the lake one night to see her. Loads of detailed sports action makes this a sure winner; sportswriter Lupica really knows his stuff. It's an old-fashioned tale about character and persistence that will nevertheless appeal to contemporary audiences, especially boys, with realistic dialog and situations any basketball player or fan can relate to.

School Library Journal

Gr 5-8
This novel continues the story of Danny Walker, the basketball-obsessed hero of Travel Team (Philomel, 2004). In the interval between the two books, the 13-year-old and his friends went on to win the travel-team championship. Now that they are heading off to summer basketball camp, Danny is feeling the pressure of being number one. He plays as well as ever, but he's still the smallest boy on the court and anxiously hoping for a growth spurt. As the story begins, things quickly go wrong for him. He fights with his girlfriend before he leaves; at camp, he's separated from his friends and assigned a berth in the younger boys' cabin. There are many familiar elements and few surprises here, yet Lupica breathes life into both characters and story. Danny is a classic sports-story underdog, but he's also sympathetic and engaging. He is surrounded by a cast of supporting characters who add humor and whose interactions ring true. When Danny befriends Zach, who is a younger version of himself, readers see the protagonist grow in empathy and self-awareness. Sports fans will relish the on-court action, expertly rendered in Lupica's taut prose. This worthy sequel to Travel Team should earn a wide audience.
—Marilyn TaniguchiCopyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Kirkus Reviews

Danny Walker returns in this sequel to the popular Travel Team (2004). Son of a former NBA player, Danny is considered too short to make it on a championship team, and even his coach suggests soccer as a better match for him. But Danny perseveres, goes to basketball camp and suffers abuse at the hands of Coach Powers and fellow players, until he proves himself, helps forge a viable team and becomes a hero in the inevitable Rocky-style climax. Underdog makes good is always a fun theme, and young readers will enjoy this one, including the exciting final game, but it's less effective and less involving than Lupica's previous books Heat (2006) and Miracle on 49th Street (2006). The staccato writing becomes annoying, the fragmented style contributing to a story that is insubstantial and predictable. Nevertheless, fans of Lupica and John Feinstein will devour this one. (Fiction. 10+)

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780142411537
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
Publication date: 5/15/2008
Edition description: Reprint
Pages: 272
Sales rank: 98,043
Age range: 9 - 11 Years
Lexile: 0910L (what's this?)
Product dimensions: 5.40 (w) x 8.10 (h) x 0.70 (d)

Meet the Author

Mike Lupica

Mike Lupica is the author of many novels for sports fans, including Red Zone, Bump and Run, and Wild Pitch. His columns for the New York Daily News are syndicated nationally, and he is a regular on ESPN's The Sports Reporters. Partial to the little guys, Mr. Lupica enjoys coaching youth basketball.

Read an Excerpt

Chapter one

Danny Walker said to his parents, “You know that growth spurt you guys have been promising me my whole life? When does that kick in, exactly?”

They were all sitting at the kitchen table having breakfast: Danny, his mom, his dad. Richie and Ali Walker were finally back together, after having been apart for way too much of Danny’s life, for reasons he always said he understood but didn’t.

None of that mattered to Danny now. The three of them having breakfast like this had become strictly regulation, instead of something that felt like it ought to be a family holiday.

Richie Walker put down his newspaper and said to his wife, “Which growth spurt do you think he’s talking about?”

Ali Walker, chin in her hand, frowning at the question, a real Mom pose if there ever was one, said, “It can only be the big one.”

“Oh,” Richie said, “the big one.”

“Not to be hurtful,” Danny’s mom said to his dad, “but it’s the growth spurt you never really had, dear. Whatever the nice people listing your height in the programs always had to say about you.”

“Came close,” he said.

Ali grinned. “Missed it by that much.”

Now Richie looked at his son. “And despite being the size that I am, I still managed to be All-State at Middletown High, get a scholarship out of here to Syracuse, get to be All-America there and become a lottery pick in the NBA.”

“Blah, blah, blah,” Danny said.

“Excuse me?” his dad said.

“Kidding.”

There was no stopping his dad on this one. It was like he was driving to the basket. You just got out of the way.

“And,” Richie Walker said, “though my memory gets pretty fuzzy sometimes, I believe before I did all that, I was the point guard on the Middletown team that won the nationals in travel ball when I was twelve. Like another twelve-year-old I know.”

“I get it, Dad,” Danny said. “Seriously. I get it, okay? I know this act you and Mom like to do the way I know my Boy Meets World reruns.”

His best bud, Will Stoddard, had gotten Danny hooked on the show. Will knew more about television shows, old and new, than about any school subject he had ever taken in any grade with any teacher. Danny thought Will secretly wanted to be an actor someday; he might as well get paid for performing, since -he’d been doing it his whole life.

Ali said, “I thought Saved by the Bell was your fave.”

“I go back and forth.” Now Danny was the one grinning. He didn’t know if other kids liked just sitting around with their parents this way. But he never got tired of it.

“Hello?” Richie said. “I wasn’t quite finished.”

“Sorry, dear,” Ali said.

“Missing my own big growth spurt and never actually growing to the five-ten they always listed me at in those programs also didn’t prevent me from getting the girl.”

Girls.

It was the absolute, total, last thing on earth he wanted to talk about today. Or think about. Today or ever again, maybe.

One girl in particular, anyway.

“I’m happy for both of you,” Danny said. “But, Dad, I know you weren’t the smallest kid in every game you ever played. And I am. Sometimes it gets kind of old.”

“Yeah, like you’re getting old. You just finished the eighth grade, after all. And will be fourteen years old before you know it.”

“And just had a losing record for the first time in my life,” he said to his dad.

“Horrors!” Ali Walker said. “Six wins and seven losses. Shouldn’t we have grounded him for that?”

“Funny, Mom.”

“I -don’t suppose it matters that you were an eighth -grader basically playing on a ninth-grade team, and going up against teams that had all ninth graders,” his dad said.

“You know what your man Coach Parcells always said,” Danny said, loving it when he could turn one of his father’s sayings around on him. “You are what your record says you are.”

“You did fine.”

“And we wouldn’t have won as many games as we did if Ty hadn’t transferred,” Danny said.

Ty Ross was his other best bud. Meaning a guy bud. And Ty was a lot more than that. In Danny’s opinion, he was the best basketball player in town. Of any age. There were a bunch of people who said Ty and Danny were co-best, even though Ty was already a foot taller, but Danny wasn’t buying it. He also didn’t care what people said—he was just happy to have Ty playing Karl (the Mailman) Malone to his John Stockton, all the way through high school.

Ty had switched from his own travel team to Danny’s the year before, mostly so he could play with Danny, and then their team, the Warriors, won the same travel championship Richie Walker’s team had once won. At the time, Ty was still going to the Springs School, the public school in town. But he had talked his parents into letting him move over to St. Patrick’s, just for one year, so he and Danny didn’t have to wait until they got to ninth grade at Middletown High to start playing freshman ball together.

Or maybe they’d even skip freshman ball, now that the new varsity coach at Middletown High, starting next season, was going to be Richie Walker himself. Sometimes Richie hinted that he might have them both go straight to varsity, since most of this year’s team had just graduated.

When his dad would drop those hints, Danny would just go along, try to act excited, even though he wondered how he would be able to go up against high school seniors in a few months after nearly getting swallowed whole by the taller ninth-graders this past season.

“Wait till you and Ty are playing for Coach Walker,” Richie said now.

“Yeah, Dad,” Danny said. “It’ll be sick.”

He knew he’d made a mistake the minute he said it. The way he knew when -he’d thrown a dumb pass the instant the ball left his hands.

He knew because his mom immediately went into one of her fake coughing fits, saying in a weak voice, “So, so sick.”

“Sorry, Mrs. Walker,” Danny said in a whiny student’s voice.

“You can talk MTV with your friends,” she said. “But in here, we sort of try to keep a lid on sick, right?”

Danny sighed an I-get-it sigh.

“I gotta grow!” he shouted.

“You will!” his parents shouted back.

“When?” A voice so quiet it seemed to be at the bottom of his bowl.

His parents looked at each other, smiling, and shouted again. “Soon!”

“I’m gonna be smaller than ever when I get up to Maine for the stupid camp,” Danny said. “Seriously, Dad. If I’m as small as I am around Middletown, what’s going to happen up there?”

“What’s happened your whole life,” Richie Walker said. “Every single time you’ve been challenged or gotten knocked down or had to prove yourself all over again, you are sick.”

“I give up,” Ali Walker said.

It was the second Saturday after school had let out. The breakfast plates and bowls had been cleared by the men in the family, a Saturday rule. Danny and his dad were outside now, on the small court at the end of the driveway at 422 Earl Avenue, Richie feeding him the ball as Danny moved around on the outside and shot what passed for his jump shot.

Every time Danny put the ball on his shoulder and launched it the way he had when he was even littler than now, when it was the only way for him to get the ball to the hoop, Richie would yell “stop!” and make him shoot with the proper motion from the same spot, hands in front of him.

“This is the perfect time for you to go to a big-time camp,” Richie said. “We’ve gone over this.”

Danny, quoting his dad, said, “You gotta keep taking it to the next level, or you never leave the one you’re at.”

“I’m not sure that’s the way your mom would put it in a sentence,” Richie said. “But you know it’s true, guy.”

“I didn’t do so hot at the level I was just at,” Danny said. “And we weren’t even playing all the best schools around here.”

“You’re being too hard on yourself,” Richie said, then threw him a perfect bounce pass. Danny caught it, did the little step-back move he’d been using since he first started playing, the one that created the space he needed between him and taller defenders, the one that kept him from getting a mouthful of rubber every time he tried to get a shot airborne.

This one he swished, then he kept his right hand in the air, holding the pose.

“In the driveway you can show off,” his dad said. “Never on the court.”

“Gee, I don’t think I’ve ever heard that one before.”

“Let’s take a break for a second,” Richie said.

All he’d been doing was standing there feeding the ball, yet he looked more tired than Danny. His dad never mentioned it, but he couldn’t stand for long periods of time anymore. He’d had two real bad car accidents in his life—the first one ending his NBA career, the second one on an icy road during the travel season last year—and joked that his body now had more spare parts in it than some old pickup truck built from scratch at the junkyard.

His knees were completely shot, he said, swelling up with new sprains all the time. Ali had made him go get an X-ray the day before, wanting to see if there was something more serious going on.

Now his dad groaned and rubbed the side of his right knee and said, “X-ray perfect, knee horrible.”

The two of them sat down on the folding chairs they kept on the side of the court, like it was the Walkers’ team bench, for one coach and one player.

“Dave DeBusschere told me something once that explains why you need to go to this camp better than I ever could,” Richie said. “You know who he was, right?”

“Old Knick,” Danny said. “He played on that Knicks team you said played ball as right as any team ever.”

“Smartest team ever, even though they’re like ancient history now,” he said. “Clyde Frazier, Earl (the Pearl) Monroe, Willis Reed, Senator Bill Bradley. They were smarter even than Bird’s Celtics or Magic’s Lakers. Best passing team ever. All the stuff we think is cool about basketball.”

“Soooooo cool,” Danny said.

“Anyway, he told me something before a game at Madison Square Garden one night I never forgot. He was running the Knicks then. He said that we all start out just wanting to be the best kid on our block, and some of us get to be that. But as soon as we do, almost like the minute we do, you know what happens, right?”

Somehow Danny just knew. “You find out about a kid on the next block.”

He and his dad bumped fists.

“So you find out how you can handle yourself against him. Prove to yourself you can play with him. Only, as soon as you do that, you hear about this kid on the other side of town. Then in the next town, somebody hears about you and thinks he can absolutely kick your butt. Now you gotta go play him. Because you just gotta know.”

“It sounds like it never ends.”

Richie Walker smiled, put his arm around his son.

“Not if you’re good enough, it doesn’t,” he said.

“The first day up there,” Danny said, “they’re gonna think I’m ten.”

“Only until you start dribbling that ball.”

His dad left, needing a rest now. Danny stayed out there. It didn’t matter where he was or who he was playing with, he was always the last one on the court.

Out there alone, as he had been about a thousand other times in his life. Not shooting now, just keeping the ball on a low dribble, right hand, left hand, through his legs, behind his back, never looking at it, doing his double-crossover, imagining himself as some kind of basketball wizard.

Danny Walker, alone with a basketball, and a secret.

The secret being this:

He was scared.

He was scared even though he’d never come out and admit that to his parents, even though there was a time not very long ago when he and his teammates had felt like the most famous twelve-year-olds in America. Not just scared about going off to basketball camp. Scared that the seventh-grade travel championship that he and the Warriors had won might be the best it ever would be for him in basketball.

Oh, sure, they had gone up against the other best seventh—graders in the country. But even though Danny was the smallest one out there, they were all the same age. Pretty soon, basketball -wouldn’t work that way. Danny Walker—who -wasn’t just smart about basketball, who was smart, period—knew that.

Basketball at camp was going to be like real ball. His age group wouldn’t just be thirteen-year-olds. It went from thirteen through fifteen. If he couldn’t handle some of the ninth-grade guards he’d gone up against this year, what was going to happen when he went up against some guy who was getting ready to be a junior in high school?

That was part of Danny’s secret.

Here was another:

He wasn’t going because he couldn’t wait to take on the kid from the next block over, couldn’t wait to get to the next level, oh yeah, bring it on. That was the way his dad looked at things. No, Danny was going because he had to find out for himself if he could cut it once he got in with the real big boys.

When he’d gotten cut from travel that time, he knew in his heart that it was because a bunch of adults thought he was too small. And then he’d shown them they were wrong.

Now Danny, as brave as he tried to act in front of his parents and his buds, wasn’t sure he could keep showing everybody forever.

This wasn’t just about size anymore. It was about his talent and, if he really thought about it, his dreams. Especially the big dream, the one about him someday

doing more in basketball than even his dad.

Danny had to know.

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Collin

Posted May 21, 2009

Review of Summer Ball

Introduction
Summer Ball is a book about a teenage boy who has trouble with his height. The teenage boy's name is Danny Walker, and he plays basketball. Danny's two best friends are Ty and Will.

Description and summary of main points
Danny and his two friends are going to a basketball camp called Right Way. Both his friends are excited, but Danny keeps worrying because he knows he will be playing against kids who are taller and bigger than he is. He gets really worried when the girl he likes from his school shows up.

Evaluation
At Right Way he gets on the same team as the kid he played on his travel team. He also gets a horrible coach who relates back to his dad. He is the oddball there and constantly gets picked on. In this book Danny learns to get along with the other kids. Even though all the other kids are bigger, he never gives up.

Conclusion
Danny is just like every other teenage boy. He gets nervous around the girl he likes. He is shorter than any of the other kids his age, but through everything Danny pulls through.

Your final review
Summer Ball is a very good book for teenagers. If you read this book then you will enjoy the story and adventure of Danny Walker. I would advise you to read this book.

5 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
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I_am_on_my_LEVEL_ARE_YOU_

Posted September 20, 2011

more from this reviewer

I Also Recommend:

I Would Recommend This Book to Anyone!!!!

This story had such a great layout! Danny the protagonist is a basketball player. He loves the sport and can't get enough of it. Danny has a high expectation after beating Baltimore in the final game in the prequel "Travel Team". The author does a great job of showing how much he loves basketball. It's like the only thing that matters to Danny is basketball, but of course it's not. Also how the author describes Danny is phenomenal! You really get an amazing picture. The way the author makes the situations Danny gets into feel so real. The realness makes you want to read on. Mike Lupica the author of this book did a job that made me speechless, and I would read it again any day.

4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
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wvisonebadstate

Posted April 16, 2010

Summer Ball

Have you ever wondered what it's like being the shortest member of a basketball team? Have you ever wanted the determination to be better than everyone thinks you can be? Danny Walker led his travel team to a national championship. Now he's back again, this time going to Right Way Basketball Camp. This is big time for Danny, because it's one of the most prestigious camps in the country. Right Way is run by Josh Cameron, a former NBA star with the Celtics, and is where all the big players go to. Danny must prove that he is good enough to be in this camp, and that his height won't stand in his way. This is a great book for teens. It shows the complications of bullies, girls, and being an underdog. Mike Lupica shares a great knowledge of life, along with a great knowledge of sports, in this exciting sequel to Travel Team.

Young teens will get the best understanding of this book. Danny has to face the everyday challenges that a young teen has to on a regular basis. He will have to put up with bullies that tease him about his height and his friendships. He will also have to deal with jealousy throughout the book. He'll deal with conflicts from the past. He will also try to resolve some of the conflicts of the past. And of course, there will be new conflicts that Danny must deal with. I think that young teens will be better suited for this book because they can put themselves in Danny's place throughout the book.

Mike Lupica shows a great deal of drama in this book. He also expresses humor frequently. Danny is constantly running into dramatic event. He will get into a fight with another camper. He will also have conflict after conflict with the coach of his team. Lupica expresses humor by creating a new kind of language made by Danny's friend, Will, and a new kid he meets at camp, Tarik. Danny will also have a humorous encounter with a lake at camp, and in one of the games. I think Lupica shows a fantastic blend of drama and humor, making the book more entertaining.

Mike Lupica shows great organization, and the book is filled with a very dramatic and entertaining climax, along with foreshadowing that leads up to the climax. Danny has to go through many obstacles at camp. He also has to prove that his own coach at camp is wrong. There are many hints in the book that led up to the climax. For example, Danny's rival at camp, Lamar, and Danny will have to face each other in the end. Danny must also get respect back from his father and Nick, one of the counselors at camp after he fakes an injury. I think the content in this book is well organized, and very entertaining.

This is a great book for young teens to read. Lupica shows a great understanding of young people. The content of the book is very entertaining. He writes with a great mix of drama and humor. He is a great writer, and all young teens who love sports should read this book.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Anonymous

Posted April 11, 2012

He did it again

I love this book sssssssssssoooooo ssssssssssoooooo much . I love the way rasheed and danny become freinds p.s. sorry if i spoiled anything
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DAMP

Posted April 3, 2012

Great Book for Kids that love basketball!!!

My son and I read this book together for his accelerated reader requirement at school. We both enjoyed the book. It tells a lot about basketball, but it also teaches a few good lessons about relationships.
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Anonymous

Posted March 26, 2012

Awesome!

I am reading this book for book clubs and its really good ! Its really easy too!
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Anonymous

Posted January 23, 2012

Bob the builder wants to have sex with wendy

Sexy

0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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KanellP

Posted January 10, 2012

Summer Ball

Summer ball was a good book, one of he longest i read but the best so far but what happened in that book was Danny loved basketball so much he was the best in his neighborhood, but he was short and he was wondering when he would get his growth spurt. So he would get taller meanwhile, he was going to a basketball camp, but he found out he wasn’t in the same bunk as his friends. And was with the 11and12 year olds but he was 13.while there he meets a kid just like him but didn’t wanna be there.read the book to find out more.
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Anonymous

Posted January 8, 2012

Awesome book

Mik lupica
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AndrewTSt

Posted January 5, 2012

Good Book

Summer Ball

Danny Walker goes to Right Way basketball camp for the summer. People think he is a very bad basketball player because he is short.
He proves to people that he is a good basketball player by leading his travel basketball team to the national championship. His old rival is still angry at him for making him go out of bounds in the state championship. Which made Danny’s team win.

I would rate Summer Ball 3 stars because I didn’t really think the book was interesting. I thought Summer Ball was a well written book, but I didn’t really like it because I didn’t have any connections to the book.
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Anonymous

Posted December 26, 2011

Summer Ball

It is the best book because it is so exciting and just good
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Anonymous

Posted December 2, 2011

The Perfect Book for any Basketball Fan

Summer Ball by Mike Lupica is a great book for middle- school students, or a great book for basically anyone with a love for basketball. Danny is sent to a basketball camp that has the top basketball coaches and players watching. He is playing on a team with his arch rival he faced in the National basketball championship he had played in. Danny¿s team doesn¿t have the biggest guys, or the best players, but their team does have an ambition to win if Danny and his arch rival, Rasheed Hill, can cooperate together to win. Danny is also forced to be in a camp that he hates with a coach that hates his guts.Danny is one of the shortest kids in basketball. He plays basketball because of his own love and his dad was a professional basketball player himself until his knees were damaged badly in a serious car accident. Even though being short is a disadvantage to most when playing the game of basketball, Danny learns to use his shortness and his basketball skills to become a great player. Danny even led a group of averaged skill players to the national championships, with him playing in the game, and actually coaching while he is doing it.Danny¿s main conflict in this story is trying to fit in the camp team and trying to win the championship. Besides having to cooperate with his arch rival, Danny has somebody else to compete against, Lamar Parrish, a star basketball player. Lamar starts boasting about his skills, and turns out to be on the best team in the league. Fanny now has to work together with his rival, Rasheed Hill, to defeat his new enemy and win the camp championship.Summer ball is a good book with a lot of action and tales of teamwork to accomplish a big goal. I honestly think the author went too in depth and focused on the details about how Danny missed home.Overall, this is a good book to read for anyone who has played basketball, or faced a challenge trying to reach their dreams.
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Anonymous

Posted October 19, 2011

amazing book

When you're the smallest kid playing a big man's game the challenges never stop especially when your name is Danny Walker. Danny led his travel team to the national championship. But Danny wants to get better so he goes to a summer basketball camp for the whole summer. But old and rivals and new battles leave Danny wondering if he really does have what it takes to stand tall. I thought that this book was great because I also play basketball.
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Ahzyi

Posted September 6, 2011

Good Book

Book Recommendation For Summer Ball Arthur Mike Lupica If you're the smallest kid playing a big man's game, there are so many challenges that you will have to face. Especially when your name is Danny Walker. Danny Walker led his team to a travel team national championship, to us that may fill like a dream but to Danny Walker that just meant that the competition would try harder to knock him off. Now he is leaving Milldletown for a month and heading to right Way Basketball camp, were he's way over his head with the country's best basketball players in attendance. Danny will have to improve his game if he wants to have any chance matching up against his opponents. But it won't be easy. Old rivals and new battles leave Danny wondering if he has what it takes to stand tall. In my opinion this was a very good book. I would recommend this book to a lot of my friends, who are looking for an up lifting sort of book. The reason I say up lifting is because the main character in this story had to go through a lot being the little guy in a big man's game. There were a few things I like about this book, like the way the Arthur uses real people and makes things in the book seem just like the real world, and also the maturity level that the Arthur writes on when he is writing this book. Another book I would like to read by this Arthur is Travel Team, the reason I would like to read this book is because a quote I read about the book which is "where taking your game to the next level means more than just winning. It Means preserving a dream" that quote made me very interested in the book. The only thing I didn't like about the book was that there wasn't enough suspense at the end of each chapter to make you want to read the next chapter. Besides the I feel it was a great book.
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6903736

Posted April 20, 2011

stupid book

haalted it
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Anonymous

Posted March 28, 2011

didnt like it at all

read it for school and it bored me i dont recommend it

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Desire-

Posted March 18, 2011

You must buy this awesome basketball thrilling book!!!

Hi, my name is Jordan and I have just read Summer Ball by Mike Lupica. I thought this was a great book and it is all about basketball.
This book is about a kid named Danny that goes to a basketball camp over summer. He meets a bunch of new friends and they have lots of adventures. Danny gets put with a coach named Ed Powers, who absolutely despises Danny. The coach is always yelling at Danny when he does his own plays. He can never play in the beginning and at the end he proves to the coach that he is better than he looks.
Danny's life is all about basketball. His dad is named Richie Walker and he grew up in Middletown. When his dad was 12 he was one of the best players in the town. He later went to the NBA where he later retired because he had so many knee injuries. Danny's role model is his father and he tries to be just like him.
I recommend this to a person who loves basketball. I love this book and it has a great story and plot.
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5816088

Posted January 26, 2011

summer ball

this book is awesome
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6344793

Posted January 2, 2011

it was okay

i read this book this year, it was very hard to get through but once you finish it was pretty good...i would recommend it to certain people not everybody.. i wouldnt bother spending your money on this book,but you may like it
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Anonymous

Posted December 7, 2010

Highly Recommended

In this book Mike Lupica does an excellent job of finding the typical short kid and following his struggle throughout playing basketball at a prestigious summer camp. He gives Danny characteristics and creates dilemmas which would make it hard to be a successful basketball player. Danny must overcome these situations and lead his team to greatness. Along the way he encounters many problems, including having a coach who doesn't like him, playing on a team with a player that doesn't get along with him, and missing the girl he has had a crush on for the longest time. At some points Danny contemplates leaving the camp to go home to his quiet, peaceful house, but he knows he must stick with this and persevere to be the best he can be. This book draws the reader in on a heart-wrenching and at the same time heart-lifting, extraordinary journey that anyone would enjoy reading about.
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Review of Summer Ball

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stupid book

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