Game Changers: A Benchwarmers Novel

by John Feinstein

Overview

Trouble is about to tip off for Jeff and Andi’s sixth-grade basketball teams in Game Changers, a standalone second book in the middle-grade Benchwarmers series by #1 New York Times bestselling sportswriter John Feinstein.

After a controversial season playing on the boys' soccer team, Andi Carillo is ready to kick butt and take names on the girls' basketball team. Jeff Michaels, her best friend, is raring to drop his benchwarmer status from soccer and play a leading role on the boys' basketball squad. But between a coach's coded racism and a teammate's endless sabotage, neither Andi nor Jeff is in for a layup of a season. To make matters worse, the local media smells more than one juicy story. Will Andi and Jeff be able to power through and find a way to help both their teams rebound?

From sportswriting legend John Feinstein comes this fast-paced novel about two friends who are willing to risk it all to change the game—on and off the court.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781250820440
Publisher:	Square Fish
Publication date:	04/05/2022
Series:	The Benchwarmers Series , #2
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.50(h) x 1.10(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

John Feinstein (1955–2025) was a renowned sportswriter and the author of more than forty books, including the #1 New York Times bestsellers A Season on the Brink and A Good Walk Spoiled. He also authored numerous sports-related mysteries and adventures for young readers, including the Benchwarmers trilogy and The Prodigy, the story of an amateur teen golfer playing the Masters. His first young adult mystery, Last Shot, won the Edgar Allen Poe Award. John worked as a sports columnist and commentator for the Washington Post, The Golf Channel, Sirius XM Radio, and Comcast Sportsnet. He died at age sixty-nine in 2025.

Editorial Reviews

"Feinstein’s game descriptions are tight and exciting . . At the end the drama moves from basketball court to food court . . . and even to the courtroom . . . Both young jocks show that when the pressure is on, they’ve got game in life as well as hoops." —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2020-06-16
Challenges dog two star players both on and off the court.

Fresh from soccer triumphs in Benchwarmers (2019), sixth grade buds Jeff Michaels and Andi Carillo eagerly sign up for, respectively, Merion Middle School’s boys and girls b-ball teams. Jeff discovers bullying soccer nemesis Ron Arlow is likewise trying out for point guard, and Andi is saddled with Amy Josephson, a coach who admits that she’s never coached before. Frictions develop as the two squads get off to stumbling starts—but the girls have by far the worst of it, as Coach Josephson proves ignorant of hoops strategy and tactics, benches Andi for imagined insubordination, and then caps it all by making racist remarks about black athletes. Feinstein’s game descriptions are tight and exciting for any reader but even moreso for those who know a pick and roll from a zone trap. At the end the drama moves from basketball court to food court as Jeff and Andi go from jock friends to something closer…and even to the courtroom after the offer from Fran Dunphy (an actual, renowned college coach) to take over the girls team draws an injunction from the teachers union. Both young jocks show that when the pressure is on, they’ve got game in life as well as hoops. Most of the cast is white; some players are African American (and one is generically Asian).

Brisk sports action enhanced by treatment of personal, political, and racial stereotyping issues. (Sports fiction. 11-14)

Kirkus Reviews