Travel Team

Danny is really small for his age but like his father, who lead his Middletown travel team to victory in the nationals and continued successes finally becoming an NBA rookie, he is really good at basketball. Now, the adults in charge of the travel team tryouts have decided the team needs to be bigger and have cut him. Danny's father is estranged from his wife and child. He is bitter from a car accident which ended his career in his rookie year but he comes back to put together a team so that his son can play travel basketball this year. This is not only a good sports book but a good book about relationships and it has really strong female characters including one who makes the travel team.

Danny Walker didn't make the travel team which is impossible. He's one of the best players and he's made the team for the last two years. But...he's short. He knows it's the reason he was cut. It doesn't help that the coach and his own dad were the town's best basketball players years ago, but his dad ended up being the bigger star.

Rich Walker ended up being so big that you can Google him. His career ended after a car accident and since then he's been an absent dad. But when he sees his son play and sees how good he is, he decides it's time to get back in his kid's life. He should have made the team. He's going to coach his own travel team with his son and the other kids who didn't make the cut. It's a stretch, but with the right coach, show more maybe it's possible to win.

Lupica has the market on middle grade books about basketball. Every library must have Lupica books for the sports kids. show less

The novel chronicles the life of Danny Walker and his dreams to make his neighborhood's basketball travel team, but when he fails to make the team he creates his own and competes in the basketball tournament. This book taught me to never give up even if the odds are stacked up against me. Although it could be boring at times, this was a fantastic book.

I read this upon my 12-year old's insistance. It is a predictable feel-good story about overcoming a series of obstacles and learning to be a leader. For a young adults it is an excellent read, I am sure.

A good book... if you're well-versed in basketball lingo!

12-year-old basketball player, Danny Walker, is cut from his local travel team because he's too small, leading his father to form a new team of overlooked kids to prove that heart matters more than size.

Danny is cut from travel bastketball because the coach feels the team should be taller. Danny may be short, but he can play. Danny's father, a local legend, decides to form a second team of the kids who were cut.