The sports may hook readers, but the bullying will land them." - Kirkus The wide receiver best able to hang on to his quarterback's passes, Brock Ripley would be a star for the varsity team - if he could just bring himself to put his body on the line. But he can't. Just like he can't bring himself to stand up for his friend Richie Fang, who has been targeted by the quarterback, known for his bullying. As events spiral out of control, Brock is faced with a true test of character. Can he find the courage to step up and do what is right? AGES: 12 and up AUTHOR: Carl Deuker describes his younger self as a classic second-stringer: "I was too slow and too short for basketball; I was too small for football, a little too chicken to hang in there against the best fastballs. So, by my senior year the only sport I was still playing was golf." Combining his enthusiasm for both writing and athletics, Deuker has written many exciting, award-winning novels for young adults.

 

 

This book is aimed at children at US 7th grade+.

This book has been graded for interest at 12-17 years.

There are 336 pages in this book.

It is aimed at Young Adult readers. The term Young Adult (YA) is used for books which have the following characteristics: (1) aimed at ages 12-18 years, US grades 7-12, UK school years 8-15, (2) around 50-75k words long, (3) main character is aged 12-18 years, (4) topics include self-reflection, internal conflict vs external, analyzing life and its meaning, (5) point of view is often in the first person, and (6) swearing, violence, romance and sexuality are allowed.

This book was published in 2017 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company .

Carl Deuker is a teacher in the Northshore School District outside of Seattle. He has won numerous awards for his novels.