Summer Ball

1. Summer Ball Mike Lupica By David Tolbert

2. Summer Ball

3. What is it? In In this novel, the main character Danny, is leaving his town to attend a Basketball camp but Danny is a short boy that must raise his game to play with the best. Attribute: Setting: Middletown, Right way basketball camp Title: Summer Ball Realistic Fiction What is your book’s genre? Write it here: Danny led his hometown team in scoring but he finds it very difficult because of the players at the camp are much better. Attribute: Danny is a very skinny white boy trying to play with bigger players in the basketball camp. Coaches constantly tell player what they are doing right and wrong There are basketball camps to help people get better. The boy Danny likes to play basketball just like other boys.

4. Attribute: Tells how Danny reacts to basketball games “ I didn’t see that big travel final the two of you played down in North Carolina, but I heard the refs ended up deciding the final outcome of it. (pg 67) “Then David or Ben would swat another one of his passes away like they were swatting away the summer bugs.”(pg 71) “ When one of the other kids made a driving shot to win the game, Danny motioned Zach over and everyone started to celebrate.”( pg 126)

5. Attribute: How bad he wanted to go to camp and how far away it was “ This is the perfect time for you to go to a big-time camp,” Richie said. “ We’ve gone over this time and time again.” (pg 5) “ Listen up!” Danny snapped at him, getting his friend’s attention in the process and everybody else’s.(pg 72) “ Why don’t we just wait until the counselors’ game is over and then ask Nick or somebody to drive us?” (pg 124)

6. Attribute:. Coaches at the camp try to teach the players how to get better and game situation plays that the teams run to make shots. “ Being straight with you, little dude.” “ Hope you make Sports Center,” Danny said, and walked away. (pg 93) “ Hush now and do something you should do a little more of if you want to improve or learn anything while you’re here which means listen.” (pg 101). “ If he makes both, we run ‘ Carolina,’ “ he said. “ If he misses the first, or makes the first and misses the second, run that variation of ‘ Carolina’ where Rasheed comes down the baseline and curls around Tarik for a jumper.( pg 152)

7. EVALUATION: Is Summer Ball a good example of Realistic Fiction • Mike Lupica does a really nice job of describing the characters in the story like Danny and his friends that he meets at the basketball camp. In this book, he uses real life situations that happen in basketball games in which the games are really close and the team’s coaches have to draw up plays to try to tie the ball game or win. He also talks about the basketball camp in which some players don’t like to learn a lot from the coaches because they think they are too good so the coaches try to explain to them that they need to listen to them if they really want to get better. All the characters in the story like Danny, Rasheed, and the coaches are all believable so I believe Mike Lupica does an excellent job of Realistic Fiction in this Story.

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