Airball: My Life in Briefs [Hardcover]

L.D. Harkrader (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up

Kirby Nickel loves basketball. He loves watching basketball. He loves talking about basketball. The only problem is he can't play basketball. But coach has a plan for Kirby and the supremely untalented seventh-grade team. It involves the guys playing nearly naked -- only in their briefs. Maybe the so-called Stealth Sportswear (think: The Emperor's New Clothes) will really inspire the team. Maybe. And maybe, just maybe, Kirby will find out who his real father is.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-7–Airball is a quirky combination of The Mighty Ducks meets Captain Underpants with a sideline story involving the search for a biological father. An untalented group of seventh-grade boys gets the chance to meet its small Kansas town's basketball hero when his jersey is retired at a University of Kansas game. Fearful of being embarrassed by their poor playing, the school board refuses to let the team go unless it starts winning its games. To improve the boys' concentration, Coach tapes over the windows and makes the boys practice in their underwear. His strategy works, but not enough to win while wearing uniforms. Geeky team captain Kirby Nickel convinces his teammates at their first halftime to play in their briefs. They do, they win, and continue to do so throughout the story. Kirby's real goal is to convince the famous NBA player that he is, in fact, Kirby's father. The boy has amassed a drawer of evidence that points toward his conclusion. Though unrealistic on several fronts, the story is enjoyable, including the somewhat predictable Hollywood ending. Kirby finds the sought-after identity of his dad, but it's not who he thought it was. The team does well and starts a nationwide trend in underwear practices. The theme will likely provide the hook to entice middle-grade readers.–Debbie Whitbeck, West Ottawa Public Schools, Holland, MI
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 4-7. Kirby Nickel, who secretly believes that hometown hero and basketball superstar Brett McGrew is his father, goes out for the seventh-grade team in order to meet McGrew at the end of the season. From the grandmother who raised Kirby to the hostile school board president to his inscrutable coach, everyone in his small Kansas town is mad about basketball. But when Coach distributes invisible uniforms for the team to wear at practice, Kirby and his teammates wonder what kind of madness drives the man. This fresh, first-person novel will have readers laughing at times, feeling Kirby's pain at others, and moved at the end. The revelation of Kirby's paternity will not surprise those readers who care to figure it out, but this mystery never was the point of the story. Harkrader offers an amusing, wholly affectionate portrayal of a small-town community's devotion to basketball and of a klutzy kid's success on the court in spite of himself. An entertaining first novel. Carolyn Phelan
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Roaring Brook Press; First Edition edition (August 11, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596430605
• ISBN-13: 978-1596430600
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #642,351 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Airball review from a 10 yr old Hoops Junkie, January 19, 2008

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Airball: My Life in Briefs (Hardcover)

"Airball: My Life in Briefs," is about Kirby Nickel, a 7th grader who lives with his grandmother and has never seen his mom or dad. Kirby is the Captain of his 7th grade basketball team, and the book tells the story about Kirby and his team as they go through their season with the hope of visiting their hero Brent McGrew. Kirby wants to meet Brent because he thinks that Brent is his dad.
The book starts out at basketball practice and the coach announces that if they have a good season that he will take them to see Brent McGrew when he gets his jersey retired at the University of Kansas. Brent is a famous NBA basketball player who played in Kirby's town when he was younger. Everyone is excited about possibly seeing Brent McGrew, but they are not sure if they will be able to because the team has not been good since Brent McGrew played there. Kirby's coach also was not sure that they would be able to win, so he came up with a plan to have them practice in their underwear.
That week the coach orders uniforms, but he doesn't give it to the team. Instead he makes them practice in their underwear until they get better at basketball and they become a team. They start to play better so for their first game, the coach gives them really nice uniforms. Kirby and his team like the uniforms, but they don't play very well. At halftime, Kirby said that they don't deserve to wear the uniforms so they take their uniforms off and play in their underwear for the second half. In the second half, they come back and win the game so they decide to wear underwear as their uniform for the rest of the season and they win all of their games without their uniforms.
During the season, Kirby finds some clues that Brent McGrew may be his Dad. In Kirby's attic, he found a Brent McGrew jersey, a medal, and a picture of his mom and Brent dancing. He also realized that he and Brent had the same birth mark. So, at the end of the season, when they meet Brent McGrew, Kirby gives him an envelope with all of the clues showing that Brent might be his dad. Brent said that he wasn't the guy in the picture, but the coach took a look at the pictures and said that they were pictures of him. He then realized that he was Kirby's dad. They were happy after that and the book ended with Kirby and his team scrimmaging again Brent McGrew.
I recommend this book to other kids my age because I like basketball and it was funny.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An encouraging, uplifting, rewarding and perfect story, October 12, 2005

By 

Laurel Johnson (Kansas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Airball: My Life in Briefs (Hardcover)

This book is delightful. I chuckled, grinned, laughed out loud, and empathized with each character in turn. Kirby Nickel is a seventh grader who lives in Stuckey Kansas, population 334, a basketball crazy town. Kirby is clumsy and nerdy, shunned by jocks, terrified of his P.E. coach, an orphan raised by his grandmother. He's the self-described worst basketball player ever. Stuckey is the hometown of Kansas
University hero and NBA icon Brett McGrew. Stuckey has not had a winning season since McGrew was in school and Coach Mike Armstrong is determined this year will end that losing streak. Most boys in Stuckey dream of basketball scholarships, playing for Kansas University, then heading off to the NBA like their hero, McGrew. Kirby dreams of riding the bench with cool confidence, of injuries to keep him off the team, and of locating a father who disappeared before he was born. He believes Brett McGrew is his father. But will McGrew
reject him? Kirby knows too well that sometimes the thing you want the most in the world doesn't want you back.

K.U. is retiring McGrew's jersey and invites the 7th grade team from Stuckey to participate. Kirby's team members are seriously bad players. To boost their confidence and enhance
team spirit, Coach Armstrong presents the boys with invisible "stealth uniforms". In other words, they practice in their underwear. To Kirby's surprise, he's elected team captain, a position he takes seriously. The boys improve dramatically while practicing in their underwear. They learn to function as a team, thanks to Kirby's influence and the stealth uniforms.

The characters in Airball are perfection, presented with humor and compassion as each learns the value of teamwork, friendship, equality, and hope while playing skivvy basketball. Kirby is an appealing character. Coach Armstrong is a strong role model who sympathizes with the team because he has his own secret dreams and disappointments. And Kirby's teammates are typical boys longing for acceptance and striving to excel. Airball is perfection and highly recommended.

5.0 out of 5 stars Book, August 8, 2010

By 

D. Schramm (Key Largo, FL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Airball: My Life in Briefs (Paperback)

This was purchased for a children's program at our local library. Can't comment on the book itself, as I haven't read it. But shipping was fast and book was in the condition promised.