Game Changer [Hardcover]

Margaret Peterson Haddix (Author)

Book Description

Release date: October 16, 2012

A talented teen athlete questions reality—and the role she plays in it—when a mysterious injury upends her world.

Athletics are everything for eighth-grader KT Sutton. She’s a softball star, and she’s on track to get a college scholarship and achieve international fame. Then one day during a championship game—in the middle of an important play—she suddenly blacks out.

When she wakes up, she’s in a different world. One where school is class after class of athletic drills, and after-school sports are replaced by popular academic competitions. One where KT is despised for her talent, and where her parents are fixated on her brother’s future mathletics career rather than KT’s softball hopes.

KT is desperate to get back to reality as she knew it, but bits and pieces of disturbing memories and dreams make her wonder if something truly awful happened there. What if she’s lost something a lot more important than a softball game?

From New York Times bestselling author of Sent and Sabotaged, an engaging and highly relevant exploration of society’s debate of smarts versus sports.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 5-8-Highly motivated KT Sutton is an eighth-grade softball sensation, but she's so self-centered that she ignores her younger brother, Max, and doesn't tolerate weakness. Her parents are overindulgent and overinvolved; their lives revolve around their daughter's games. She's not that great a student, but KT figures all she needs is to make it to the Olympics and she'll be fine. Then, during the biggest game of her career, she blacks out. When she wakes up, the world has turned topsy-turvy: school consists of exercise drills, gifted athletes are outcasts, and everyone is obsessed with after-school academics, where mathletes and chem geniuses are the stars. At home, KT's role has been reversed, too; Max, who excels at math, is the center of her parents' attention. Desperate to return to her previous world, KT will try anything. But nagging memories of hospital beds and devastating news keep popping into her head. This sci-fi novel highlights how much sports are valued in our culture over academics-and Haddix tries to impart the wisdom that kids of all kinds deserve to be accepted. Unfortunately, the plot never quite gels; the mechanics of the alternate reality will stretch even the imaginations of readers willing to suspend disbelief. KT is not a likable character, and her final turnaround feels forced. Capped off with a public-service-like ending, this novel is not a home run.-Jamie Kallio, Orland Park Public Library, ILα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

From Booklist

For eighth-grader and star pitcher KT Sutton, softball is life. For her little brother, Max, sitting through her games is only tolerable with videogames. But when a wild pitch throws them both into an alternate reality, the tables turn. It’s Max who is lauded for his “mathletic” skills and KT whose talents are only appreciated in the classroom in this academic-focused world. KT is predictably miserable. Without a team, she’s practically a social pariah. Max’s math skills bring him popularity, admiration, and all of his parents’ attention, but he doesn’t enjoy it. Together they find a way back home, arriving with a greater appreciation of different abilities and personalities, which comes in handy when they realize that the real world has significant changes in store for them. An epilogue ties everything up prettily and spells out the lessons about acceptance, cliques, and bullying, which will satisfy some, though it does feel forced. Low on complexity and high on reluctant-reader appeal, this fast-paced novel will fit well on back-to-school displays. Grades 6-9. --Heather Booth

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Age Range: 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (October 16, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689873808
• ISBN-13: 978-0689873805
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #362,564 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Twist March 1, 2013

By S. J. Walton

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

What a great book with a brilliant twist! I really enjoyed this book and so are my students. We are big fans of MPH and weren't let down with this story. What a great concept of switching the "playing field" around and getting students to think how things are now and maybe how they should be!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book read in one day! March 30, 2013

By Stacey Soiferman

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Hannah, age 11. I think this book is great in many ways. I loved the fact that the book was so good I read it in one day. This book, like most of the Haddix books are full of questions . For people who what their kids to read more books I would give them this.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome book February 25, 2013

By Kaylyn

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I chooses this rating because I was a softball fanatic. It turns out it is a really good . Lesson book that you are good at more than on thing.