Technical Foul: Winning Season [Mass Market Paperback]

Rich Wallace (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 3 and up | Series: Winning Season

Jared knows he’s the best basketball player in school. He’s got the talent, the touch, and the shots. With him at center, the Hudson City Hornets finally have a chance at making the playoffs. But Jared’s also got a temper, and when the ref throws him out of the game, he watches his team’s chances start to slip away. With some help from his friends, he begins to realize that he’s got to be a better teammate in order for the Hornets to be a better team.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 4-6–Jared thinks he's the best player on his basketball team and can't figure out why his teammates snub him when he tries to break their losing streak single-handedly. After losing his temper and getting thrown out of a game, the sixth grader is confronted by a teammate. Resisting a fight, Jared realizes that he must surrender his ego for the benefit of the team. Eventually, everything clicks and he learns that the path to success comes when he puts the needs of others ahead of his own. The story's setting in Hudson City, NJ, is deliberately generic, as are the characters. The concluding chapters offer game-by-game summaries that reinforce the idea that Jared is now a team player. Sports enthusiasts may enjoy the story at face value, but Chris Crutcher's novels offer deeper characters with sophisticated stories.–Michael Giller, South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts and Humanities, Greenville
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Reviewed with Rich Wallace's Roar of the Crowd.

Gr. 4-7. These books in the new Winning Season series follow two teams at Hudson City Middle School, which sits in the shadow of New York City. roar concerns Manny Ramos, a skinny kid whose size limits his possibilities on the football team until he finds how to maximize his strong points. In Foul the focus is on Jared, the star of the basketball team. As the best player, Jared likes to hug the ball, but it's not until he learns to be a team player that the team really starts winning. Although there's enough plot to frame a story, especially in Foul, most of the text is play-by-play action, which will engage young sports fans. The characterizations, however, are stock, and the dialogue is stilted, but this series is a throwback to earlier sports series that got boys reading, and perhaps the all-action device will work again. Ilene Cooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Puffin (June 2, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0142404446
• ISBN-13: 978-0142404447
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #995,240 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Rich Wallace is an award-winning author of many novels for kids and teenagers. Recent work includes the Kickers series of soccer novels for kids in grades 2-4; the middle-grade historical novel War and Watermelon, set in the summer of Woodstock; and Sports Camp, about an 11-year-old boy away at camp for the first time. Novels for teenagers including Wrestling Sturbridge, Playing Without the Ball, and Perpetual Check, among others. He is also the author of The Timbertoes feature in Highlights magazine. Visit his web site at www.richwallacebooks.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars A good story in the best traditions of juvenile sports fiction, August 19, 2010

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Technical Foul (2006) (Paperback)

Great stars do not make great teams; team-oriented play is almost always the key to victory. Jared is the consensus best basketball player in his school; the problem is that he knows it as well. Therefore, when the game is on the line, he believes that he has to take over the game to the exclusion of everyone else. This is detrimental to the quality of play that the Hudson City Hornets execute, leading to their losing games they could have won.
An additional problem is that their coach has little experience in basketball, taking over on short notice when the regular coach resigned. With a leadership gap, there is no strong voice to override the wishes of the players. This leads to a confrontation between Jared and one of his teammates on the court and Jared being suspended for a game. As is often the case among quality players, the negative event is the motivating force for the generation of the solution.
This book is in the best traditions of juvenile sports fiction in that it has a message for sports and life. Whether you are on the court or in a business, everyone has a role to play and there is the need to support and aid others. Success and failure are both shared consequences, something that more people need to understand and practice.

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Bet for Sports Fans, February 2, 2007

By 

B. Mills (Richmond, KY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Technical Foul: Winning Season (Mass Market Paperback)

Jared is the star of his basketball team...or at least that is what he thinks. But, after causing his team to lose two games early in the season and being benched for a "poor attitude", he is faced with the realization that he may have to learn how to play with his team.

The biggest drawback to this book is that there is little suspense. Some readers may become bored; however, the play-by-play descriptions of the ball games will entertain any sports fan. At some points, it's almost like being in the bleachers. This is a great book for boys and girls alike.