Customer Reviews

Travel Team

5 star:		(51)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Mike Lupica has a masterpiece with this book. This is one of the best book's I have ever read. It's suggestion on the age level on this book's site isnt correct according to me. I think this book should be read by 12-15 year olds, thus because it deals with so many serious situations. This is a great comeback story, and i hope my review can convince you to by it.

This is a wonderful book. I read Mike Lupica's novels and ordered this book on their strength. My daughter heard me laughing while reading it and wanted to see what was so funny. Now a group of 12 year old girls are reading it for their book club and love it. This book really is for the 11 to 14 year old age group, but don't be misled by the subject matter the girls are finding lots to interest them including the ones who have no interest in basketball.

Ever discouraged by your height? Danny Walker wasn't until he got cut from the seventh grade travel basketball team because he was too short. Everyone knew Danny was one of the best basketball players. Even the coaches that had cut him from the Vikings, the team his dad led to the championships when he was 12 knew he was one of the best. The only problem was that the coaches wanted to go big this year, meaning they wanted to have big intiminating players, even if that meant cutting the best. Danny was frustrated for awhile, but that just made him strive harder to improve on his passing, shooting, and his favorite, the double crossover. Since Danny was cut from the Vikings, what will he do this basketball season?

I'm not a big fan of reading, but this is the best book I have ever read, and I am not just saying that. Even though Travel Team isn't based on a true story it relates to real situations. For example, I have a friend that got cut from the seventh grade school team because they were too short, but they improved so much after that, they made the eigth grade team the next year.

I would recommend this book to anyone, I mean anyone even those who don't know the first thing about basketball, like, that in basketball you use a ball. People that would enjoy this book the most are probably seventh graders, people that are short or think they are too short, sports players, and anyone that likes to get into a good book. If you don't like basketball you can check out some of the other books Mike Lupica wrote. Some of those books are Heat, Bump and Run, Red Zone, Summer of 98, and Operation Clean Sweep. Travel Team is definetly my favorite book, and I suggest reading it, because it can easily become your favorite book too.

"Travel Team" is a great book about a boy named Danny and his travel team of rejects which his Dad, Richie Walker, former NBA star and child basketball hero, coaches. The main reason I like this book is because it is realistic and gives a good picture of what kids this age can do on the court. As a youth basketball player myself, I can say the descriptions of the basketball games were phenomenal, and accurate. It was also interesting to see references to real things and people, such as LeBron James and Tracy McGrady. I highly recommend this book to people who like sports and basketball, and for people who like good come-from-behind stories like "Hoosiers". This book is good for people age 11 through 15, but anyone would enjoy it. Travel Team was so good that I hope Mike Lupica writes a sequel!

I am becoming a solid Mike Lupica fan. I have never seen him on ESPN and I do not read sports writers usually but I may start in this case. I think his latest book, Heat, is one of the best books I have read this year.

Danny Walker loves basketball. Danny understands the game to the very core. He understands that a key to the game is getting the ball to the shooters. Danny is a great passer. Danny is also the shortest player on court.

For the first time in his life, Danny has not made "the" team. The coach of the travel team is looking to repeat the town's run to the national championship and is selecting players by size not ability.

Danny is devastated and thinking of giving up on basketball when his mostly absent father, Richie Walker, turns up. His dad was a professional NBA ball player and the player who led the town's travel team to televised glory in the national championship years before. Richie's career is over due to an injury but he sees a way to have a second chance with his son and at life when he starts a team made up of the other 'also ran' kids.

Lupica creates realistic, full-rounded characters. His descriptions of the action makes you feel as if you are running down the court looking for the pass along with the characters. This book will strike a chord with kids and grownups as it reminds us that playing is supposed to be fun. Hard work, smart players and heart are what make a team.

Lupica's books would be great to promote to Matt Christopher and Dan Gutman readers. The poignant stories resonate with heart and give readers a front row seat to terrific sports action.

Travel Team is the first novel i have read from Mike Lupica and i will be going out very soon to buy many more of his sports novels. The story of travel team is great, how a 12 year old "little man" named Danny who is very small for his age overcomes his defeats and also renews a relationship with his father, who becomes his coach. The novel is very touching at times in which Richie (his dad) is talking to Danny. The only way to describe the book is already written on the front fold of the book, "Mike Lupica delivers a rousing tale of the underdog that will leave you cheering through the final page." That statement is SO true...book highly recommended for any age, although many younger ones ages 10-16 would probably enjoy it even more. Great book!

This is a very interesting book, Mike Lupica has done it again. I bought this book about 5 months ago and really enjoyed it.

While I was scanning the reviews I found one saying it was a very easy book. This review was full of spelling mistakes to make it seem like a book for a first grader, which it most definately is not. Please ignore that very sophmoric viewpoint.

I've found that Mike Lupica is a very good writer, especially with his basketball books. I haven't found very many sports books that aren't about the history of it, or stats of pro players. This book made me want to grab my basketball and go shoot some hoops!

The book Travel Team hasn't won an award, but in my opinion it should have! Travel Team, by Mike Lupica, is a fiction book, but many people including myself, can relate to it very well. It is a basketball story that has a bit of drama and a touch of suspense. Those two things and many more writing abilities makes this one superb book!

Danny is in 7th grade and has a huge roll to play. His father was the star point guard on the 7th grade travel team when he was younger. He also played college ball at Syracuse, but injured his hip early in his N.B.A. career. Now, Danny, who is very short, is expected to take after his dad. He does just about that up until the night after tryouts for the 7th grade travel team. He gets a phone call from the coach saying that he didn't make the team because of his size. After hearing Danny say that he's quitting basketball for life, Danny's dad, Richy, decides to start a second travel team. The only problem is that Danny is the only decent player!

Mike Lupica does a pretty good job of using his writing skills. His sentences flow wonderfully which makes this an easy book to read aloud. Mike Lupica doesn't use many describing words, but each sentence is unique and powerful. As you read the book, you can tell that Lupica really knows the life of a twelve year boy.

Travel Team is easy to read and follow, but I would recommend it to 5th to 7th graders, and some adults, because of some mild language. If you enjoy basketball, this is the book for you! If you enjoy this book than you might like the books by Matt Christopher, they are fiction sport books, too. This book is awesome and I defiantly recommend it to you!

Danny Walker has looked forward to his seventh grade season on the travel team, the same grade his father was in when he became a miracle, but he did not make the Vikings because of his height and no his father is starting a rag-tag team of his own. Danny was a very small kid for the age of twelve. He was only fifty-five inches tall and had to launch the ball off his shoulder to even shoot, but he was the best point guard in Middletown because he could pass the ball crisply to anyone who could catch. When it came time for try-outs, though, he didn't make the cut because the Vikings' coach, Mr. Ross, was always in Danny's father's shadow and was trying to get back at him. After Danny's father, Richie Walker, talked to Mr. Ross and saw what a jerk he was about the people who did not make the cut, and so he decided to start his own team of boys that did not make that travel team. When the new team, coached by Richie, started practicing they were horrible and eventually let a girl on he team named Colby Danes and she was the best person for Danny to pass to, but through the season they only won three games and came in at seventh place where they would be playing against the second seed the Middletown Vikings. Before they got that far after the first game that the Warriors won Richie was in a crash accident and was in a hospital bed for the rest of the season unable to coach. In the game against the Vikings the Warriors actually won as Danny made a final shot at the buzzer. This was one of the best books I've read in a while because there is extensive detail and drama in the novel.

In every game the author would go into detail about the score, what the players were thinking, and how they were acting. In their first game against Hanesburo the team was so excited that they might be able to win the game, but when Danny took the last shot he missed and he felt awful afterwards like he let the whole team down. Another game was the Seekonk game, the Warriors first win, and the whole team was ecstatic after the game and they all went to a restaurant and had pizza. Then there was the Warriors vs. Vikings game and I could feel the excitement rising in every quarter when the Warriors pulled through a fourteen-point deficit.

The relationship between Danny and his dad was very interesting to follow through the story. Danny's parents had been divorced for a while, but Danny always looked up to his father who was once one of the greatest basketball players until he had an accident because he was drunk. Also Danny and his dad did not talk very much until Richie decided to start the team and stay around Middletown for a while. Then after Richie is hurt in another accident he places the team in Danny's hands because they had actually learned to trust each other. Also by the end of the book Danny's mother started to warm up to the idea of having Richie around.

Another thing that enjoyed in this story was the variety of characters. There was Ty Ross, whose dad was the Vikings' coach, and he was friends with Danny and in the end Ty ended up joining the Warriors instead of sticking with Vikings. Another person was Will Stoddard who was Danny's best friend and he would not stop talking and he was always trying to be the funniest person in the room. Finally there was Tess and she was always there for Danny no matter what and they hung out a lot together over the entire story.

This book was was full of vibrant detail and explanations during the different games and different characters like the twins, Will, and Colby made for an interesting story. Colby was an interesting character because she was the only girl on the team and was also one of the best players. Over the book Will and Richie gained trust and respect in each other that they would be able to keep for a lifetime. Also the detail of the different games was amazing, for example there was the game against Seekonk.

This was an excellent book, about a child named Danny and his best friend. A great sports book, and a thriller, till the very last page of the book. This book is great.