Customer Reviews

Ultimate Sports: Short Stories by Outstanding Writers for Young Adults

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This book contains a series of original short stories written by authors of novels for teenagers. Although each story is related to sports in some way, mostly the stories are about adolescents relating to others in their lives. Some use sports as escapism from something. Peter thinks cross-country running might give him some rest from the two hours of piano practice he is required to do every day. While hiding from police, Randy takes up boxing. Triathlons give mentally challenged Clark a place to be successful. David joins an otherwise all-Hawaiian paddling team to get away from his father, just as Lenny stays out playing handball till all hours of the night to get away from his father. Max goes fishing to get away from the daily grind. Kirsty escapes on a yacht by mistake, then realizes she loves to sail. Jennifer plays tennis to keep occupied while waiting for the end of the world. And the hobbyist collects memorabilia to make himself forget he isn't an athlete.

Others in this book play a sport to get something in particular out of it. Sun wants her father's attention on her instead of on her little brother all of the time. Jessie wants her friends Meadow and Diane to meet each other and get along, and she thinks the racquetball court is the perfect place for that to happen. Curt and his friends want to be in the "Guinness Book of World Records." Moose wants to carry the football for once, instead of just tackling the other guys.

Still others are changed by their sport. Joey learns a little something about outsmarting the other team when his uncle coaches his high school wrestling team, and Patrice's entire life is affected when she goes on a scuba diving trip to the Caribbean.

Each story, although different, is able to pull the reader into the life of a teenager as it revolves and as sports affect it. Most of these stories were excellent. I liked how they involved sports but that wasn't the entire focus of the stories. It was also interesting to read what some of my favorite young adult authors were able to do in a short story format.

I tend to like novels better than short stories, though, as short stories always leave me wanting to know more about the characters and their lives.

This book is a great for sport lovers of all ages. I found this book to be interesting. It has sixteen awsome sort stories for you. I really quote "Check this book out"