A Harlem high school dropout escapes from a gang of punks into a boxing gym, where he learns that being a contender is hard and often discouraging work, but that you don't know anything until you try.

"Two best friends, a writer and a runner, deal with bullies, family issues, social pressures, and their quest for success coming out of Harlem"-- Provided by publisher.

The summer after his absentee father is killed in a random shooting, Paul volunteers at a Harlem soup kitchen where he listens to lessons about "the social contract" from an elderly African American man, and mentors a seventeen-year-old unwed mother who wants to make it to college on a basketball scholarship.

Maya J. Jenkins is bursting with questions: Will she get the MVP award at this year's soccer banquet? Who will win the big grill off between Daddy and Uncle J? When will she pass the swim test and get a green bracelet? For answers and a dose of good luck, 12-year-old Maya turns to her Wheel of Fortunes, a cardboard circle covered with the small slips of wisdom she's collected from fortune cookies. But can the fortunes answer her deep-down questions?...

"El fenómeno del básquetbol, Josh Bell, y su hermano gemelo, Jordan, son los reyes de la cancha, con esos crossovers inesperados que hacen llorar a los jugadores más duros. Pero cuando Jordan conoce a la nueva chica del colegio, lazos entre los gemelos se empiezan a desanudar. El baloncesto y la hermandad se entrelazan para mostrarles a Josh y Jordan que la vida no viene con un manual de jugadas y que, a veces, el asunto no es ganar."-- Twelve-year-old...

Twelve-year-old Nick loves baseball so after a year in the hospital fighting polio and with a brace on one leg, Nick takes a job with the team for which his father is catcher and gets to see the great pitcher, Satchel Paige, play during the 1935 season. Includes historical notes.

In a small Iowa town in 1952, eleven-year-old Charlie Nebraska, whose father died in the Korean War, learns the meanings of both racism and heroism when he befriends a black man who had played baseball in the Negro Leagues.

"When eleven-year old Jayla finds out that her mother used to be a Double Dutch champion, she's stunned. Her mom, who's on doctor's orders to lower her blood pressure, could move like that?! Jayla decides to follow in her mom's footsteps, thinking that maybe Double Dutch can make her stand out in her big, quirky family. But as she puts together a team at school and prepares to compete, Jayla finds that Double Dutch is about a lot more than jumping...