Addie Coleburn, fresh out of the sixth grade, is spending the summer at her grandmother's house in Syracuse with her mother and brother. Kimi Takahashi, a girl who lives up the street, invites Addie to go to the park and play lacrosse. Addie hasn't the first clue what lacrosse is and would rather sit on Grandma's front porch eating potato chips, drinking sodas, and reading books.But then again, spending the summer dealing with her younger brother isn't that appealing, either, so sh...

Sixth grader Mackenzie Kelly's first love was soccer until her best friend, Ashley, talked her into playing summer softball. Now Mack is eager to be on her school's softball team and dreams of playing in the Olympics with her idol, Cat Osterman.Mack is struggling to keep her grades up in English and has to be taken off the team. With the help of her coach, Mack discovers she has dyslexia and is determined to overcome it enough to get back on the team. When she learns softball has b...

Seventh grader Dina Jacobs feels like she's landed on another planet when her family moves from Long Island, New York to Indiana. She tries out for the seventh grade volleyball team, and her new friend, Christine, introduces her to Olympic volleyball. Now Dina dreams of playing in the Olympics like her newfound idol, Logan Tom.Indiana doesn't seem so bad after all until Dina's Jewish faith crashes against her coach's win-at-all-costs attitude. When games are scheduled during Rosh H...

High school senior Meredith Bedford is a social outcast. Her family recently moved from the Catskill Mountains to the sprawling suburbs of Albany, the capital of New York State. Shy and self-conscious about her acne scars, she stays to herself and tries to remain invisible. Her twelve-year-old brother, Mikey, has Down Syndrome and she tries hard not to blame her troubles on him. Despite verbal and sometimes physical harassment, she survives because she has her art. She was selected to be...