Joan Bauer, 1996
Ten year old Mickey Vernon has pool in his blood. His grandmother runs the pool hall in their slightly run down New Jersey town, which his father was a champion before he died of cancer. Mickey, who's in the fifth grade, is determined to win the 10-13 year old 9 ball championship, and determined to beat the bully, Buck.
Like a lot of the best books I've been reading lately, this isn't a one-topic book. It's about pool, that's for sure (and I love how good authors can make me care about games/sports I really don't care for), but it's also about redemption when Mickey's father's old friend - Joseph returns to town. And it's about mathematics and tree houses and memory and pigs and magic and dreams and dealing with disappointments. And yet all the topics seem to weave together beautifully.
As I read it, I thought of tonnes of connectible books. There's the teachers who make things interesting connections - like The Cat Ate My Gymsuit or Operation Yes. There's the maths in real life connection - like the brilliant Sugar and Ice which I just finished. Then there's the boys achieving big things - like Stand Tall and Travel Team.
This would be an easy sell to the students. After all, they already enjoy many of Joan Bauer's books. Also it has the bonus of moments of fifth-grade solidarity - and that's one of the best things to 'sell' to a group of 5th graders.
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