The Extra Yard (Home Team #2)

by Mike Lupica (Author)

Reading Level: 6th − 7th Grade
Series: Home Team
Teddy, a young football player, learns that sometimes bridging the distance in your family can be harder than stretching for an extra yard on the field in the second book of the Home Team series from New York Times bestselling author and sportswriting legend Mike Lupica.

Last spring Teddy's life changed for the better. He started working out, shaping up, and even earned a spot on the Walton baseball team, and with the team he went all the way to the Little League World Series. But the best things to come out of that season were his friendships with Jack, Cassie, and Gus, and the confidence to finally try out for the sport he really loves--football. So when eighth grade begins, Teddy couldn't be more psyched.

Until his mom drops a bomb: his father--who left them a long time ago--is back in Walton and back in their lives. And Teddy isn't happy about it. As a former star football player at the school, Teddy's dad is thrilled to find out his son is going out for the team, but Teddy begins to wonder if his father only cares about him now because he's putting on the helmet. Can Teddy find a way to go the extra yard for the team and for himself, or is the distance between him and his father too much to overcome?
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School Library Journal

Gr 4-6--After successfully making the baseball team in The Only Game, Teddy tries out for the football team in the continuation of Mike Lupica's series about a group of young kids in a small town. Making the football team would make his dream come true. However, the sudden appearance of his father, after a long absence, puts Teddy off of his game. With the help of his friends, Teddy strives accomplish his goal. Lupica provides a brief synopsis of the events of the previous book (The Only Game) within the first few pages so readers will all be on the same page regardless of whether they have read the first book. Teddy was a supporting character in The Only Game and takes center stage here. Fans of Lupica's previous books will enjoy his trademark mix of family angst and engaging sports play which is on fine display here.

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Kirkus

For football fans, what’s not to like? (Fiction. 8-12)

Review quotes

"readers who like their sports with heart and soul will not be disappointed."—Booklist "December 10, 2015 "
Mike Lupica
Mike Lupica is one of the most prominent sportswriters in America and is the recipient of the prestigious Damon Runyon Award for excellence in journalism. His longevity at the top of his field is based on his experience and insider's knowledge, coupled with a provocative presentation that takes an uncompromising look at the tumultuous world of professional sports. Today he is a syndicated columnist for the New York Daily News, which includes his popular "Shooting from the Lip" column, which appears every Sunday.

He began his newspaper career covering the New York Knicks for the New York Post at age 23. He became the youngest columnist ever at a New York paper with the New York Daily News, which he joined in 1977. For more than 30 years, Lupica has added magazines, novels, sports biographies, other non-fiction books on sports, as well as television to his professional resume. For the past fifteen years, he has been a TV anchor for ESPN's The Sports Reporters. He also hosted his own program, The Mike Lupica Show on ESPN2.

In 1987, Lupica launched "The Sporting Life" column in Esquire magazine. He has published articles in other magazines, including Sport, World Tennis, Tennis, Golf Digest, Playboy, Sports Illustrated, ESPN: The Magazine, Men's Journal and Parade. He has received numerous honors, including the 2003 Jim Murray Award from the National Football Foundation.

Mike Lupica co-wrote autobiographies with Reggie Jackson and Bill Parcells, collaborated with noted author and screenwriter, William Goldman on Wait 'Till Next Year, and wrote The Summer of '98, Mad as Hell: How Sports Got Away from the Fans and How We Get It Back and Shooting From the Lip, a collection of columns. In addition, he has written a number of novels, including Dead Air, Extra Credits, Limited Partner, Jump, Full Court Press, Red Zone, Too Far and national bestsellers Wild Pitch and Bump and Run. Dead Air was nominated for the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best First Mystery and became a CBS television move, "Money, Power, Murder" to which Lupica contributed the teleplay. Over the years he has been a regular on the CBS Morning News, Good Morning America and The MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour. On the radio, he has made frequent appearances on Imus in the Morning since the early 1980s.

His previous young adult novels, Travel Team, Heat, Miracle on 49th Street, and the summer hit for 2007, Summer Ball, have shot up the New York Times bestseller list. Lupica is also what he describes as a "serial Little League coach," a youth basketball coach, and a soccer coach for his four children, three sons and a daughter. He and his family live in Connecticut.

Classification
-
ISBN-13
9781481410007
Lexile Measure
780
Guided Reading Level
W
Publisher
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Publication date
January 12, 2016
Series
Home Team
BISAC categories
JUV039060 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | Friendship
JUV032000 - Juvenile Fiction | Sports & Recreation | General
Library of Congress categories
Fathers and sons
JUVENILE FICTION / Social Issues / Friendship
JUVENILE FICTION / Social Issues / General (s
Football stories
Football
JUVENILE FICTION / Sports & Recreation / Gene

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