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May/June 2009

Summer Ball

Summer Ball, by Mike Lupica; Philomel Books: New York, 2007; $17.99 Have you ever read the sequel to a book that you loved and felt utterly disappointed or, even worse, robbed? If you read Travel Team, by Mike Lupica, which was reviewed by Zach Hoffman in the May/June 2007 edition of Stone Soup, and decide to read Summer Ball, you will feel anything but robbed. Summer Ball is an amazing book written by the best sportswriter in the business. In the book, Danny Walker is coming off leading his team, the Middletown Warriors, to a travel team championship. His dad, a former NBA player, Richie Walker, decides that Danny will go to a famous basketball camp in Maine, the Right Way Basketball Camp. Even though Danny’s two best friends, Ty Ross and Will Stoddard, are going, Danny is worried about attending camp because he fears not being good enough or tall enough to compete well against some of the other campers, the best players his age in the country. When he arrives, his fears are realized. A player that played against Danny in the travel team championship game, Rasheed Hill, hates him and is attending camp. He is put on the same team as Danny, and their coach wants Rasheed to be the star of the team. When Danny visits the coach, the coach suggests that Danny try soccer. Danny is able to fight through all of these hardships and make it to the championship game, while standing up for his new friend, Zach Fox, in a fight with one of the best players in camp, Lamar Parrish. When Danny first arrives at camp, he realizes that he isn’t one of the best players there. One time, when I was eight, I went to a basketball camp. The camp was divided into two divisions. According to my age, I belonged in the top division. But after a few minutes of practice, I was demoted to the lower division, even though I felt like I was doing fine. But, just like Danny, I continued trying and I was promoted. My favorite part of the book is when Rasheed stood up for Danny during the championship game. Throughout the book, Rasheed and Danny slowly gain respect for each other and become friends. Because Coach Powers wouldn’t play Danny, Rasheed told Coach Powers that if Danny didn’t play, he wouldn’t play. When Coach put Danny back in, he led a huge comeback. Another one of my favorite parts was when the ref called a technical foul on Lamar. In my basketball league, there was one team that was very dirty. They were never called for a technical foul. In the book, the campers could cheer for whatever team they wanted. We got revenge on the dirty team by attending the league play-off game they were in and cheering loudly for the other team. One thing the author does extremely well is dialogue. Even though the camp is in Maine, it attracts players from all over the country. One of the friends Danny meets, Tarik, is from New York City, so he has a different vocabulary than the kids from Long Island. This is kind of funny because he uses terms that Danny (and I) don’t know. I definitely recommend this book about basketball, friendship, and teamwork. Once you pick it up, it is hard to put down. Aidan Quigley, 12Trumbull, Connecticut

Half an Eggshell

I jump down the small drop to the grassy road. Tall, brown grass overruns it, thorny weeds branching up from the dry ground. Long stalks of fennel huddle together. Lizards skitter away from my shoes, and they dart down deep cracks in the earth. The road snakes down the valley. Behind it is a golden brown bluff. Tall grass stands, waving gently—the whole bluff looks like a giant river, swaying back and forth, back and forth. I run down the hill, summer liberties rising through my stomach. Four days ago I’d graduated from elementary to middle school. The jump was a big one. I was leaving the place that was familiar, that hadn’t changed for seven years. The old was comfortable, the new was… Spiny weeds latch themselves onto my jeans. A noise in the bushes, a hawk calls. They fly by. I slow, reaching a fork in the road. The left fork winds around the back side of the bluff, the right climbs up it. I choose left. Avocado trees hang loose over the trail, casting blotchy late-afternoon shadows. A hawk calls again, flying directly overhead before it lands on a branch. It eyes me, wondering who this stranger is in the middle of his territory. The hawk ruffles its feathers, turning away. I step back. Walking slower, I hear only the swish, swish of wind through the grass. Another hawk joins the first, but I don’t look back. They call to each other, and fly to a closer branch. It’s small; I almost crush it in my hand Screeeeeee! Scree-scree-scree-ssscreeee! Scree-scree screeeeeech! Their tones are angry—fast and sharp. Crisp leaves crunch beneath me. Spiny leaves stick to my socks. The trail is winding away from the couple of hawks, up a slight hill. The lizards are still. A flash of white catches my eye. I bend down, picking up half of an eggshell. It’s small; I almost crush it in my hand. The jagged edge is cracked cleanly, where the small bird must have picked his way out. Maybe flew out of the nest. Maybe left his family. Maybe the little bird wasn’t ready to go at all… The trail fades, golden grass taking over. I sit on a low branch, looking through the leaves over the valley. I hear a rustle behind me, looking to see the hawks hopping across the place I’ve just left. The egg cracks in my grip, pieces of shell fall to the ground. One of the hawks picks up a leaf in his beak, and it hits me. They’re looking for the egg. The hawks’ calls are more frantic, and they hop back and forth across the mound of leaves where the egg was. I swing my legs around the tree, jumping down. I step softly, quickly, towards the hawks. They back off to the side, flapping onto a branch. I set the eggshell down, then sprint away from the birds, down the hill, through the shadows. I don’t hear the hawks until I’m nearly halfway down the road: Sssssscreeee… Their tones are gentle—slow and soft. Sssssscreeeee… Sssssscreeeeee… Claudia Ross, 13Studio City, California Joan He, 12Wynnewood, Pennsylvania

Swimming with the Dolphins

Lily sat in a deck chair on the deck of her parents’ sailing ship, the Maid of the Sea. The sunlight sparkled on the water. It was a beautiful, sunny summer’s day and they were going on a little sail in the clear, blue waters of the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Maine. The sails of the red boat were tightened with a loud slapping noise by a slight breeze that played across Lily’s hot face. Although it was hot, the day was lovely. Not a cloud in the bright, startlingly blue sky. Lily relaxed and leaned back against the back of the deck chair and heaved a sigh of contentment as she watched the sunlight dance across the water. She sipped her lemonade. It was not too sweet and not too sour, just as she liked it. Ice cubes floated in it and the cool liquid soothed her parched throat. Lily had long, light brown hair that she usually wore down. It created a beautiful rippling effect when she ran. Her eyes were brown as well and she was tall for eleven. Lily’s mom came onto the deck. “Lil, would you like some chocolate-chip cookies before they’re gone? Your brother’s hogging them down below.” William, Lily’s younger brother, loved food, especially sweets such as cookies. “No thanks. They always make me thirsty,” replied Lily, taking another sip of lemonade. Talking of thirst had made her thirsty. Suddenly a dolphin leapt out of the water in a graceful arch Her mother left as Lily leaned over the side and watched the lobster pots go by. She counted all the different combinations of colors. Pink and orange, red and yellow, the list was as endless as the sky above. She watched as several waterbirds swam by, chattering excitedly like kids who have spotted a plate of cookies. Suddenly a dolphin leapt out of the water in a graceful arch, his shiny gray sides glistening with the sunlight reflecting the droplets of water that poured down his curved body. He plunged back in with a splash, beak first, and was gone. Another dolphin leapt out, followed by two more. Suddenly a pod of dolphins could be seen swimming just below the surface. Lily stripped down to her swimsuit underneath her clothes, not taking her eyes off the group of dolphins. She wondered whether they’d swim away if she got in. They seemed friendly enough, swimming alongside the boat. Deciding, she carefully climbed down the ladder and slid into the sun-warmed water. At first the dolphins seemed wary, but then the first dolphin to leap came forward and nuzzled against her like a dog greeting its owner. Gradually the others came up and started nudging her as if asking her to play. She stroked their smooth skin and they seemed to like it—at least they clicked excitedly. The first dolphin came up to her and pushed her gently with his beak as if he was asking her to do something. She stroked him, but that didn’t seem to be what he wanted. He nudged her again and again. He gestured toward his back with his flipper. “Do you want me to ride you?” asked Lily incredulously. He continued gesturing. She gently grasped hold of his dorsal fin. She put a little of her weight on his back. He didn’t object. She put her full weight on his back and clambered on. He started swimming, his streamlined body pushing through the water. They started going faster, with Lily’s hair streaming behind them. She laughed and laughed. A moment she’d never forget: riding a dolphin! The sun looked down and shone his rays on them, dolphin and girl, racing through the waves. Emma Place, 11Waynesburg, Pennsylvania Emily Che, 13Saratoga, California