Airean Beecroft

English 112B

Dr. Warner

November 4, 2009

Annotated Bibliography: High School Sports

Bechard, Margaret. If It Doesn�t Kill You. New York: Viking, 1999.

Ben is a freshman in high school and has dreams of playing on the varsity football team. Ben�s father has just left his family, for a man, and Ben is having extreme difficulty dealing with the fact that his father is gay. �A growing friendship with a girl named Chynna and Keith�s (his father�s boyfriend) help in rescuing Ben from a difficult situation finally prompt the teen to question his assumptions about what it means to be a man and begin to accept his father as he is.� I chose to include this book because the main character is on the football team but he also has many personal problems that he must deal with. High school students can relate to having to prioritize school, sports and family.

Source: http://biography.jrank.org/pages/1840/Bechard-Margaret-1953.html

Creech, Sharon. Bloomability. New York: HarperCollins, 1999.

Dinnie has been moved from her home in New Mexico to live and go to school at a boarding house which her uncle is headmaster of. Her dad has moved her family around a lot but this is by far the biggest change that she has gone through. By learning to ski Dinnie is able to make friends and become comfortable in her new surroundings. This book would help high school students adjust to moving to a new place. It shows that if you just get out there and try something new, it may not be as bad as you think.

Source: http://multcolib.org/talk/guides-bloomability.html

Crutcher, Chris. Chinese Handcuffs. New York: HarperCollins, 2004.

When Dillon Hemingway is forced to watch his brother Preston�s suicide, his life understandably seems to fall apart. His quest to make it whole again involves Stacy Ryder, Preston�s girlfriend, who is left with more than a memory of Dillon�s dead brother, and Jennifer Lawless, a star high school basketball player with a secret too monstrous to tell and too enormous to keep. This book can help high school students deal with death, suicide and abuse which is a lot more common than people think. The book also deals with isolation and the feeling of redemption that is achieved by reaching out to other people. That in itself will let students know that they aren�t alone and that everyone has problems, even the people you least suspect.

Source: http://www.chriscrutcher.com/content/blogcategory/68/57>

Cructher, Chris. Whale Talk. New York: HarperCollins, 2001.

T.J. Jones is discriminated against in his high school because he is multiracial and because he doesn�t want to participate in the school�s athletic program even though he is naturally gifted at sports. T.J. starts the Cutter High School swim team even though the school doesn�t even have a pool. He hand picks the members of this team and each member is as different as the next. T.J. is determined that each member of his team will earn a letter and therefore be able to sport the school�s coveted varsity letterman�s jacket. Throughout the swim season the boys learn about themselves and each other and ultimately come to the conclusion that what other people think about them doesn�t have to affect the way they see themselves. Dangerous relationships are also present throughout this book and with the help of T.J. and his family four characters are able to flee an abusive father/husband. This book will teach students that just because people say certain things about you doesn�t mean they are true. Also, the book teaches about friendship, death and living through things you never thought possible.

Day, Karen. No Cream Puffs. New York: Wendy Lamb Books/Random House, 2008.

Madison Mitchell is a 12-year-old girl who becomes the first girl in Michigan to play baseball on an all-boys little league team in the 1970s. This book offers the reader a glance at what it was like to be a star athlete at a time when there were little sporting opportunities for girls. Not only does Madison have to worry about people who question whether she, or any girl, should be allowed to play little league, but she also has to deal with her own growing insecurities. How will she ever make sense of all of these new rules she inadvertently sets in place? I included this book for more personal reasons including the fact that I believe women should be able to play any sport that men play. This book could teach students about gender equality and learning to face your fears, even if no one has done it before you.

Source: http://www.klday.com/books.html

Dygard, Thomas. Forward Pass. New York: Penguin Group Inc., 1990.

Coach Gardner is desperate for a decent pass catcher for his Aldridge High Panthers. Jill Winston is the surprise he comes up with- but a girl on a high school football team? Dygard takes readers through the maze of problems that the coach must maneuver to get his new star on the field. This is another book that teaches about gender equality and shows that the best player should get the job, no matter what gender they are. The book also touches on the idea of doing what you want no matter what other people may say about it.

Source: http://www.jacketflap.com/bookdetail.asp?bookid=0833577972

Hoosiers. Dir. David Anspaugh. Perf. Gene Hackman, Myra Fleener, Dennis Hopper. Orion,

1986. DVD.

Based on the true story of a small-town Indiana basketball team that made the state finals in 1954, this movie chronicles the attempts of the coach with a spotty past, and the town�s basketball-loving drunk to lead their high school team to victory. Coach Norman Dale encounters several hurdles in his path: a feisty teacher determined to keep the best player from going out for the team, a town chock full of second-guessing fathers, and a group of undisciplined athletes. This movie teaches students that even their wildest dreams can come true if they work as hard as they can and believe in themselves. It also teaches about teamwork, discipline and respecting authority as well as yourself.

Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091217/plotsummary

Hornby, Nick. Slam. New York: Penguin Group, Inc., 2007.

This book is a portrait of an interesting boy who is forced to become, very quickly, a man. Sam lives for skateboarding until he gets his new girlfriend pregnant. Her parents want the girlfriend, Alicia, to dump Sam and the fetus. This novel explores the differences between social classes, families and sex. Sam seeks comfort in his poster of skateboarding legend Tony Hawk and he eventually becomes a father, if not quite a grown-up. The book touches on many serious points including; premarital sex, teen pregnancy and abortion and although it doesn�t exactly teach any lessons it lets students know that they aren�t alone in their ventures. Teen pregnancy is becoming more and more prevalent and the book touches on the major issues that are involved in this complicated situation.

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/11/books/review/Garner-t.html

Orr, Wendy. Peeling the Onion. Australia: Allen & Unwin, 1996.

The subtitle for this book is �How many layers hide the person you really are?� which gives somewhat of an insight on what the book will be about. Anna Duncan, popular, ambitious, athletic – a karate champion – until a car accident catapults her into a new life of disability, dependency, and pain. The layers of her life are being peeled away and she doesn�t know what she�ll find inside. This book will offer students a look into someone�s life that once had everything going for them only to have it stripped away. It will also teach students how to cope with a disability and helping them to realize that it�s not the end of the world and things could be worse. I also included this book because the featured sport is karate which isn�t a very popular sport that students do in high school. Lastly, students will learn that it isn�t what you do that makes you who you are, it�s what it�s inside.

Source: http://www.wendyorr.com/books/onion.html

Remember the Titans. Dir. Boaz Yakin. Perf. Denzel Washington, Will Patton, Wood Harris.

Walt Disney Pictures, 2000. DVD.

In the early 1970s, two schools in Alexandria, Virginia integrate forming T.C. Williams High School. The Caucasian head coach of the Titans is replaced by an African American coach from North Carolina. Tensions arise when players of different races are forced together on the same football team. Many of these tensions are eased during the two-week training camp in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. When players returned to Alexandria the players found the city in turmoil due to the forced desegregation of the high school. As the season progresses the team�s success cause the community to accept the changes. After the Titans� perfect season, the team and the city were closer than ever. This movie teaches students to accept each other for who they are, not what color their skin is. Also it shows that you shouldn�t believe everything you hear about someone else. Teamwork, dedication, and perseverance are three more lessons that students will get out of this movie.

Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0210945/plotsummary