Basketball Bats/Goof-Off Goalie

Basketball Bats
Henry and his four friends on Rockford Road are an unbeatable basketball team—on their driveway court. But without team T-shirts or an official name, can they take on the Tigers, a team that plays at the huge YWCA and has a player old enough to shave? Henry feels sure he can lead his friends to victory, but is he really a team player? Or is he a ball hog?

Goof-Off Goalie
There’s nothing Goose wants more than to play goalie for his soccer team. It looks like so much fun—and so easy!—on TV. But can he quit daydreaming long enough to stop the ball? With Henry’s training, Goose is sure he can go from goof-off to goalie in no time. Just as Goose starts to improve, Henry gets grounded because his grades are slipping. Will Goose help Henry in return? Or is being a goalie more important than friendship?

Basketball Bats and Goof-Off Goalie are both 2009 Bank Street – Best Children’s Books of the Year.

Author Biography

Betty Hicks is the author of I Smell Like Ham and Animal House and Iz, as well as Out of Order and Busted!, which are both available from Square Fish. She’s been praised for her works for older readers, now she turns her talents to chapter books for younger kids. She lives in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Adam McCauley is the illustrator of the successful middle-grade fiction series, The Time Warp Trio by Jon Scieszka and Louis Sachar’s Wayside School books.