Outside Shot


Outside Shot
by Fred Bowen (Author)

Booktalk: Eighth-grader Richie Mallon has always known he was a shooter, but will his amazing shooting talent be enough to keep him on the team? He has practiced every day at his driveway hoop, perfecting his technique. Richie never plays any other roles on the court; he lets his teammates do the assisting and rebounding. Richie makes the team under a tough new coach, but he’s not a starter. When his shooting skills go into a slump, he must find a way to become a more well-rounded player.

Snippet:

“All right, let’s scrimmage.”

Those words are music to my ears. At last we can stop doing the orange cone drill. We’re more than halfway through the season and I still can’t stand those cones.

Of course, scrimmaging isn’t so great either, since I’m stuck on the second team–the Blue shirts. I think Coach has stopped thinking of me as a possible starter, and I can’t blame him. A shooter who isn’t shooting so great can’t start for anyone.

Copyright © 2017 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.

Tetris

Tetris: The Games People Play
by Box Brown (Author / Illustrator)

Booktalk: Alexey Pajitnov had big ideas about games. In 1984, he created Tetris in his spare time while developing software for the Soviet government. Once Tetris emerged from behind the Iron Curtain, it was an instant hit. Nintendo, Atari, Sega game developers big and small all wanted Tetris. A bidding war was sparked, followed by clandestine trips to Moscow, backroom deals, innumerable miscommunications, and outright theft.

Snippet:



It’s STEM Friday! (STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics)

Copyright © 2017 Anastasia Suen All Rights Reserved.