Books published by publisher Peachtree Publishers

The Tigers are in trouble.Baseball season is underway and Coach Skelly just quit.When Scott and his teammates can’t find anyone to coach the team, it looks as if the Tigers’ season might be over before it really begins.But then the Tigers have an idea: what if one of them became coach? After all, some of the biggest names in baseball history were player-coaches. Why not a kid coach?

Chris desperately wants to be more than a benchwarmer on his basketball team. Hoping he can get more playing time, he asks his friend Greta, the high-scoring star of the girls’ team, for help with his shooting skills. But it is Greta’s mom—a former basketball star who never even scored a basket—who teaches Chris how to change his strategy and become a success on the court.

One girl’s strong spirit and love of soccer drive her to persevere in the face of adversity in this lively and engaging novel. Irene loves soccer, a passion she inherited from her Italian father. She’s thrilled by the sound and feel of the ball exploding off her foot for a shot at the goal. At school back in Missouri, she was one of the top players on her girls’ team. But things are different in Merano, Italy, where bilingual Irene and her family have come for a yearlong stay. There’s no soccer team for girls in the small, very traditional Alpine town. Irene decides to join the highly competitive boys’ team, but she has little idea what she’s getting herself into. First, she must prove herself to the strict coach, the “mister.” And her teammates make it clear they don’t want her on the field. Especially Matteo, the team’s star player, who goes out of his way to make Irene unwelcome. But Irene does not give up easily, even when the disapproval of her Italian grandmother and the doubts of her new classmates—including her best friend, Giulia—threaten to undermine her confidence. Author Kristin Wolden Nitz has created a complex adolescent character. Readers will root for Irene as she struggles to find her place on the team and in a new country. The story also offers a fascinating, and often humorous, look at a collision of cultures and lively descriptions of fast-paced action on the soccer field.

What happens when a girl, homeschooled by her counterculture mother, decides to spend her senior year in public school? First friendship, first love—and first encounters with the complexities of authority and responsibility. Evie is different. Not just her upbringing—though that’s certainly been unusual—but also her mindset. She’s smart, independent, confident, opinionated, and ready to take on a new challenge: the Institution of School. It doesn’t take this homeschooled kid long to discover that high school is a whole new world, and not in the ways she expected. It’s also a social minefield, and Evie finds herself confronting new problems at every turn, failing to follow or even understand the rules, and proposing solutions that aren’t welcome or accepted. Not one to sit idly by, Evie sets out to make changes. Big changes. The movement she starts takes off, but before she realizes what’s happening, her plan spirals out of control, forcing her to come to terms with a world she is only just beginning to comprehend. J. J. Johnson’s powerful debut novel will enthrall readers as it challenges assumptions about friendship, rules, boundaries, and power.

Tyler is angry when his best friend Zack, their team’s hotshot midfielder, leaves to play for the Panthers, an elite travel team. He’s sure the Cougars’ season will tank—before it even begins.The Cougars lose their season opener—and their next game, too. Tyler blames Zack, but it’s clear his team needs a new attitude—and a lot more practice.Can Tyler help make a difference before it’s too late?

A new addition to the award-winning natural science series for young children ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEACHER and author Cathryn Sill and her husband, noted wildlife illustrator John Sill, team up again to offer young readers another first glimpse into our natural world in the latest book in the acclaimed About series. In simple, easy-to-understand language children learn the basic characteristics of what fish are, how they swim, breathe, and reproduce, and the different ways they protect themselves from predators. The beautifully detailed, full-color illustrations reflect the diversity of the fish population-from an Arctic char to a Porcupine Fish-and present each in its natural underwater habitat. An afterword, which provides further details on the fish portrayed, will inspire young readers to learn more.

Marcus is tall, strong, and the best basketball player on his team—except at the foul line.At the end of an important game, Marcus misses crucial free throws and his team loses. Afraid of being fouled and failing again, he stops playing aggressively and beings passing up chances to score.But when he learns a silly-looking technique that works, Marcus must decide if he is willing to put his pride on the line in order to succeed.

There’s “plenty of soccer action” in this story of a middle schooler who has to figure out how to balance good sportsmanship with the goal of winning (Booklist). Eighth-grader Nate Osborne is a forward on his U-14 soccer team, the Strikers. He and the rest of his teammates are very competitive—especially when it comes to their rivals, the Monarchs. They want the Monarchs to lose so badly that they’ll even root against them when they play other teams. Then, during a game between the Strikers and the Monarchs, a boy on the opposing team gets injured, and Nate must decide between going for a goal or kicking the ball out of bounds as an act of sportsmanship. His aunt, who’s also a soccer player, has taught him the importance of fair play, but when Nate stops the clock and sacrifices his chance to win the game, his teammates just don’t understand. From the author of the Sports Stories and All-Star Sport Stories series, as well as the kids’ sports column “The Score” for the Washington Post’s KidsPost section, Out of Bounds is an entertaining and thoughtful tale about young athletes striving to become not only great players, but also great people.

An adolescent girl learns that realizing a dream requires a good deal more than stubborn, steely resolve as she risks everything to follow her heartIt’s not fair! Thirteen-year-old Joelle Cunningham is passionate about baseball. She loves to watch it, read about it, and, most of all, play it. But when her family moves from Minneapolis to the small town of Greendale, Iowa, she quickly discovers that there are strict rules preventing her from playing on the school baseball team.At Hoover Middle School, only boys play baseball. Girls play softball. It’s not the same sport! Joelle tries to tell everyone. But no one is listening. Not Coach Carlyle—even though his baseball team is at the bottom of the league, he doesn’t want her on his team. Not Ms. Fenner, the softball coach—she wants Joelle to use her big-league swing to benefit the girls’ team. Not her new friend, Elizabeth, who is growing tired of her complaints. Not even Jason, her older brother, who is too busy at college to be of much help.But Joelle is determined to play baseball. And through some creative problem-solving and surprising alliances, she finds a solution to her dilemma that brings the disputing sides together . . . and baseball to the girls of Greendale.Author Dori Butler has created a high-spirited, indomitable character that young girls will admire and root for in this story of frustrated ambition and ultimate triumph.

This dramatic and moving story set in the days of the Negro Leagues illustrates the true meanings of friendship, prejudice, and heroism Twelve-year-old Charlie Nebraska wants two things he can’t get: to make the local Wildcats Baseball team and to have life to return to the way it was before his father died two years earlier in the Korean War. Then Charlie meets Luther Peale, a stranger who quietly and mysteriously arrives in the small town of Holden, Iowa, and sets up camp near the river. Luther is a former Negro Baseball League player, and Charlie loves baseball. The two strike up a friendship and Luther agrees to coach Charlie’s fledgling neighborhood baseball team for a game against the Wildcats. But many of Holden’s white residents are suspicious of Luther because of his skin color. And when Charlie inadvertently reveals a secret of Luther’s, violence erupts in the town and both Luther and Charlie are drawn into serious danger. Authors Carol Gorman and Ron J. Findley have created two highly memorable, emotionally complex characters in this dramatic story that illustrates the meanings of friendship, prejudice, and heroism.