View Product | ISBN: 9780970899248 | $9.95 | Paperback

My name is Jason Skidder, but you can call me Skids. When I was young, I thought my life was pretty simple—I had school, my friends, and my love for soccer. I also had a plan. I would go to high school in San Francisco, then to college, and if things fell into place, I would become a professional soccer player. Or so I thought.

One day, my life got flipped upside down, literally, in a single moment. Over the next few years, I struggled to figure out where I was and who my friends were. I even began to doubt if my parents cared about me. Through it all, though, my soccer ball was the one thing in the world that never left my side. Without that ball and the game, I’m not sure if I ever would have made it—but I did. Yet, I’ll never forget the day my parents broke the news. At the same time, I thought my life was over. Little did I know that my adventure had just begun…

View Product | ISBN: 9781933423791 | $9.95 | Paperback

My name is Emerald Johnston and I am destined to be a pop star. After years of coming up short in auditions, I finally get my big break. But I soon find out that recording an album, going on tour, and rising up the music charts is really hard work. Everyone in my life seems to be pulling me in opposite directions. Plus, the entertainment business is all about image–which really stinks. They tell me that my hair isn’t blonde enough, my waist isn’t small enough, and my skirts aren’t short enough! It’s as if my voice doesn’t even count! Can I become a star and still be me? Can I make it to the top without losing the people I love along the way?

View Product | ISBN: 9781933423296 | $9.95 | Paperback

My name is Francisco Diaz. But don’t call me that. Don’t call me Francis, Frankie, or Frank either. I go by my nickname, Paco. When I tell you to call me Paco, I mean it. The last thing you want to do is make me mad. When I get mad everything gets hazy and el fuego, the fire, takes over. Once that fire’s lit, there’s nothing I can do to put it out. So I get into fights all the time at school. Everyone with an opinion wants to help me, but I don’t want their help. My parents are making me see some psychologist, and she recommended that I buy a punching bag. She actually wants me to hit something when I get angry! I guess it’s better than hitting the side of someone’s face.

Here I am, at some dirty gym near my home in Philadelphia. I’m learning how to box so my father won’t send me to military school. The head trainer, Coach Castillo, is tough, and he seems to really have it out for me. Some people heal in a hospital, some heal at home-my therapy starts here in this gym, fighting el fuego.

View Product | ISBN: 9781934713952 | $9.95 | Paperback

Twelve years ago, Bobby Cortez was just your average Puerto Rican teenager. But a series of bad choices landed him in a tough street gang. Now, Bobby is a rookie F.B.I. agent, back in his hometown of Brooklyn, New York, investigating a gang-related murder. Can he solve the murder and overcome the ghosts of his past?

View Product | ISBN: 9781933423784 | $9.95 | Paperback

My name is Wayne Miller. Don’t squint, or adjust your glasses, I really am this small. Still, I’ve always dreamed about being a professional hockey player, and competing against the greatest players in the world. This book is about how I chased down my dream, despite everybody telling me that it was impossible. It’s about overcoming the odds, fighting through injuries, and giving everything you’ve got every single day.

Your dreams never die until you let them die. That’s what my Dad always told me—and that’s why I never quit. Sitting here in the locker room of the Minnesota Elk, on the night of my first professional game, I can finally sit back and reflect about how in the world I got here. I guess it all started on the day I got my first pair of skates. After that day, nothing was ever the same for me…

View Product | ISBN: 9781682651599 | $9.95 | Paperback

My name is Tony Hope, but people around my neighborhood call me “T”. I live in Harlem, a place where life isn’t always easy. I’ve always dreamed that my brother Mike and I would stand on an NBA court together some day. This book is about trying to get there. It’s about winning and losing. It’s about joy and pain. It’s about basketball. It’s about our life, and how fifteen hours can change everything.

Sitting here on the bench at Towers Memorial Arena on the night of my first NBA game, I can finally sit back and reflect on my bumpy road. I guess it all starts on the night before Mike and I were supposed to leave for college, the night that changed everything. The night that basketball stopped being the most important thing in the world. And after this night, nothing would ever be the same…

View Product | ISBN: 9780970899231 | $9.95 | Paperback

My name is Sasha Beckdell Lewis. I used to be afraid of sort of everything. Clowns. Cats. Snowballs. Most knives. Some forks. Car wash places. Sprinkler heads. Men in beards. Men in moustaches. Blood. Ketchup (because it looks like blood). Most kinds of cheeses. And that was just my starter list. That was, until my best friend, Courtney, made me try out for the eighth grade soccer team.

That team, that year, that sport, changed my life forever. Soccer has been the most steady and stable thing in my life since then. I cannot imagine where I would be today without the game. But I will never forget the time when I couldn’t kick a ball or run for more than a block. I will never forget the girl who was afraid of the world.

View Product | ISBN: 9781933423425 | $9.95 | Paperback

My name is Toby Hardin. I’m from Texas, but my father is a colonel in the Air Force, so we move around a lot. We’ve been living in Germany for the last six years. I had just made the starting lineup on my soccer team when “The Colonel” dropped a bomb on me: we were moving to Florida. Once we got there, I found out that skateboarding was king. The sport is the opposite of everything I’d been taught–and everything I believed.

I’m definitely an outsider in this town, where “locals rule.” Before long, though, I learned to skate, and I soon realized that the sport is an extension of me. I love the thrill of nailing a difficult trick and flying through the air. The Colonel would hate it if he found out I was skating, or that my best friend has started drinking. I’ve got some tough decisions to make–but will I ever be thought of as a local?

View Product | ISBN: 9780970899262 | $9.95 | Paperback

My name is Brittany Bristol, but you can call me Brit for short. Or you can just call me Short, because everyone always reminds me that I am too small and too short to play the game of giants, that is, basketball. But you know what? I don’t care what other people say about me.I don’t care that I’ve been cut, put down, and chased out of every level of competitive basketball that I’ve ever gone out for. I don’t worry that the guy of my dreams, Brian, won’t even look my way. I’m going to be all right. I’m the one in control of my fate. I’m the one who dreams. I can see it now: Brittany Bristol, the starting point guard for a women’s college basketball team.

The ball is in my hands, all eyes are on me, our team needs two points for a national championship, and seven seconds remain. Then I wake up. My dream is over. I’m still the only junior on a junior varsity team filled with freshman and sophomores, and Brian barely realizes that I walk the earth. But I won’t quit, I can’t, my dream has only just begun…

View Product | ISBN: 9781933423777 | $9.95 | Paperback

My name is Jason Hitt and I live for stunts and thrills. Lately, my mother has been treating me like some kind of criminal. When one of my bike stunts goes wrong, Mom loses it. She decides to send me to Iowa. That’s where my deadbeat father and his stupid son live. My summer in Iowa starts off hot, boring, and miserable. I can’t shake the anger I feel towards Dad and his kid. But when I find out that my brother John is an awesome motocross rider, and I take my first ride on a real motorcycle, things start to change. Can motocross really help me forget the past? Will I survive the giant triple step-up jump?

View Product | ISBN: 9781933423272 | $9.95 | Paperback

My name is Selena Garcia and I’ve been playing baseball since I was a little girl. There’s a beat-up field behind our apartment that we play on every day. Being the only girl out there can be rough. That’s why I finally listened to my mother’s advice and joined a girl’s softball league. I loved playing softball and my life really started to come together. I made some friends and even discovered that I have a talent for pitching. But the day I made my first appearance on the pitcher’s mound, tragedy struck my family. Now I feel lost, wondering: will life ever be the same again?

View Product | ISBN: 9781682657942 | $9.95 | Paperback

My name is Jason Green, and I guess that I’m kind of a goofball. At least I was, until one of my pranks went wrong and I ended up having to get a job at the Whispering Canyon Country Club. That was when everything changed. After I became friends with Eugene, who absolutely loves golf, I started to play the game myself. To my surprise, I was actually pretty good at it! I’d never been good at anything besides making people laugh. Now I’m starting to think that maybe the cool kids aren’t so cool after all. Maybe I’m not just the fat kid who’s good for a laugh, maybe I’m a golfer…

View Product | ISBN: 9780970899255 | $9.95 | Paperback

"My name is Dede Bartholomew Savage III. Say that ten times fast. But I don’t think my name was the only reason that kids picked on me. I wore glasses the size of CDs, my pants were as tight as my socks, and back then, I couldn’t think of one thing that I was even decent at. And most kids in my neighborhood made it their personal duty to remind me that I was a full-fledged nerd.

I’ll admit, they were right. Yet, this book is not about feeling sorry for me. The book is about standing up to bullies, about what it is to chase dreams, and about overcoming hurdles.

All this brings me to where I am right now, collapsed in an awkward pile of myself, clutching a deflated left leg and waiting for the stadium scoreboard to replay the end of my final race. I have been chasing the gold medal my entire life and in two minutes, I’ll find out whether or not my thirty-one-year-old legs have held on to victory, if they had enough for gold.

View Product | ISBN: 9780970899224 | $9.95 | Paperback

"My name is Bryan Berry. Two weeks ago I was an unknown tennis player, but suddenly I’ve become a contender at the most famous junior tournament in the United States. Like many kids, I dream about playing a sport professionally and competing against the greatest players in the world. This book is about chasing that dream. It’s about hard work, the pain of crushing defeats, and the joy of success. It’s about tennis. It’s about my life and how a small-town kid with a big-time dream fights his way to the top.

Sitting here at Stowe Stadium, waiting for my match in the Super National Championships to begin, I can finally sit back and reflect on the unpredictable chain of events that brought me here. I guess the story starts on the day that I suffered a devastating loss to that no-good, cheating Ted Grover. That’s when an old, retired tennis coach named Henry Johnson spoke to me for the first time. And after that talk, I would never be the same…

View Product | ISBN: 9780970899279 | $9.95 | Paperback

"My name is Matt Devon. I feel safe in saying that I’m not your average twenty-two-year-old guy. An average twenty-two-year-old wouldn’t write this from behind bars, from a dark jail cell. Tomorrow marks my fourth full year in the New Mexico State Prison. Yet, from my jail cell, I still dream, I dream every night.

My dream always involves football, I’m always the quarterback, and we always win the championship. Tomorrow, when I stand before the parole board, I hope to show them that I deserve a fresh start on life, a second chance. I will ask them to let me walk from this jail as a free man, a free man with a dream to play football again…

View Product | ISBN: 9781933423265 | $9.95 | Paperback

"My name is Cece Morgan and I love to snowboard. I can almost always be found flying through the snow on Rockville Mountain. I’ve lived in Wyoming my entire life. Having a giant mountain in your backyard when you love to snowboard is awesome. What is not awesome is when your father gets a new job in Los Angeles and tells you to pack up your stuff and leave the only home you’ve ever known.

That’s exactly what happened to me! Take my word for it-life in Los Angeles is not like the movies! I never get to snowboard, and I have to go to school with this girl Portia who picks on me every chance she gets. The only cool thing about California is the ocean. I’ve tried to surf a few times, and although I’m not that good yet, I love it. If I can find a way to avoid the evil Portia, I’ll survive. And if I can get the hang of surfing, I might even start to like it out here.

View Product | ISBN: 9780970899200 | $9.95 | Paperback

"My name is Jimmy Hanks. Until recently, I was a Minor League baseball player for the Dallas Lonestars. Like most young kids, I’ve always dreamed about standing on a Major League field and competing against the greatest ballplayers in the world. This book is about getting there. It’s about the long bus rides through deserted towns, it’s about double-headers, double-plays, errors, homeruns, tryouts, failures and successes. It’s about baseball. It’s about my life, and how a guy who never gets picked first fights to be standing last.

Sitting here in the dugout of Lonestar Park in Dallas, on the night of my first Major League game, I can finally sit back and reflect about how in the world I got here. I guess it all starts on “assignment day” in Kissimmee, the day that everything changed. The day that baseball took second place to survival. And after this day, I would never be the same…