Comment

Jan 21, 2013
Children’s author and former teacher Jon Scieszka (who wrote “The Time Warp Trio” books, among others) has long been dedicated to getting boys interested in reading and becoming life-long readers. The creator of the popular web-based “Guys Read” literacy program for boys (seewww.guysread.com/ ), Scieszka has now written a new series of books, also entitled “Guys Read”. The Sports Pages is the third and most recent volume of the series. A total of ten short stories (eight fiction plus two short memoirs by NHL player/captain Dustin Brown and CBS sport anchor James Brown) have been written exclusively for The Sports Pages, each by a different author. There are stories of both victories and defeats. A couple of the tales involve bullying. A variety of sports – hockey, basketball, baseball, football, mixed martial arts and track – are represented in the stories, which are appealing, often light-hearted and even humorous. One story, “The Trophy” by author Gordon Korman, recounts the valiant efforts of a team of high-school students to win a coveted basketball trophy, the Interboro Cup, only to have it “kidnapped”. (Readers will chuckle at the place in which the trophy is finally located.) Another selection, “Max Swings for the Fence” by Anne Ursu, features a boy who tries to become accepted in a new school by claiming that his father is a famous baseball player. (The result, predictably, is a “whopper” of a strikeout.) The Sports Pages will interest boys who participate in sports as well as those who are spectators. Previous titles in the “Guys Read” series are Funny Business and Thriller, also located at the Stratford Public Library.