Travel Team

Danny Walker loves basketball. Defying everyone who always said he was too short to play, Danny has dazzled residents in Middletown, by showing off his skills on Y teams and travel teams. This year, seventh grade, Danny has been cut from the travel team by none other than Mr. Ross, father of Danny’s friend, Ty, and former seventh grade teammate (and rival) of Danny’s superstar father, Richie Walker. Richie, a potential alcoholic, who divorced Danny’s mother after a car accident ended his short NBA career, has come back to Middletown. He starts his own travel team, giving Danny and the rest of his friends the chance to shine. Why has Richie come back to town? Will anyone take the travel team, seriously? Will Danny’s kind, but basketball knowledge deficient mother, be able to handle her role as bench coach? And will Danny and Ty find their friendship tested by their fathers’ continued rivalry?

This book abounds with sports cliches, almost as if Lupica, a sports columnist from The New York Daily News, was going through a cliché checklist. Token girl on the team, who’s better than the majority of the boys, a la The Bad News Bears? Check. Father and son who can only connect through their love of a sport, a la Field of Dreams? Check. A retired athlete trying to find some meaning in his life, by coaching a team of children, a la The Mighty Ducks? Check. Father and son conflict on the opposing team, a la The Bad News Bears? Team filled with a bunch of players who can’t play, but who end up shocking everyone, by being good, a la Hoosiers? Check. Championship game featuring the heroes and their hated rivals, a la every sports movie ever made? Check.

Once one gets through rolling her eyes at the above, this book actually proves to be an enjoyable read. Lupica has created likeable, if not always entirely realistic, characters. Danny is a typical twelve year old, who has a sweet, but not cloying, relationship with his mother, Ali. His best friend, Will, who talks so much he uses it as a weapon in a basketball game, often provides the comic relief of the novel. The most powerful part of the book is towards the beginning, when Danny finds out he didn’t make the travel team. He cries in front of his mother, something we’re told he never likes doing, and even worse he starts to cry in front of his father, something he does even less often. Danny is a nice boy, although not a goody-goody. He gets in a fight with a town bully and isn’t always nice to his classmate, Emma, who used to have crush on him. But, he is nice to his classmate, Tess, who he may or may not be dating, and he is a loving son, which is more than his father deserves, sometimes. This die-hard Red Sox fan liked Danny so much that she was even willing to forgive him for saying that Alex Rodriguez is "only the best baseball player in the world." Like E.L. Konigsburg, Lupica, brings the adults into his children’s novel, although some are better drawn than others. Ali, a teacher, is most vivid, dealing with an immature ex-husband who loves their son, and a heartbroken pre-teen. Richie Walker is an interesting character, although his problems with alcoholism and lack of family skills make him seem like a stereotypical athlete. And the thirty-year-old grudge war with Mr. Ross is a little ridiculous. The strength of the novel lies in the descriptions of the basketball games. Only a casual observer of the game, this reviewer learned quite a bit about basketball terminology and strategy. This is a good title for any library looking to increase its collection of sports novels and so-called "boy books."

Laura Bernheim

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