My newest book crush is for NIKKI ON THE LINE by debut author Barbara Carroll Roberts. A local author from Fairfax, VA, she captures a special love for the thirteen-year-old protagonist Nikki Doyle. No, this isn’t a ‘tween romance story. This book is a sportsbook, not my first choice genre of MG books. Nikki’s goal is to make a new club basketball team for eighth-grade girls. I can’t wait to share this title with my thirteen-year-old grandson to see if he relates to a girl who works overtime to practice for her competitive basketball team.
I enjoy Greg Pattridge’s rating system from Marvelous Middle Grade Monday. Here are 5 extra things I love about this book:
- The protagonist in this book is a realistic girl;
- Nikki has been a star on a recreational team and then she expands her goal to try-out for an even more competitive team;
- The author includes familiar friends and family conflicts;
- Nikki becomes friends with a neighborhood boy, Booker, a friendship she keeps secret from her girlfriends; and
- The basketball coach encourages team play, hard work, and not just winning.
I can’t wait to share this book with my MG readers who love sportsbooks and the theme of hard to reach goals. Previous to reading this book, my favorite basketball book I recommended was The Moves Make the Manby Bruce Brooks, School Library Journal’s best book of 1984, and a Newbery Honor book of 1985.
This blog post is my first to share on Marvelous Middle Grade Monday, a site I hope you will enjoy; the reviewers are excellent.
HAPPY SUMMER READING!!
Best Books By Beth 
this sounds excellent — thanks for the recommendation.
Thank you for reading my blog and commenting.
My daughter caught two typos in my blog post. Do you see them??
Thanks for reading and I would love more comments!!
This sounds like a great book! I don’t typically read books about sports either, but this one sounds really compelling. Thanks for the great review, and welcome to MMGM!
Welcome to MMGM. I’ll be honest, I passed over this book the first time I saw it mentioned. But it sounds like it has more potential than what I thought at first. Thanks for sharing it! I’ll give it another look!
Welcome to MMGM! I have a granddaughter that would really love this story. Thanks for such an interesting review!
Welcome to MMGM. I had not heard of this book and both girls and boys are always asking me about recommendations for basketball stories. Thanks for choosing it as your first feature on MMGM.
I don’t tend to read a lot of sports books, but this one sounds really intriguing. I like that the coach focuses on good sportsmanship, not just winning. That was the kind of coach my dad was, but he got a lot of flack from parents for that.
Welcome to MMGM!
I hadn’t heard of this. Thanks for telling me about it. Good sports books are always a treat.