Toby Wheeler : Eighth-Grade Benchwarmer

Fans of John Feinstein and Matt de la Peña will love Toby Wheeler's dreams of being a basketball star that Phil Jackson says is "a truly great basketball story."

When Toby Wheeler has a chance to join the junior high basketball team, he's eager to prove he can keep up with his best friend, JJ. But practice doesn't go quite as Toby has planned, and when the coach announces the lineup, Toby's hopes of playing ball with JJ are history: he's an eighth-grade benchwarmer!

"A truly great basketball story. Every hoops fan will love this book." —Phil Jackson, former head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers and member of the NBA Hall of Fame

"With so much written about the friction between girl friends, it's good to have a book that acknowledges that left-out feeling happens to boys, too." —Booklist