Maddox, Jake

"Thirteen-year-old Mike Gordon cannot resist a dare, but climbing the school flagpole gets him into trouble not just at school, but with his parents, who are usually preoccupied with his younger sister who has muscular dystrophy; but when a family friend introduces him to rock climbing, Mike finds an outlet for his thrill-seeking behavior--and just maybe his parents will finally pay some attention to him"--Publisher.

Because she is now over six feet tall everybody expects Juniper to be good at basketball, especially her demanding coach (who also happens to be her father)--but she is not sure that she even likes basketball, and she definitely does not like the pressure that she feels when she misses a shot and her father benches her.

Twelve-year-old Addison Jones would love to try out for the track team, and she knows that she is faster than the other girls, but her single mom is working two jobs and every day after school Addison has to take care of her little brother. Without telling her mom, Addison and her best friend, Sofia, work out a plan that will allow her to run, but soon the strain and guilt of lying to her mother begins to take its toll.

When Will Pastora's family arrived at the Sorenson Resort for a family vacation he did not know that there was going to be a snowboarding competition; he enjoys snowboarding, but he is embarrassed to admit that he is only a beginner so he signs up at a higher level--and soon realizes that tackling the more difficult slopes is dangerous and that he needs some help to admit his error in front of his new, more experienced acquaintances.

Although only in eighth grade Baxter Reilly is an important member of the Edgeview High School in Tempe, Arizona, and lately the pool has been his place of refuge from the stress of his parents' separation--but now, between the pending divorce, his father's miserable apartment, his mother's new boyfriend, and the resentment and bullying from his older teammates, it is getting harder to focus on his role as the anchor of the 4 x 400 freestyle relay in the upcoming races.

Basketball has always come easily to twelve-year-old Devon Rosario of the Bronx, but it has been a long time since he actually enjoyed playing because Devon's father sees him as the family's second chance at basketball glory, and the pressure of that expectation is ruining the game for Devon; but then he sees Jamal, a Yemeni refugee, doing BMX tricks on his bike and suddenly Devon sees a way to put fun back into sports--provided he can keep his new passion secret from his father.

Blake Easton has never played organized sports, so when he makes the local traveling baseball team as a bench player he is thrilled; and when the team's star second baseman (and all around annoyance) Kyle, breaks his foot in the very first game the coach calls on Blake to fill in--but Blake is not sure he can perform as well as Kyle, and even less sure that he can trust Kyle's helpful advice.

The Keys family is vacationing at Shenandoah National Park intending to do some serious hiking, but twelve-year-old Marlon would much rather be on his phone talking with his friends at home in Chicago, and is further annoyed because the girl his own age, Nadia, turns out to be an experienced hiker; but when on the first day his complaining and resistance separates him from his parents his "boring" vacation becomes an exercise in survival as he and Nadia are caught in a storm.

Twelve-year-old Tanisha Carter's favorite extreme obstacle course challenge is coming to town; her classmate Derek agrees to be her partner, and his cousin Janet agrees to train them at her gym, and while getting in shape is a little hard for easy going Derek, but the real problem the pair face is when Tanisha discovers she is afraid of heights.

Nita Dara is one of ten eighth graders who has already won a scholarship to attend the Alaska Young Explorers program and learn explorer skills in an Alaskan wilderness camp; but the program is also a competition and the winner will get 5000 dollars--money that Nita's family could really use--but on the final challenge she is paired with the super-competitive Sohail Aman, and the challenge turns deadly when they find themselves lost in the fog while hiking down a glacier, where a single misstep could mean injury and death.