When the game changes, love finds a way to score.

Jabari Hall has spent his entire life chasing victory on the ice–but one devastating hit leaves him benched, not just from hockey but from the future he thought he had. Now, as he struggles with deteriorating eyesight, his well-meaning teammates set him up on a blind date, hoping it will cheer him up–only the date they choose is none other than Val Elliott, his ex’s sister.

Val never expected to be sitting across from Jabari, especially after the way he broke her sister’s heart. But when Jabari opens up about his diagnosis, Val’s guarded heart softens, and she offers him a listening ear. What begins as a simple friendship quickly turns into something more.

As Jabari navigates life off the ice, he’s drawn to Val in ways he didn’t expect. With her loyalty to her family on the line and Jabari searching for faith and a new purpose, can they make it to the goal together, or will their hearts wind up in the penalty box?

A clean and wholesome African American hockey romance featuring forbidden love, friends to lovers, disability representation, and second chances perfect for fans of Christian sports romances, Emma St. Clair, Pepper Basham, and Melissa Ferguson.

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Everyone wants to be a Dallas Lonestars Cheerleader, but fame can have a deadly price…

The Dallas Lonestars Cheerleaders are untouchable. They are the epitome of glitz and glamour, reeking of hairspray and perfection. But everything changes when America’s Angel and cheerleading captain Jentry Rae Randall is found murdered in the squad’s locker room.

Filmmaker Nikki Keegan has the opportunity of a lifetime. Brought in to document the Lonestars’ potential comeback after four disastrous seasons, Nikki is now perfectly placed to investigate the murder of the team’s iconic frontwoman.

Nikki turns to cheerleader Shaunette Simmons, the deceased’s best friend, for help. As Nikki becomes closer to Shaunette, the more she suspects that Shaunette is hiding something.

But when Shaunette is run off the road and left to die, it’s clear that nobody on this cheer squad is safe. Because some people would kill to be a Dallas Lonestars Cheerleader…

Marina Evans, a former NFL cheerleader herself, takes readers “behind the gloss” of this iconic American subculture in this high octane debut that is filled with twists, turns, and high kicks. Weaving between sisterhood and ambition, survival and scandal, The Cheerleader will keep you riveted until the final page.

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Twenty-four hours: that’s how long fourteen-year-old Elvira Gonzalez is given to come up with the $40,000 she needs to save her kidnapped mother from a drug cartel. It’s 2006 and Elvira’s hometown of Laredo, Texas, has become engulfed by the Mexican Drug War. Elvira’s life is unraveling around her—setting her on a harrowing path that leads her to being locked up in one of South Texas’s worst juvenile detention centers.

After Elvira’s released from juvie, she’s resolved to never go back. That’s when her unexpected salvation arrives in the form of 33-inch-high plastic hurdles. Determined to win a track scholarship out of Laredo, Elvira begins breaking into the school, alone, at 5:30 in the morning to practice hurdling. Soon, she catches the attention of a renowned high school coach, an adult man in his 30s. As they train, their coach-student relationship begins to change, becoming sexual. At just seventeen years old, Elvira experiences the dangers many young athletes face, especially those who are marginalized. In spite of these towering obstacles, Elvira eventually propels herself to become one of the top ranked hurdlers in the USA and the first in her family to go to college.

This inspiring true story of grit, tenacity, and hope traces Elvira’s path as she overcomes impossible hurdles in her race to freedom.

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Dixon was once an Olympic-level runner. But he missed the team by two-tenths of a second, and ever since that pain decades ago, he hasn’t allowed a goal to consume him. But when his charming older brother, Nate, suggests that they attempt to be the first Black American men to summit Mount Everest, Dixon can’t refuse. The brothers are determined to prove something—to themselves and to each other.

Dixon interrupts his orderly life as a school psychologist, leaving behind disapproving friends, family, and one particularly fragile student, Marcus. Once on the mountain, they are met with extreme weather conditions, oxygen deprivation, and precarious terrain. But as much as they’ve prepared for this, Mt. Everest is always fickle. And in one devastating moment, Dixon’s world is upended.

Dixon returns home, wracked with guilt and grief. He attempts to resume his job, but things have shifted: for him, and for the students he left behind when he chose Mt. Everest. Ultimately, Dixon must confront the truth of what happened on the mountain and come to terms with who can and cannot be saved. DIXON, DESCENDING offers us a captivating, shattering portrait of the ways we’re reshaped by our decisions—and what it takes to angle ourselves, once again, toward hope.

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Deontae “Simp” Wright has big plans for his future. Plans that involve basketball, his best friend, Rollie, and making enough money to get his mom and four younger brothers out of the Cove, their low-income housing project. Long term, this means the NBA. Short term, it means being a dough boy—getting paid to play lookout and eventually moving up the rungs of the neighborhood drug operation with Rollie as his partner.

Rolland “Rollie” Matthews used to love playing basketball. He loved the rhythm of the game; it’s how he came up with his best drumbeats after running up and down the court. But playing with the elite team comes with extra, illegal responsibilities, and Rollie isn’t sure he’s down for that life. The new talented-and-gifted program, where Rollie has a chance to audition for a real-life go-go band, seems like the perfect excuse to stop being a dough boy. But how can he abandon his best friend?

In the companion to her acclaimed middle-grade debut, So Done, Paula Chase explores universal themes of friendship and budding romance, while also exploring complex issues that affect many young teens. Full of basketball, friendship, and daily life in a housing project, this universal story is perfect for fans of Jason Reynolds’s Track series, Jewell Parker Rhodes’s Ghost Boys, and Kwame Alexander’s Solo.

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The Big Cheese is the best at everything, and brags about it, too. When the annual Cheese-cathlon comes around, the Big Cheese is prepared to win, as always. But then the quiet new kid, Wedge Wedgeman, comes out on top! Is a slice of humility all the Big Cheese needs to discover that some things are better than being the best?

Readers of all ages will laugh along as they learn how grate life can be when you celebrate others as much as yourself.

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Capturing all the joy and energy that mark the sport of basketball, bestselling and award-winning superstar author Derrick Barnes shines a light on the amazing ballers, buzzer-beaters, and record-breakers who haven’t always gotten the attention they deserve. Who Got Game? Basketball, the second book in his sports series, following Who Got Game? Baseball, weaves together great storytelling, lively illustrations, and a far-ranging selection of facts, stats, sidebars, and quotes.

Middle-grade readers will discover the highest-scoring game in NCAA history. The influential center, George Mikan, who created the modern big man role, and 5’3″ Muggsy Bogues, the shortest player ever to star in the pros. The pioneering Senda Berenson Abbott, creator of the women’s game. The legendary Rucker Park b-ball court in Harlem, New York. Plus the first African American players and coaches, greatest comeback victories and earth-shattering slam dunks, longest winning streaks, and so much more. This book will hit you like a three-pointer from half-court!

The post Who Got Game?: Basketball: Amazing but True Stories! first appeared on Shelves Bookstore.

A toddler plays a game of peekaboo, and you’re invited to play too! First there’s Mommy to find, with Daddy not far behind. Then Puppy comes peeking around the corner, and a favorite toy train brings the toddler to Grandma and Grandpa. Rachel Isadora’s brilliant, joyful pastel illustrations capture familiar and cozy people, toys, and animals that will delight babies, who will love finding out what the toddler sees next.

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Ghost. Lu. Patina. Sunny. Four kids from wildly different backgrounds with personalities that are explosive when they clash. But they are also four kids chosen for an elite middle school track team—a team that could qualify them for the Junior Olympics if they can get their acts together. They all have a lot to lose, but they also have a lot to prove, not only to each other, but to themselves.

Running. That’s all Ghost (real name Castle Cranshaw) has ever known. But Ghost has been running for the wrong reasons—it all started with running away from his father, who, when Ghost was a very little boy, chased him and his mother through their apartment, then down the street, with a loaded gun, aiming to kill. Since then, Ghost has been the one causing problems—and running away from them—until he meets Coach, an ex-Olympic Medalist who sees something in Ghost: crazy natural talent. If Ghost can stay on track, literally and figuratively, he could be the best sprinter in the city. Can Ghost harness his raw talent for speed, or will his past finally catch up to him?

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