Rich Wallace

Introducing a soccer series for new readers
Kickers #1
Nine-year-old Ben is brand-new to soccer, but he's a good athlete and knows he'll do well on the Bobcats, his team in the local Kickers soccer league. If he can only work around his obnoxious teammate Mark, the ball hog, Ben is sure he'll score his first goal. But Coach Patty, and Ben's own teammates, show him a little something about teamwork. And suddenly it dawns on him: he's...

Filled with on-the-field soccer scenes, black-and-white artwork, and sports statistics throughout, this short novel—ideal for newly independent readers, athletes, and all sports fans—follows nine-year-old Ben and his fourth-grade team, the Bobcats, as they race to the Kickers League playoffs. Ben knows he's one of the team's strongest players, but he's been struggling with the jitters. He's just freezing up on the field. Can he pull through...

When the Hornets lose their quarterback for the season and the replacement lacks the talent to take charge, the coach picks a solid receiver as emergency quarterback.

After moving to New Jersey following his parents' divorce, Jimmy Fleming tries out for the seventh-grade baseball team while also trying cope with his new life and dealing with his overly-competitive father.

While pursuing his goal of helping his soccer team win the league championship, fifteen-year-old Bones tries to deal with his resentment of his best friend, on whose girlfriend he has a crush.

Riley feels like the smallest kid at sports camp. In fact, he is. He just turned eleven in April, but most kids here are twelve, and a few are even thirteen—and gigantic. It’s hard enough for a shrimp like Riley to fit in. He just doesn’t want to be the weak link as his bunk competes for the Camp Olympia Trophy.
Riley knows he’s no good at strength and accuracy games like basketball and softball. But when it comes to speed...

In this key civil rights and social justice book for young readers, Scipio Africanus Jones—a self-taught attorney who was born enslaved—leads a momentous series of court cases to save twelve Black men who'd been unjustly sentenced to death.
In October 1919, a group of Black sharecroppers met at a church in an Arkansas village to organize a union. Bullets rained down on the meeting from outside. Many were killed by a white mob,...

Demonstrating the power of protest and standing up for a just cause, here is an exciting tribute to the educators who participated in the 1965 Selma Teachers' March.Reverend F.D. Reese was a leader of the Voting Rights Movement in Selma, Alabama. As a teacher and principal, he recognized that his colleagues were viewed with great respect in the city. Could he convince them to risk their jobs—and perhaps their lives—by organizing a teachers-only

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