My Underrated Year

Roger begins his sophomore year believing it will be his best ever. He is sure to be one of the few undergraduates on the varsity football team, and he is certain to be the number-one tennis player on the team when that season opens. Then a set of twins, Paul and Mary Jo, move into town: Paul is a crushing success on the football team and usurps Roger's place; Mary Jo is a tennis player who trounces Roger's main competitor in a friendly game. Roger is afraid to play her, psyched out by her skill and by his secret crush on her. By the end of this action-packed book, however, Roger has made a place for himself on varsity, and beats Mary Jo on the courts. The most involving aspect of the non-sports scenes can be found in the relationship between Roger and his mother, and her new husband, an older manmany of those scenes are genuinely moving. Despite those, it is easy to sum up Roger's underrated year: between the desire and the achievement fall few shadows and, therefore, almost no suspense. Ages 12-up. (September)