Travel Team, by Mike Lupica, will have you experiencing the highest of highs and the lowest of lows in Danny Walker’s basketball life. When a small boy’s love for the game isn’t good enough to make the local travel team that his dad took to the national championship, his dad has to make a team of their own.

 After the tryouts, Danny’s dad Richie thinks of an idea to create a team of all the people that tried out and didn’t make it. After chaotic practices, the the team loses their first games, but gradually become better. When they finally get their first win,Richie, who is the coach of the team, gets in a terrible car accident. The only option the team has is to make Danny the coach. When the team hears about this, Will, Danny’s best friend, tells him, “You are the biggest guy here, I just wanted to say that.”

 My favorite part of the story is right before the Warriors, which is Danny’s team, play a game, Danny tells them, “Let’s win the championship of guys who were told they weren’t good enough.” I think that this story adds suspense and shows the confidence of the team. Without this part of the story, it wouldn’t have shown how much emotion the team had about winning the big game.

 I would advise people who love sports and rooting for the underdog to read this book. It shows that you can do anything you set your mind to, and that a winning attitude really wins! Overall, I would give this book a 8 out of 10.

For me, sight is without a doubt the most important sense. Without sight, there would be no way to look at all of God’s creations. That would definitely be a problem. There would be no finding your open teammate in basketball, or hardly any outdoor activities at all. You could not read either. That would be hard on me because I read a lot.

But, fortunately, I have the ability to see. It helps me look for cars when I walk home from school. Another advantage to having sight is getting to see someone’s facial expressions, whether it be a funny one from your friend, or a sad face from your dog. Sometimes senses are taken for granted, but, I am very thankful for sight, the best sense.

Ice Cream, Ice Cream, cold and sweet,
the greatest thing that you can eat,

with a cookie or just plain,
you know I will eat it just the same,

Vanilla or Sherbet,
never Chocolate,

I ate a whole gallon,
even though my dad just bought it,

Evening,afternoon or day,
ice cream always gets an A,

Goldenbrook or Blue Bell,
ice cream always makes me yell,
Yummy!!!!
By:Wyatt Smith

“That’s wonderful!” I exclaimed  as I tore through my presents. I received a countless number of things I wanted. How was Santa so smart?! I was trying to hide my disappointment, but I guess my dad figured something was wrong. He asked,”What’s wrong buddy?” “Nothing Dad.” Even though I didn’t get everything that I wanted, I still got a a lot of good gifts. A new Colts football and a Colts hoodie were my favorites. My brother and sister were jealous of my collection. My grandmother came over later and got me a Xbox 360 Kinect. I played Madden 12 on it for a while until lunchtime. While I was preparing to go to eat at my other great-grandma’s house, I saw something round and shiny under the couch. I pulled it out and was ecstatic to find that it was a NBA regulation Spalding basketball! As I wondered why it was under the couch, I thought that maybe it was Santa’s surprise.

‘Strike three!’ Yelled the umpire, as the last batter on the Little League baseball team struck out. Oh well, I thought. We were used to it by now. Our team had went 0-15 with one tie. I hadn’t had a bad year myself, but you are what your record says you are. Even though my regular season didn’t turn out great, White Oak All-Stars had a bunch o good players. I was ready to win at least one game, but we did much better than that.
Our first game was against Hallsville.It was a little closer than we would have liked, but a win is a win. We were 1-0 so far, anyway. Next on the list was Longview American, who all of us hated. They had knocked us out the last three years. Revenge time. We beat them behind the great pitching by Justin Benson. Unbelievably we won district with a perfect record; 5-0. We made it to state!
My family was going to go on vacation to Schlitterbaun, but so much for those plans. The tournament was held in Paris,Texas,and the hotel we stayed at the Holliday Inn,was fun. We went swimming in a freezing cold pool and hot tub.My friends and I were up late in the lobby watching TV and playing Texas Hold’em. Our first game was against Cooke County, and we beat them. We also beat Sulphur Springs,Center, and Kilgore.So we’re undefeated,right? Well,all that changed when we got beat by Mount Pleasant. A kid on their team named 12-Gage hit a home-run to tie the game and then we lost. So that’s three teams with one loss. They flipped a coin and Mount Pleasant won,so they got a bye to the championship. We have to play Kilgore now and we run ruled them in 4 innings. In the state championship we were down by two runs in the last inning and came back and won! We got our trophies and had Dr.Pepper so we shook them up and sprayed them everywhere! That’s how we won state.

Basketball is fun,
good for everyone,
post-up fade-away,
will always make the crowd go yay,
when you hear the whistle blow,
it means stop not go,
drinking Gatorade tastes so good,
I drank as much as I could,
1 second left drain a three,
basketball is the only sport for me