Long Shot - Mike Lupica [0]
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Acknowledgements
ONE
TWO
THREE
FOUR
FIVE
SIX
SEVEN
EIGHT
NINE
TEN
ELEVEN
TWELVE
THIRTEEN
FOURTEEN
FIFTEEN
SIXTEEN
SEVENTEEN
EIGHTEEN
NINETEEN
TWENTY
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Also by Mike Lupica
Comeback Kids novels:
Hot Hand
Two-Minute Drill
Safe at Home
•
Travel Team
Heat
Miracle on 49th Street
Summer Ball
The Big Field
PHILOMEL BOOKS
A division of Penguin Young Readers Group.
Published by The Penguin Group.
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This book is published in partnership with Walden Media, LLC. Walden Media and the Walden Media skipping stone logo are trademarks and registered trademarks of Walden Media, LLC, 294 Washington Street, Boston, MA 02108.
Copyright © 2008 by Mike Lupica.
All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, Philomel Books, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014. Philomel Books, Reg. U.S. Pat. & Tm. Off. The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party web-sites or their content.
Published simultaneously in Canada.
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Text set in Bookman.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lupica, Mike. Long shot / Mike Lupica. p. cm. “A Comeback Kids novel.” Summary: Pedro, an avid basketball player, decides to run for class president, challenging a teammate who is also one of the most popular boys in school. [1. Competition (Psychology)—Fiction. 2. Basketball—Fiction. 3. Self-confidence—Fiction. 4. Schools—Fiction. 5. Mexican Americans—Fiction.] I. Title. PZ7.L97914Lo 2008 [Fic]—dc22 2008001385
eISBN : 978-0-399-24717-0
http://us.penguingroup.com
Once more for Taylor and our four children:
Christopher, Alex, Zach and Hannah. They
make me look for the best in these stories, the
best in sports, the best in myself.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
For my friend Luis Alberto Lopez,
from Quetzaltenango, Guatemala.
His restaurant is known as Chef Luis.
His spirit infuses the pages of this book.
ONE
Pedro Morales loved playing basketball with Ned Hancock.
It didn’t make Pedro different from any other sixth-grade basketball player at Vernon Middle School. Or in the whole town of Vernon for that matter. Ned made everybody around him better, every time he stepped on a court, whether it was for a real game or just scrimmaging.
But the thing Pedro liked best about playing with Ned is that Ned made him better.
Made him want to keep getting better at basketball.
And that meant every time Pedro stepped on a court.
Ned was doing that for him now, in the pickup game they were playing in the gym at the middle school. Which in their town, because the school district was so big, was for sixth-graders