While the content and design will make these titles hard to resist, the stories themselves don't stand out. In Paintball, opposite-in-personality identical twins Peter and Noah are pitted against one another to make the team. Their competition-obsessed father encourages his sons to battle it out. When the tryout begins, the brothers quickly realize that they'd much rather work together. In Skateboard Sonar, Matty is blind but an excellent skateboarder nonetheless, with the confidence to match. When he and his friend Ty enter the local skating competition, Matty is bullied for his disability. This conflict reaches its climax at the competition, where the protagonist beats his tormentors. In both books, the dialogue comes across as inauthentic at times. Designed as though readers were watching sports on television, the books begin with ESPN-like graphics introducing the characters, depicted in stylized, manga-inspired artwork. There's even a ticker across the bottom, foreshadowing the story to come. Sure to fly off shelves, but more for style than for memorable storytelling. * School Library Journal *
Point Blank Paintball is a graphic novel. Twins Peter and Noah like to play paintball and work together, but get a chance to try out for one spot on an elite paint ball team. Their father is very competitive (no doubt a result of looking like an evil overlord, see top left hand cover!) and wants to see which boy comes out on top, but the two decide that being on the team is not worth crushing each other. Don't have much interest in paint ball here, but this was fun and the format is worth looking into for other titles. http://msyinglingreads.blogspot.com/2010/01/capstone-press-bonanza.html * Ms. Yingling Reads Blog *
Ok, let me start out by announcing that I am NOT a sports fan. I'm not into sports...not a sports person whatsoever. You may have guessed this by the fact that I run a network of nerdy websites. I mean, I review books....what'd you seriously expect, right? Here is the thing with these releases from Capstone Kids [Stone Arch Books]....they rock, plain and simple. Why? Read on.... I gave this stack of books from Capstone and Sports Illustrated Kids to my own children and they went nuts! They too aren't into sports, but these aren't books for jocks. These are extreme sports and the focus is really on the characters and story. The sports hobbies are really just a backdrop. They're fun and interesting and not at all geared just towards jocky kids. We wanted to feature this series and bring them to your attention, whether you're a librarian, teacher or a parent, these titles should be in your possession! They can be purchased in hardback library binding or softcover. http://booklegiondotcom.blogspot.com/2010/02/sports-illustrated-kids-book-series.html * Book Legion *
