Losing Is Not an Option » (Reprint)

  Rich Wallace lives in Wayne County, Pennsylvania. He has worked as a sportswriter and news editor, and is now the coordinating editor of Highlights for Children magazine. He coaches his sons' youth sports teams year-round, including soccer, basketball, and track and field.

Ron is watcher, it seems. He watches his pick-up basketball team–five guys trying to fit together on the court. He watches Dawn on the dance floor, and that tiny star tattoo on her shoulder. He watches Darby run, her short legs all sweat and muscle. He watches his friends veer off–and up–into popularity. He watches his dad move in with his grandmother and make do. But he’s more than a watcher: He’s a hustler on the court, a free-thrower, a poet, a poker player, a rule breaker, a loving grandson, a runner, and a ruthless competitor in those eight laps around the track–the 3200 meter. In nine interwoven stories, award-winning author Rich Wallace brings a small-town high school to life through the sharp, spare voice–and the heart-pounding defeats and triumphs–of an athlete.

Publishers Weekly

Not all of these nine linked stories pack the same punch, but together they powerfully render an athlete's coming of age. Wallace (Wrestling Sturbridge) moves from his protagonist's awkward preadolescence to his glory years as a high school track star. Ron's love of sports is a recurring theme, but it does not dominate every selection. More resonant issues center around Ron's relationships: with his distant father, who never comes to his meets, with his high school dropout brother, who gave up on sports, and with a handful of teammates, opponents and girls, who seem beyond his reach. The stories get stronger as the book progresses and as Ron becomes increasingly aware of fractures within his family and of his own frailties. The most insightful and uplifting moment occurs in the final, title story when Ron pushes himself to the limit to win a state track championship. Here the author shifts from first person to third, briefly encapsulating Ron's history-his drives, vulnerabilities and strengths. Readers are asked to read between the lines in a book that is greater-and more powerful-than the sum of its parts. Ages 10-14. (Aug.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.