Ultimate Sports: Short Stories by Outstanding Writers for Young Adults »

A knockout collection of 16 original stories featuring young adults playing basketball and football, running track and cross-country, and training for the triathlon. Challenges abound in water sports, racquetball and tennis, boxing and wrestling, and the "ultimate" sport of the future.

The ALAN Review

Finding good sport stories for adolescents is not easy, so this collection is a valuable addition to any library. Don Gallo has put together sixteen stories by such writers as Robert Lipsyte, Norma Fox Mazer, Harry Mazer, and others that offer young readers a smorgasbord of sports: wrestling, basketball, cross country, swimming, boxing, diving, sailing, fishing, and one yet to be played. All of the stories were written specifically for this collection. Six have females as central characters. Each story runs about twenty pages and emphasizes less the actual sport and more the emotions and motivations of the characters engaged in meeting both the internal and external challenges presented by athletics. The collection should appeal to both male and female readers, junior high and beyond.