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Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Free Throws Hardcover – September 1, 2004

by Janette Rallison (Author)
4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 75 ratings
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Josie loves hottie Ethan Lancaster, the captain of the basketball team, but she never can do or say the right thing in front of him. So how can it be fair that Ethan is only interested in her best friend, Cami, when Cami isn't even trying for his affection? Or is she?

Cami dreams of winning her basketball team's coveted MVP award, and earning the chance to take the court during a special halftime demonstration with WNBA star Rebecca Lobo, but her best friend, Josie, is a better player. So how can it be fair that Josie is a shoo-in for the honor if she is barely interested in basketball in the first place and isn't even trying to be the best? Or is she?

Told from two points of view, this novel of freshman life, love, and the pursuit of free throws displays the same delightful humor as Playing the Field and All's Fair in Love, War, and High School.

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Previous page
  1. Reading age
    12 - 15 years
  2. Print length
    176 pages
  3. Language
    English
  4. Grade level
    7 - 9
  5. Dimensions
    5.7 x 0.89 x 8.58 inches
  6. Publisher
    Walker Childrens
  7. Publication date
    September 1, 2004
  8. ISBN-10
    0802789277
  9. ISBN-13
    978-0802789273
  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 6-9–Cami, 14, only has one thing on her mind–to become the MVP of her basketball team, giving her the opportunity to run drills with Rebecca Lobo, former star of the WNBA. But no matter how hard she tries, her best friend is better. For Josie, basketball comes naturally, but she is preoccupied with dreamboat Ethan, even though he never pays any attention to her. Friction between the friends arises when Ethan notices and begins to telephone Cami, and Josie feels betrayed and angry. This is a fun, realistic, sometimes poignant story about two teens and the ups and downs of their relationship. Written from their alternating perspectives, this book shows how petty differences can be overcome.–Sharon Morrison, Southeastern Oklahoma State University, Durant, OK
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 4-7. High-school freshmen Josie and Cami are longtime best friends, but they are both vying for love and fame. They both like Ethan, but Josie liked him first, so when he starts flirting with Cami, Cami feels guilty flirting back (but does it anyway). Both girls play basketball, but Josie is a natural talent, while Cami works twice as hard and still blows her free throws. Their basketball team's MVP will get a chance to play with WNBA star Rebecca Lobo at an upcoming game, and both girls are in the running for the honor. This is light entertainment, short on characterization but full of myriad awkward moments in romance. Told in alternating narratives from Josie and Cami, this novel captures the tension of a best friendship gone sour from jealousy, and provides a believable happy ending that will please middle-school girls. Debbie Carton
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Walker Childrens; Original edition (September 1, 2004)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 176 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0802789277
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0802789273
  • Reading age ‏ : ‎ 12 - 15 years
  • Grade level ‏ : ‎ 7 - 9
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 13.6 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.7 x 0.89 x 8.58 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 75 ratings

About the author

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Janette Rallison

Janette Rallison

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Janette Rallison lives in Arizona with her husband and divides her time between her children, grandchildren, writing, and wandering around the house looking for items she has misplaced. (This is how she gets most of her exercise.) She has two dogs and enough cats to classify her as “an eccentric cat lady.” She did not do this on purpose. Every single one of the felines showed up on its own and refuses to leave.

Since Janette has five children and deadlines to write books, she doesn’t have much time left over for hobbies. But since this is the internet and you can’t actually check to see if anything on this site is true, let’s just say she enjoys dancing, scuba diving, horseback riding, and long talks with Chris Hemsworth. (Well, I never said he answers back.). Books by Janette (and her pen names CJ Hill and Sierra St. James) include

My Fair Lacey

How I Met Your Brother

The Cowboy and the Girl Next Door

An Unexpected Boyfriend for Christmas

Covert Kisses

What the Doctor Ordered

Her Ex-crush Bodyguard

A Longtime (and at one point Illegal) Crush

Son of War, Daughter of Chaos

Blue Eyes and Other Teenage Hazards

All's Fair in Love, War, and High School

Revenge of the Cheerleaders

Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Free Throws

Fame, Glory, and Other Things on My To-Do List

It's a Mall World After All

How to Take the Ex Out of Ex-Boyfriend

My Fair Godmother

My Unfair Godmother

My Fairly Dangerous Godmother

Just One Wish

My Double Life

The Girl Who Heard Demons

The Wrong Side of Magic

Playing the Field

As C. J. Hill[

Slayers

Friends and Traitors

Slayers: Playing with Fire

Slayers: The Dragon Lords

Slayers: Into the Firestorm

Erasing Time

Echo in Time

As Sierra St. James

Trial of the Heart

What the Doctor Ordered

Customer reviews

4.2 out of 5 stars
4.2 out of 5
75 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

RRR
5.0 out of 5 stars Exploring Teen Life in a Fun Read
Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2015
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A fun YA book full of realistic characters and events that don't always go as expected. A wonderful tale of friendship, priorities, and pursuing teenage dreams. A delightful, clean read with a wonderful ending.
One person found this helpful
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Lili Lost in a Book
4.0 out of 5 stars Fun read! Also, escalators! Lol
Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2018
Verified Purchase
Life, Love, and the Pursuit of Free Throws was another cute and funny contemporary book by Janette Rallison. At first I was a little worried that this would have TOO much basketball—I don't like sports, like, at all.

So, yeah, I was a little hesitant when I first started this book because of that. But it’s Janette Rallison, so I had to give it a shot! And I really liked it! While basketball was a pretty big part of the story, I didn’t have a hard time following things, which is what I was mostly worried about. I was very glad the focus wasn’t completely on this.

One thing I love most about Janette’s books is all the awkward situations she puts her characters through. I love it! And this book had a lot of that! My favorite was the escalator scene...

---
“Hey this is the up escalator,” one guy told me.
Oh, really? And here I thought someone has installed Stairmaster exercise equipment in the middle of the mall.
---

I just think about it and I start giggling. Babysitting little brothers, trying to impress her crush... sometimes it just doesn’t work out, and the result was hilarious! You guys just have to read it yourself!

Another thing I love about her books are the sweet romances. She is just so good a writing really sweet, clean romances. It’s so cute and I love it!

And I also really liked the characters—the girls and the ups and downs of their friendship, and them making new, unexpected friendships. I really liked the weird science partner Caroline, and also Frederick. They were so funny and I loved them!

This was a very fun read about the ups and downs of friendships and other relationships. It was so good! And very relatable too! I highly recommend Janette Rallison's books!
2 people found this helpful
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Three Wishes
3.0 out of 5 stars Pretty Good
Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2015
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At first I really didn't care for this book at all because of the main character, Cami. She was insecure and jealous of her friend, Josie, for reasons that Josie had absolutely no control over. Josie is pretty, Josie has a bigger family than I do I, Josie is better at basketball than I am....um, I'm sorry but grow up. She was whiny and mean and childish and over all, in my opinion, a really bad friend. Meanwhile Josie could have been a little less obsessed with her crush, Ethan, but was over all a great friend to Cami. So how does Cami repay this friendship? By talking and flirting with Ethan behind Josie's back. Now don't get me wrong, I don't think it was Cami's fault that Ethan 'liked' her, but the fact that she absolutely knew how much of a betrayal that was to Josie, and she still knowingly did it anyway? That was where my big problem came in. A true friend would have let her know about her feelings and what was going on before everything blew up.

Admittedly I figured out what Ethan was up to way early in the game, and I really didn't love the way Josie reacted when she found out that Cami had been spending time talking to Ethan, but it was fine. The second half of this novel was all pretty predictable and everything was wrapped up in a tidy little bow, and hand delivered with a side of new, cute love interest, but it still held my attention and I did like the ending. Aside from the several spelling errors and my extreme dislike for Cami for the first half if the book, I did end up liking it enough that I would try something else from this author.
3 people found this helpful
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Julie Martin Wallace
5.0 out of 5 stars Great story about growing up, BFF's, sports, and boys.
Reviewed in the United States on April 13, 2016
Verified Purchase
This story is about best friends and is written as a duel point of view of Josie and Cami. They both love to play basketball and are competing to meet WNBA star Rebecca Lobo. They also compete over the popular boy Ethan.
This story is right on for what it’s like to be a teenager girl. Maybe things are different these days but for me it echoed my experience growing up with best friends, sports, and boys. It’s written for a younger reader like junior high or freshman age but I still liked it and give it a 5 star review!
2 people found this helpful
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GPReader
4.0 out of 5 stars Girl drama! Lol
Reviewed in the United States on July 24, 2023
Verified Purchase
Although this isn't my favorite of Rallison's books (mostly because I'm far past my teenage years), it's still a good, clean and easy read. It's very YA with lots of teenage girl drama including a bit of a love triangle. But, It has plenty of light and funny moments to balance the drama that is teenagehood. And even though I thought I knew right where the plot was going, I was wrong! So not as predictable as you'd think.
No cussing, drugs, or sex. Good for all ages. Thanks for the clean read Rallison!
One person found this helpful
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Fun Grandma
5.0 out of 5 stars Life as a teenager
Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2014
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This was a cute book. Full of usual teenage angst, jealousy, crushes, friendships, etc. The author did a great job telling a story from both Cami's and Josie's point of view. i love the athletic storyline as well and finding out that it isn't the one who scores the most points In a game that makes a player MVP
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Vicki Firth
5.0 out of 5 stars Fun read!
Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2014
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This was a fun teen read. I think lots of teens would enjoy it. It was written in a way that took me back to my teen years.
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SL K(The Flipped Page)
4.0 out of 5 stars Loved the lessons and love found in this book!
Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2016
Verified Purchase
3.5, but I will round up because I loved the lessons portrayed in the novel.
Romance, YA, clean.
Some youthful situations that are complicated. Trying to be the best you can be, but also looking out for friends, and watching out for a nemesis. The situations were interesting how they resolved and came together. The complications with school, friendship, idols, crushes, adversaries, and school work that came together with a fun conclusion at the end. I loved the romantic interest that was the chess friend's connection! It was such a fun conclusion to the romantic issues. Being kind to others and getting to know them was a great lesson that naturally evolved from a place where frustration and doubt began the situation. Perfect and fun that as they had friendship problems, and they tried to go on with life that these came together to pull them back to each other. Loved it!
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Top reviews from other countries

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Viel-Lese-Maus
5.0 out of 5 stars Fun!!! Komödie für Teenager und Junggebliebene!
Reviewed in Germany on April 1, 2016
Verified Purchase
Josie und Cami sind 13 und beste Freundinnen. Das ändert sich, als beide für Ethan schwärmen ...
Ich bin schon sehr lang kein Teenager mehr, lese aber dennoch die Bücher von Jannette Rallison überaus gerne. Sie hat einen super Schreibstil und viel Humor. Es gibt wenig Autoren, bei denen ich so viel vor mich hinlächle und lache, wenn ich ihre Bücher lese. Zudem gibt es immer noch eine Prise Lebensweisheit, die aber nie gezwungen rüberkommt. Und auch wenn es leichte Kost ist, gibt es immer wieder Wendungen, die man nicht vorraussieht. Es bleibt von vorne bis hinten spannend.
Wer es leicht und locker mag - und nicht in die Tiefe Psyche von Teenagern eintauchen will - ist mit diesem Buch bestens bedient.
Eignend sich auch als Geschenk.
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