Batter up for a novel steeped in the lore and mythology of baseball. A retired baseball scout makes one final discovery that could change everyone's life. The story of an unlikely kinship and even more unlikely success.

Travis Gardner lives to play quarterback. He's a standout QB by middle school, and he's prepared to put everything he has into the game. Then Gainesville University's head coach makes Travis a promise: Travis will have a place on the team, and a scholarship to go with it. He just has to get through high school first. As Travis starts ninth grade, he'll have to earn his teammates' trust and dodge opponents aiming to sack the star quarterback. But his biggest challenge might be staying focused in the face of sudden fame. Because now the pressure is on, and Travis has to prove himself with every pass. "Travis' love for the game . . . seems absolutely authentic. This engaging read will resonate with middle schoolers, especially aspiring athletes."—Booklist

Nick Cosimo eats, breathes, and lives baseball. He's a place-hitting catcher with a cannon for an arm and a calculator for a brain. Thanks to his keen eye, Nick is able to pick apart his opponents, taking advantage of their weaknesses. His teammates and coaches rely on his good instincts between the white lines. But when Nick spots a scout in the stands, everything changes. Will Nick alter his game plan to impress the scout enough to get drafted? Or will Nick put the team before himself?

The #1 Bestseller! Twelve-year-old Danny Walker may be the smallest kid on the basketball court -- but don't tell him that. Because no one plays with more heart or court sense. But none of that matters when he is cut from his local travel team, the very same team his father led to national prominence as a boy. Danny's father, still smarting from his own troubles, knows Danny isn't the only kid who was cut for the wrong reason, and together, this washed-up former player and a bunch of never-say-die kids prove that the heart simply cannot be measured. For fans of The Bad News Bears, Hoosiers, the Mighty Ducks, and Mike Lupica's other New York Times bestselling novels Heat, The Underdogs, and Million-Dollar Throw, here is a book that proves that when the game knocks you down, champions stand tall.

In a series of probing analytical essays, John Marot tracks the development of Bolshevism through the prism of pre-1917 intra-Russian Social Democratic controversies in politics and philosophy. For 1917, the author presents a critique of social historical interpretation of the Russian Revolution. Turning to NEP Russia, the author applies Robert Brenner's analysis of pre-capitalist modes of production and concludes that neither Bukharin nor Trotsky's NEP-premised programs of economic transformation and advance toward socialism were feasible. At the same time, he rejects the view that Stalinism was pre-destined to supplant NEP. Instead, he hypothesises that the superior alternative to Stalinism was NEP without collectivization and the Five-Year Plans — a outcome that would have been possible had Bukharin and Trotsky joined forces to stop Stalin.

The Prospect of Global History offers a new approach to the study of history, looking at the subject across a greater chronological range and seeking perspectives from sources beyond conventional European narratives.

"Based on journals written in 1991 and 1992, Prospect contains Anne Truitt's luminous reflections on her rich, full life as an artist, mother, grandmother, and teacher. Preparing to confront the unpredictable twilight of life, Truitt charts her fears and triumphs, joys and sadness, her most poignant memories of the past and clearest visions for the future." "In the year of her seventieth birthday, events converge that force Truitt to reevaluate her life. She requests of and receives from her New York gallery a major retrospective of her thirty years of painting and sculpture, thus throwing her work into the public eye. Simultaneously, she is forcibly retired from the tenured position at the University of Maryland, which had granted her professional and financial security. In her introduction Truitt notes, "writing became in the course of the year a relentless exposure of myself to myself." Keenly observant, she faces her own vulnerability and draws knowledge and insight from sources as varied as Cicero, the Antarctic explorers, and her own travels in the Canadian wilderness." "Preparing for the New York retrospective and successive exhibits, Truitt remembers her inspirations, reflects on the development of her artistic methods and goals, and, above all, considers the meaning of both art and an artist's life. At the same time, she records the delights and tragedies that accompany a family's growth. For Truitt, art and life are inexorably joined, and her narrative sings with the colors and surfaces of her celebrated sculpture."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved