Centerville

Rud, Jeff. Centerville

Published April 12th 2016 by Orca Book Publishers

Library Copy

Jake is a good basketball player, but not getting the attention he needs for college scholarships in his small town. When a scout from the prestigious Centerville Prep recruits him, his parents are glad to pay the $11,000 tuition to have him go to a private school, live in nice dorms, and have a better chance at being recruited. He flies to the town where the school is, but no one is there to meet him. He has to take a bus, and the coach meets him and drops him off at a decrepit house where some of his new teammates seem to be living. There isn't much food, but the coach drops off cheap, carb heavy groceries the next morning. Jake isn't too thrilled with the classes, either, but the boys are allowed to end their day early so they can practice basketball. Some of the boys have been with Coach Stone for a while, and acknowledge that he lied about the facilities. Instead of having a dedicated campus, the coach makes deals with local schools to "host" his basketball program. Since he's a senior and needs a certain number of credits to graduate, Jake hunts down a guidance counselor and adds two classes, but the coach isn't happy that they run into practice. The basketball is great, but the players often make the coach angry, and he retaliates by cutting their playing time. Another player, Billy, is short a couple of credits and isn't going to graduate, and his parents paid even more tuition. When he takes some desperate action, Jake knows he needs to talk to the board of education representative he met on the plane, who has been e mailing him about Centerville Prep. Will Jake be able to still make his basketball dreams come true?
Strengths: This was just weirdly fun, and I think will be very appealing to my reluctant 8th grade readers. The dreams of making it big in basketball, living unsupervised in a house with other players, and a lot of descriptions of what happens on the court all merge into an intriguing tale. There's even some quickly resolved trauma with Billy. This is a short book, but brilliantly sneaky-- it's 161pages, but only 4 Accelerated Reader points (Wimpy Kid books are 3), because the Orca sports books are 7"x 4 and 1/4". I also enjoyed Rud's Paralyzed and In the Paint.
Weaknesses: This might seem impossible that a sports school would get away with charging high tuition and mistreating players, but there was an incident in Columbus not too long ago where there was a very similiar school! I never followed up with what happened to Bishop Sycamore, but it certainly made the news! (And even the name reeked of something made up.)
What I really think: Glad I purchased them. These would be great for classroom libraries, because they are available in paperback. I splurge and get the prebinds.