Deadly Drive

May 1, 2005
Gr 6-8 -Casey Wilde gets an envelope with cash every year around the time her mother was killed by a hit-and-run driver. The teen and her father have spent the last nine years trying to understand who is sending the money and why. As Casey turns 15, she gets a new neighbor, Autumn, who wants her to join her AAU basketball team. She also meets a man named Rex who seems helpful, but is he? Unfortunately, by the time the mystery is solved, readers won't care. The pacing of the book is odd and segues unconvincingly from basketball to the mystery to other plot threads. The writing is geared to a low reading level, but there is little in the way of suspense or action to entice reluctant readers. The basketball scenes are unconvincing, and anyone familiar with AAU ball will find the player rotation and games unrealistic. With two main plots that don't generate excitement, this will be a hard book to sell." -Amy Patrick, New York Public Library"

Copyright 2005 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2005
Gr. 4-6. In classic sports-story fashion, Patneaude tucks subplots involving friendship issues and family tragedy around plenty of high-velocity basketball action. Nine years after her mother's death in a car accident, Casey is still recovering from her own injuries, but has blossomed into a star athlete while continuing to nurse revenge fantasies against the never-identified motorist. Fresh challenges arrive: Casey's best buddy, Lisa, turns standoffish even as a new friend nets Casey a tryout with a Seattle AAU team primed to go for the state championship. Readers will be pulled into the old mystery when new hints surface that someone close to Casey has been keeping secrets, but it's the hard-fought, well-described games, founded on clear demonstrations of the value of practice and teamwork, that will be the strongest draw.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)