When they suffer a shocking defeat in their season opener, Strike knows that something is off with his game, but the secret hampering his play is too large to reveal. Strike and the Miners are hungrier than ever for a championship after losing yet another Ultrabowl. Win-or-lose turns into life-or-death in this thrilling middle grade adventure tailor-made for sports and sci-fi fans. Read it now so you are ready for the sequel and the next adventures of the Fireball Five.The stakes are extreme in the second book of Jeff Chen’s futuristic, action-packed Ultraball series. ![]() If you are about 10 years old and love jokes about armpits and butts, even better. If you liked Ender's Game as much as you liked Friday Night Lights, you have to read this book. I remember turning to the back of the sports pages in the Toledo Blade ), our local newspaper, as a kid to pore over batting averages, ERA's, and standings to find the story lines that these stats tell. This not only provided a reset and check on where we are in story, but it took me back to my young days as a sportsfan. I am also a big fan of breaking up the narration to read stats and standings. It was easy to buy into because it is comprehensive. And I especially love the totality of the world that Jeff Chen has created. I loved the thematic emphasis on loyalty and teamwork. I love the ambiguity of who is good and who is evil as well as the emotional roller coaster of drama and suspense involved in reading until the very end and discovering the truth. As a high school English teacher, I appreciate the multiple plot twists and turns that kept me engaged. We ended up giving in to his protests more than once to keep reading each night well past his negotiated bedtime!īut the book was fun for me to read as well. The lunar setting captured his imagination which is ravenous for space stories, and the exciting plot kept the pages turning. He was howling with laughter and literally slapping the bed because of the dialogue (the brothers-Pickaxe and Nugget- in particular struck his funny bone). ![]() We are in the habit of reading to our 6 year old before bed, and he loved listening to this one. As a huge fan of Harry Potter, the Hunger Games, Ender's Game, The Martian, and many other YA books, I can say that there’s something to like for all YA fiction fans here. This looks to be the first book in a series, and I'm eagerly waiting for the next installment. The characters are well developed and very funny, with lots of middle school humor sprinkled throughout. The story moves quickly, taking several unexpected twists and turns, and you constantly find yourself wondering what will happen next, and who you can trust. There is tension from the colonies developing their own personality based on their expertise (mining, energy production, agriculture), and certain colonies growing richer (and more corrupt.) than the others. In the backdrop is a post-apocalyptic story where the earth has been destroyed in a nuclear war, leaving the lunar colonists to their own devices to live sustainably. ![]() Ultraball was a great book! I couldn’t put it down until I read it cover to cover.Īt its heart, it’s a book about boys (and a mysterious girl) playing football on the moon, including all the crazy plays that you can pull off when you’re in power-assisted robot suits. ![]() The stake of the colony's future is on his shoulders. If Strike can't get his teammates to cooperate and play together, they'll lose more than just the Ultrabowl. When rumors surface of a traitor on the Miners, Strike isn't sure who he can trust. And not all his teammates are happy sharing a field with her. But Boom comes from the Dark Siders, a mass of people who left the United Moon Colonies to live in exile. This year, Strike thinks he's finally found the missing piece to his championship quest: a mysterious girl who could be his new star rocketback. He's the best quarterback in the league, but while Strike's led the Taiko Miners to the Ultrabowl three years in a row, each one has ended in defeat. Strike Sazaki loves defying gravity on the moon in his Ultrabot suit. Perfect for sci-fi and sports fans alike. Here Ultraball is life, and survival is all that matters. Enter the exhilarating game of Ultraball-fly over pass rushers and explode into slingshot zones-through Jeff Chen's dazzling future world on the moon.
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