Gerald gets serious about teaching Piggie to throw a ball, but Piggie, as usual, just wants to have fun.

Watch Me Throw the Ball!

Twelve-year-old Simon Rosen has qualified for the Canadian Video Game Championships in Vancouver. If he can get straight A’s in school, his parents have agreed to take him. The stakes are especially high: his parents are always fighting, and if he can just get them to Vancouver—the place where they fell in love—maybe he can save his family from the brink of divorce.

Just Watch Me!

A brilliant, entertaining deconstruction of basketball, drawing on the expertise of board-game creators, magicians, therapists, and more Basketball is the second-most popular sport in the world—an insanely complicated game built on a combination of athleticism, craftiness, rules, intangibles, and superstardom. However, while it’s enjoyable to watch, the real reason it works is because it’s a game of culture, art, and all the things that make us human. How to Watch Basketball Like a Genius deconstructs the sport from top to bottom and then puts it back together again, detailing its intricacies through reporting and dozens of interviews with experts. These experts, however, are a diverse group: wine critics weighing in on LeBron’s ability to delegate on the fly, magicians analyzing Chris Paul’s mystifying dribbling techniques, cartographers breaking down Steph Curry’s deadeye three-point shooting. Every chapter treats basketball to a multi-disciplined study that adventures far beyond the lines of the court, examining key elements of the sport from some surprising and revealing angles. There’s a reason it has conquered the world, and every game is a chance to learn about pop culture, fashion, history, science, art, and anything else that bounces our way.

How to Watch Basketball Like a Genius

Narrates the belief in alien visitors to the earth since the 1940s, when their spacecraft began to be described consistently as saucer shaped. Discusses the various divisions and feuds within the movement, its evolution through the decades, and its relation to believers' beliefs about the government, military, and other aspects of society. A debunking rather than a sociological study. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Watch the Skies!

Jessie is a little girl learning the skills she needs to play baseball with the help of her dad. First, she learns how to throw. Next, she learns how to catch-which can be scary when a fastball flies right at her face. Finally, she learns how to hit the ball, all with the guidance of her father, who encourages and simplifies. Throw, Catch, Hit captures the terminology, techniques, and feelings of excitement every first time athlete finds. With the help of Jessie's story, other young ball players will be introduced to techniques of the sport and be inspired to go out and play. Jessie's father is a constant guide as she learns-and also loves-baseball, showcasing how the bond between parent and child is enhanced through sports. Jessie learns more than just technique, though. She learns that it's not about how far she can throw or how well she catches and hits. It's all about the fun in trying a new sport and learning new things.

Throw, Catch, Hit!

Born to Ball