UNBEATABLE TEAM--MAYBE. UNBEATABLE READING--FOR SURE! The first novel in Betty Hick's Gym Shorts series is a slam-dunk for newly-independent readers.

Henry and his friends on Rockford Road are a basketball team unstoppable on their driveway court. But without team t-shirts or an official name can they take on The Tigers, a team that plays at the huge YWCA and has a player old enough to shave? Young readers will cheer as The Bats take on a name and stick together to beat the odds.

Basketball Bats is a 2009 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.