Toby Wheeler (17 page)

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to the following people: Jodi, Elizabeth, Beverly, Vikki, Barbara, Maria, Ericka, Marissa, Joe, Victoria, Scott, and Chelsea.

About the Author

Thatcher Heldring grew up in the Pacific Northwest, where he taught himself to write and play basketball—though not at the same time. After college, he moved to New York City, where he played softball during the summers and indoor soccer year-round. In his spare time, he held down several jobs in book publishing. He has also worked as a grocery bagger, a ditchdigger, a shortstop, a small forward, a goalie, a scorekeeper, a coach, a rabid fan, and a benchwarmer. He and his wife, Staci, live in Seattle, a good place for indoor sports.

Thatcher Heldring’s short story “A Genius for Sauntering” appeared in the young adult anthology
Not Like I’m Jealous or Anything: The Jealousy Book,
edited by Marissa Walsh and published by Delacorte Press.
Toby Wheeler: Eighth-Grade Benchwarmer
is his first novel. Visit him online at
www.thatchertheauthor.com
.

Published by Delacorte Press an imprint of Random House Children’s Books a division of Random House, Inc. New York

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Text copyright © 2007 by Thatcher Heldring

All rights reserved.

Delacorte Press and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

www.randomhouse.com/kids

Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools,
visit us at
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Heldring, Thatcher.

Toby Wheeler, eighth-grade benchwarmer / Thatcher Heldring.—1st ed.

p. cm.

Summary: When Toby finally decides to join the middle school basketball team, he does not anticipate the changes that will occur in his relationship with his best friend JJ, who is the team’s star player, as well as in other areas of his life.

[1. Basketball—Fiction. 2. Friendship—Fiction. 3. Interpersonal relations—Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.H3734To 2007

[Fic]—dc22

2006036824

eISBN: 978-0-375-89056-7

v3.0