Suitcase by Mildred Pitts Walter Date of Publication: 1999 ISBN: 0380732106 Number of Pages: 107

REQUIRED READING ABILITY: Junior: Low/Average Intermediate: Low
GENRES: Realism
THEMES : Family - Appearance versus Reality – Isolation - Prejudice

SUMMARY:
Xander is eleven years old, and over six feet tall. Everyone assumes that he will be good at basketball, or at least some sport, especially his father. Xander, on the other hand, hates sports because he feels he is no good at them. What Xander really wants to do is draw. It’s the one thing that he feels good at. The other kids in his class, and his own family, tease him about his art, and the fact he is so big. One day, however, his dad takes him to a leisure basketball practice where he meets Jeff, a coach who actually starts to convince him that he just might be okay at some sport after all.

After working with Jeff, Xander’s confidence and athleticism grow. He still loves to draw, but begins to understand that perhaps he can do more than one thing. Now he just needs to convince his father…

WHO WOULD LOVE THIS BOOK? A kid who...
- likes sports
- knows what it feels like to be the "last kid picked"
- likes art
- is torn between two passions
- feels the pressure to live up to a parent’s expectations

RELATED LINKS:
There are a number of related resources for this book at http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/walter.htm and you can learn about the author’s biography at http://www.eduplace.com/kids/hmr/mtai/walter.html .