Are you interested in reading some fiction centered around sports? The following books all have teenage main characters playing sports and learning about life.
All the Things We Never Knew(Young Adult Fiction - Y Tamani)
Carli and Rex have an immediate connection, an understanding that must mean first love, but family secrets, disappointments—and basketball, which holds center stage in both their lives.
Bruised(Young Adult Fiction - Y Boteju)
Daya Wijesinghe sees a bruise as a mixture of comfort and control, but joining a roller derby team push her toward big truths about love, loss, strength, and healing.
Finding Her Edge(Young Adult Fiction - Y Lacopel)
Follows elite ice dancer Adriana Russo as she finds herself drawn to both her old dance partner and her new one.
Furia(Young Adult Fiction - Y Mendez)
Camila Hassan, a rising soccer star in Rosario, Argentina, dreams of playing professionally, in defiance of her fathers' wishes and at the risk of her budding romance with Diego.
Game On: 15 Stories of Wins, Losses, and Everything in Between(Young Adult Fiction - Y Game)
A charming and inclusive YA anthology all about games—from athletic sports to board games to virtual reality.
Gravity(Young Adult Fiction - Y Deming)
Gravity Delgado has been breaking records and competitors since she started boxing with a legendary coach at age twelve, and now will reach the Olympics if her home life and romance do not distract her.
Harley in the Sky(Young Adult Fiction - Y Bowman)
Harley, dreams of quitting school to join her parents' Las Vegas circus and when they refuse, she joins a rival circus where she must learn hard truths and face consequences.
A Heart in a Body in the World (Young Adult Fiction - Y Caletti)
Followed by Grandpa Ed in his RV and backed by her brother and friends, Annabelle, eighteen, runs from Seattle to Washington, D.C., becoming a reluctant activist as people connect her journey to her recent trauma.
Here to Stay(Young Adult Fiction - Y Farizan)
What happens when Bijan Majidi who’s flown under the radar for most of high school gets pulled off the bench to make the winning basket in a varsity playoff game? Life is suddenly high fives in the hallways and invitations to exclusive parties—along with an anonymous photo that makes Bijan look like a terrorist. Lots of classmates rally around Bijan. But it’s not always easy to tell your enemies from your friends.
Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute(Young Adult Fiction - Y Hibbert)
Bradley is pretty much perfect: he's a star football player, manages his OCD, and comes out on top in all his classes, except the ones he shares with Celine. These days, there's nothing between them but insults and academic rivalry. So when Celine signs up for a two-part survival course in the woods, the last thing she expects is to find Brad right beside her.
Icebreaker(Young Adult Fiction - Y Graziad)
Mickey James III is following in his father's skates by playing hockey at Hartland University, but he is not enjoying the situation: for one thing he is seriously depressed, unsure of anything, even whether he can make it as a hockey player (or wants to); more troubling his rival, Jaysen Caulfield, is also on the team and seems to bitterly resent him.
Kneel(Young Adult Fiction - Y Buford)
When his best friend is unfairly arrested and kicked off the team, Russell Boudreaux kneels during the national anthem in an effort to fight for justice and, in an instant, falls from local stardom to become a target of hatred.
The Knockout(Young Adult Fiction - Y Patel)
When Kareena Thakkar finally admits she is a top-level Muay Thai fighter, knowing that might further alienate her from her Indian community, her classmates, especially handsome Amit, enthusiastically support her.
The Other Side of Perfect(Young Adult Fiction - Y Turk)
A terrifying fall shatters Alina Keeler's leg—and her dreams of a professional ballet career along with it. After a summer healing, she's forced to trade her pre-professional dance classes for normal high school, where she reluctantly joins the school musical.
Rez Ball(Young Adult Fiction - Y Graves)
These days, Tre Brun is happiest when he is playing basketball on the Red Lake Reservation high school team. When his brother's former teammates offer to take Tre under their wing, he sees this as his shot to represent his Ojibwe rez all the way to their first state championship.
Running Full Tilt(Young Adult Fiction - Y Currind)
16-year-old Leo Coughlin's life is increasingly stressful because his autistic older brother Caleb's behavior is becoming more bizarre and even violent, and their parents' marriage is falling apart—but Leo finds an escape in long distance running, and in two new friends: Curtis, himself a potential state champion who teaches him the strategy of running, and Mary, his would-be girlfriend.
She Drives Me Crazy(Young Adult Fiction - Y Quindle)
After an embarrassing loss to her ex-girlfriend in their first basketball game of the season, Scottie gets into a fender bender with her nemesis, Irene, head cheerleader for the Fighting Reindeer. When the accident sends Irene's car to the shop for repairs, the girls are forced to carpool, and their rocky start only gets worse.
Sidelined(Young Adult Fiction - Y Bietz)
High school seniors Julian Jackson and Elijah Vance reconnect on the football field after three years apart, learning to both trust and love each other again.
They'll Never Catch Us(Young Adult Fiction - Y Goodman)
Sisters Stella and Ellie Steckler are both determined to win a scholarship and escape their stifling small town, but their plans are upset when a new girl joins the cross country team and then disappears.
Undefeated: Jim Thorpe and the Carlisle Indian School Football Team(Juvenile Nonfiction - J 796.332 Sheinkin)
A great American sport and Native American history come together in this true story of how Jim Thorpe and Pop Warner created the legendary Carlisle Indians football team.
We Are The Wildcats(Young Adult Fiction - Y Vivian)
After enduring a week of punishing try-outs and making the cut for the girls varsity field hockey team, new players must participate in a night of questionable bonding traditions and loyalty tests, orchestrated by the most senior girls on the squad and performed with the implicit permission of their seemingly all-American young male coach.
When It All Syncs Up(Young Adult Fiction - Y Ameyaw)
Ballet is Aisha's life. So when she's denied yet another lead at her elite academy because she doesn't "look" the part, she knows something has to change-the constant discrimination is harming her mental health. Aisha will have to find the strength within herself—and place her trust in others—to make her next move.
Why We Fly(Young Adult Fiction - Y Jones)
Told from alternating points of view, Chanel and Eleanor's rocky start to senior year gets more complex when the cheerleading team kneels for the national anthem and each girl grapples with the consequences.
You Don't Have a Shot(Young Adult Fiction - Y Marie)
Valentina jeopardizes her future when she gets into an altercation with her rival, Leticia, during a soccer game, so the two girls must co-captain a soccer team to redeem themselves and what starts as a shaky alliance of necessity blossoms into something more.
Graphic Novels
Andre the Giant: Life and Legend(Graphic Novels - GN 796.81292 Andre Bro)
Drawing from historical records about Andre's life, as well as a wealth of anecdotes from his colleagues in the wrestling world and his film co-stars, Brown has created in Andre the Giant, the first substantive biography of one of the 20th century's most recognizable figures.
The Avant-Guards, Vol. 1(Graphic Novels - GN Avant Guards v. 1)
As a transfer student to the Georgia O'Keeffe College for Arts and Subtle Dramatics, former sports star Charlie is struggling to find her classes, her dorm, and her place amongst a student body full of artists who seem to know exactly where they're going.
Cheer Up!: Love and Pompoms(Graphic Novels - GN Frasier Cheer Up)
Annie is under pressure to join the cheerleader squad to make friends and round out her college applications. Her former friend BeBe is a people-pleaser, a trans girl who must keep her parents happy with her grades and social life in order to maintain their support of her transition. The two girls rekindle a friendship they thought they'd lost and discover there may be other, sweeter feelings springing up between them.
The Crossover(Graphic Novels - GN Alexand Crossover)
Twin basketball stars Josh and Jordan wrestle with highs and lows on and off the court as their father ignores his declining health.
Dragon Hoops(Graphic Novels - GN 741.5092 Yang Yan)
Gene understands stories—comic book stories, in particular. Big action. Bigger thrills. And the hero always wins. But Gene doesn't get sports. As a kid, his friends called him "Stick" and every basketball game he played ended in pain. He lost interest in basketball long ago, but at the high school where he now teaches, it's all anyone can talk about.
Fence Volume 1(Graphic Novels - GN Fence v. 1)
Nicholas, the illegitimate son of a retired fencing champion, is a scrappy fencing wunderkind, and dreams of getting the chance and the training to actually compete. After getting accepted to the prodigious Kings Row private school, Nicholas is thrust into a cut-throat world, and finds himself facing not only his golden-boy half-brother, but the unbeatable, mysterious Seiji Katayama...
Slam! Volume One(Graphic Novels - GN Slam v. 1)
In the fast-paced, hard-hitting, super cheeky, all-female world of banked track roller derby, two young women will have to decide if their budding friendship is stronger than the pull of a team when a win is on the line.