• Cover Photo
  • Final Cut, The
  • The All-Star Sports Story Series
  • Written by Fred Bowen
  • Age 8-12
  • Add Format to Cart
  • Paperback: $5.95
  • ISBN: 978-1-56145-510-2
  • Total Pages: 103
  • Size: 5 1/2 x 7 1/2
  • Language: English
  • Rights: World
  • Status: active
  • eBook Available
  • Add to Cart
  • Excerpt
  • Back to Catalog
  • Leveling Information
  • Accelerated Reader
  • AR Quiz#: 29424
  • AR Reading Level: 4.3
  • AR Points: 2
  • F&P (Fountas & Pinnell)
  • F&P Level: Q
  • F&P Grade: 4
  • Reading Counts
  • Reading Counts Level: 4.5
  • Reading Counts Points: 5
  • Reading Counts Interest Level: 3-5
  • Additional Info
  • Color Info: black & white illustrations
  • Categories
  • Fiction
  • Middle Reader
  • Sports

Final Cut, The


Four friends who share a love of basketball have to go through tryouts for the school team. But will they all make the team?

Ryan, Zeke, Eli, and Miles are four close friends who share a love of sports, especially basketball. When it's time for basketball team tryouts, they spend hours practicing together, compete in a local 3-on-3 tournament, and carefully compute their chances of making the team.

The tryouts are a test not only of their athletic skills, but of their friendship as well. In the end, each boy learns how to cope with winning and losing (both on and off the court), the value of practice and competition, and the true meaning of friendship.

As with the previous titles in this acclaimed series, author Fred Bowen offers up another winning combination of fast-paced sports action and off-the-court drama. In the sports history epilogue, readers learn about other famous players, like Michael Jordan, who didn't make their high school basketball teams the first time around.

Author & Illustrator


Author Photo

Fred Bowen is the author of Peachtree’s popular Fred Bowen Sports Story and All-Star Sport Story series. A lifelong sports fanatic, he has coached youth league baseball, basketball, and soccer. His kids’ sports column “The Score” appears each week in the KidsPost section of the Washington Post. Bowen lives in Maryland.

You can visit Fred Bowen’s website here.


Reviews


“Any youngster who has been involved in this kind of situation will identify with the characters' obsessive interest in evaluating the competition and enhancing their own chances of making the team. For better or worse, the self-image of adolescent boys is often closely tied to their success in sports and one of the strengths of the book is the openness with which Bowen examines this issue. There is a particularly moving passage in which the protagonist's stepfather recounts his experience in being cut from a school team in a manner that makes it clear that the incident still bothers him.... the novel is briskly paced and would be a good bet for use with sports-minded reluctant readers.” ―School Library Journal

“If you are a sports fan or just love sports books, you should check out the new AllStar SportStory series by Fred Bowen.... Bowen is a natural when it comes to writing sports stories and informing his readers about the past. These books are perfect for kids ages 8 to 12.” ―Newsday

“[Bowen's] pace is excellent and he has a knack for efficient evocation....” ―Washington Post