Foul

November 15, 2011
Grades 5-8 In what might be the strongest entry yet in the Night Fall collectionshort horror novels all set in the fictional town of Bridgewater16-year-old Rhino is a seven-foot-tall basketball star with limitless potential. Except for one problem: he can't hit free throws. This deficiency could muck up his college chances, but that becomes the least of his worries when he finds in his locker some written free-throw adviceattached to a severed finger. Soon the threat is verbalized: If you don't start making your free throws, people are going to get hurt. Suspects are everywhere, from his jealous teammate to his adopted parents to a college recruiter to his real father, a murderer who has just escaped from prison. With a strong grasp of sports action, Hoblin not only keep things speedy enough for reluctant readers but unbearably tense, toorarely have potential game-winning free throws had such high stakes attached to them (or detached as the case may be).(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)