Phil Bildner

Ethan looks forward to the Thanksgiving Day when he and his friends are finally old enough to play in the annual family football game, but that day arrives full of snow and icy roads.

Shoeless Joe Jackson, said by some to be the greatest baseball player ever, goes into a hitting slump just before he is to start his minor league career, so he asks his friend to make him a special bat to help him hit.

With their fifth grade graduation only weeks away, Rip, Red, and the rest of their classmates must decide if boycotting a test is worth forfeiting their graduation gala and the opportunity to play with Hoops Machine, a Harlem Globetrotters-like team.

"Rip and Red find that fifth grade continues to challenge them in brand-new ways and discover that sometimes radical change is nothing to be afraid of"--

Rip, Red, and their friends on the Clifton United basketball team travel to a spring sleep-away tournament.

After the Traveling Nine baseball team begin crossing the United States in order to raise money for the Payne family's debt, Griffin has a painful encounter with a thug and believes that the Chancellor knows about their baseball plans, and he vows to keep it out of his hands.