Review: Athlete vs. Mathlete: Double Dribble

Athlete vs. Mathlete: Double Dribble by W. C. Mack

My rating: 5 of 5 stars



While I enjoyed the first book in this series, I'll admit to not having incredibly high expectations for the second book. The initial read was a fairly inoffensive middle grade sports book that fits right into the wheelhouse of that boy reader looking for sports books that are a little more modern. While one could take issue with the somewhat unrealistic and disproportionate responses of some of the characters to the happenings in the story, a lot can be easily forgiven. The second book still runs into that issue somewhat, but it's still a much more cohesive story with a more realistic start and finish than the first book, to its benefit.

The twins from the first book now have the streak happening with the basketball team, and things are going swimmingly until another pair of twins moves into the district and get placed on the team. They're completely in sync and somewhat aloof, and the existing twins aren't too pleased about being displaced on the team, even if they recognize that the new members are better than they are on a whole. The story continues along with the kids learning to cope (or, in some cases, not cope) with the unexpected changes in the story.

The kids do come up with some really mean ways to deal at some points, but the overall finishing message is not terrible at all, and this story overall flows much better and works on more levels than the debut volume. The idea of "Athlete versus Mathlete" has been pretty much abandoned at this point, however, as it comes out more as "jock problems" than using the combined strengths of the two kids to solve their problems. Overall, probably close to a 4.5, and definitely worth a look for this age group.



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