Sidetracked

by Deb Loughead

Maddy doesn't find it easy adjusting to grade nine. The friendships and loyalties she took for granted in middle school are being challenged, and there's so much more competition on her track team now.

When Maddy stumbles across a friend being bullied behind the school after a track practice, she suspects something nasty is going on. So when Coach announces one of the team members has been robbed, she realizes the two incidents must be connected. Everyone on the track and field team is under suspicion. How can the team function with so much uneasiness among its members? Maddy realizes the only way to bring the team together again is to make some changes.

Genres: Sports

136 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2012

Reviews

[Madison Miller · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an amazing book! It tells a story that many people could relate themselves too! Mainly it talks about track, but the author talks about how getting sidetracked can affect her running. The theme of the book is to work together, and towards the end the characters were working together. The protagonist gets sidetracked but at the end ends up succeeding. It was a good book, mainly it's for sports people, but if your not in sports you should still read it. This is a very short book, it took me 4 hours, and I was done!

[Bailey Droste]

This is such an outstanding book! The book would 100% be on my top 3 favorite books. It tells a story that many people could for sure relate too. It specifically talks about the sport of track and field. The auhor, Deb Loughead, talks about how how getting sidetracked can effect her running. But this ties into the theme of how working togther, like some charchters do towards the end of the story. The protagonist of the story gets sidetracked but ends up working together, and succeeds at last along with the others in the story. It really was a great, short book that I highly recommend to all, ecpecially my fellow track and Field lovers! Because it is such an easy read book, I finsihed this book in just a couple of hours and I enjoyed finishing this book and recommend it to all!

[Trey D. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grade/interest level: 7th
Reading level:
Genre: sports
Main Characters: Maddy and Coach
Setting: At school
POV: 1st person

Maddy is having a hard time at her new school. But track may be her ticket back into her school. Until she starts getting bullied then things start turning around. She competing for her 100 meter relay and she wants it really bad. Will she get the spot?

[Alexis Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sidetrack was a good book. It showed a great relationship between the main character and her best friend. With the weird moments of the book -such as when the girl got pushed around at the field- it gave you suspicion but not too much. Overall I would recommend this book for a quick read and something fun to enjoy!!

[Lavabearian (Jessica) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was not interesting at all. So best friend girls are competing for one spot on the track team, big whoop. So older brother is not being totally honest, big whoop. This felt really shallow and like the intended reader was a middle school girl. A NO vote for me.

[Brenda Kahn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this story about a ninth grader's attempt to transition onto her high school team from middle school while competing against her best friend in the 100 meter. The contrivances were annoying and not believable.

[Miss Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

you know i can't figure out if this actually was a little better than rat and coming clean or if i'm just biased in favour of girl narrators. still wasn't great either way though. 2.5 stars

[Susan B · Rating 2 out of 5]

A "high interest/low vocabulary" book for reluctant teen readers, the book fails on both levels. The plot is boring and the vocabulary not terribly low.