On Guard

by Jake Maddox, Sean Tiffany (Illustrator)

Trey Smith, the captain of the Wildcats, knows he's one of the best players on the team. He doesn't worry about anything when he's on the court. But then he finds out that he knows someone on a rival team. It's his cousin, Pete. And to make matters worse, they're assigned to guard each other. How can Trey play when he'll have to beat his cousin to win?

50 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Who is Jake Maddox? Athlete, author, world-traveler–or all three? He has surfed in Hawaii, scuba-dived in Australia, and climbed the mountains of Peru and Alaska. His books range from the most popular team sports to outdoor activities to survival adventures and even to auto racing. His exploits have inspired numerous writers to walk in his footsteps–literally! Each of his stories is stamped with teamwork, fair play, and a strong sense of self-worth and discipline. Always a team-player, Maddox realizes it takes more than one man (or woman) to create a book good enough for a young reader. He hopes the lessons learned on the court, field, or arena and the champion sprinter pace of his books can motivate kids to become better athletes and lifelong readers.

Reviews

[Jahmeir Ellis · Rating 4 out of 5]

i rated this book 4 stars because i really thought it was good and its message too. i recomend this book to anyone who likes sports and a good theme. the main conflict is 2 cousins are on rivals backetball teams but they never played against eachother before and now they are set to. now how can trey focus and try to lead his team to a victory when he would have to beat his better cousin to win.

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

My son and I read this book together. This book is his FAVORITE now. I will be getting him more from this author for sure!

[Nate Dawg]

This is on guard by Jake Maddox

So it starts off with two cousins Trey Smith and Pete playing basketball against people, and they are both really good at playing, they are then challenged to play against they're uncle and his daughter and Trey and Pete beat them, Uncle Theo and Pete's dad then say they should try playing against each other they say "it would be interesting to see "they start 1v1 and they both win and lose some. a few weeks later Pete is the team captain for the Eastlake team and gets onto his family computer and messages Trey and tells him about him being team captain and Trey is surprised cause we wasn't captain until he was in 7th grade. then they end up playing each other Westlake VS Eastlake, when Trey is he is starting and isn't doing very well while Pete is playing really well and his coach get's mad and gives Trey one more chance Trey gets the ball stolen and his coach gets mad and benches him as he was going to the sideline he saw Pete smiling at him he then thinks "why is he smiling" he was benched for the first half he was going to go back in when his coached stopped him and told him he wasn't going in he asked his coach to please put him back in and his coach gave him another chance Pete says good job and Trey realizes he wasn't trying to be rude when he was smiling and they both start to compliment each others plays he plays well and Trey ends with a
Win .

So I do recommend this book it wasn't too hard to read and it's a good book because in the end they have good sportsmanship I liked how he ended up doing good when he didn't think about it too much the book isn't confusing wasn't hard to read it was pretty easy the ending was honestly pretty predictable but my favorite part was at the end when they both started doing really good I did have a connection with this book whenever I played against my friend I thought he was taunting me by smiling at me to, but he wasn't, 7/10 recommend

[Mason F · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book I am reading is On Guard by Jake Maddox. This is a good book for anyone in middle school that loves basketball and a little bit of family drama. The Smith family has a 7th grade basketball player Trey Smith, he also has a cousin that plays basketball in 6th grade Pete Smith.
When Pete moves up to play 7th grade basketball for the Eastlake basketball team. Trey is the captain for the Westfield Wildcats. When they play each other on November 8th, things get a little rough.


In the beginning of the book Pete and his cousin Trey go to an outside basketball court and play 2v2 vs random people at the park. Since they played basketball everyday together Pete and Trey became almost like best friends. That has a big impact on the story later on because Pete plays for the eastlake basketball team and Trey plays for the Wildcats team. When they play going into the game Trey thinks that Pete is a show off cause he is doing fancy layups in warmups. In the game Trey gets mad at Pete for winning and Trey gets competitive when he's losing. After the game Pete and Trey talk to each other about the game and apologize to each other for getting upset. They then go back to the park and play against random people again like before.

I recommended people in middle school who like basketball to read this book, it's full of basketball and drama

[Jalen Gibson · Rating 4 out of 5]

i liked this book because i like sports and the book is about basketball and how two cousins Trey and Pete work together and practice every day to become basketball stars. And when their dads were growing up they use two do the same thing but they use two play baseball. i like this book because Trey and Pete played on different basketball teams. and Trey was upset that Pete was making the team. I recoumond this book to people who like sports.

[Ben Schmoker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought it was ok but no great because it was not that intereating

[Robert Crowley · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was ok becuase it all predictable

[Nate Vrchota · Rating 5 out of 5]

i lover this book because i love baskwt ball