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Most Valuable Players
MVP #1: The Gold Medal Mess
From the author of the Ballpark Mysteries comes a brand-new sports-themed chapter book series featuring the coolest club around—the Most Valuable Players!
Five friends are ready for their school’s Olympics field day. There will be relay races, archery contests, and more! But not everyone wants to play fair—someone is trying to ruin the events! Can the kids in the Most Valuable Player club solve the mystery, save the Olympics, and take home the gold?
Perfect for kids who love to compete in all kinds of contests and have fun with great friends, David A. Kelly’s new series teaches readers that when you’re a most valuable player, you love sports, always show spirit, and never give up! And don’t miss bonus back matter filled with cool sports facts in every book.
Five friends are ready for their school’s Olympics field day. There will be relay races, archery contests, and more! But not everyone wants to play fair—someone is trying to ruin the events! Can the kids in the Most Valuable Player club solve the mystery, save the Olympics, and take home the gold?
Perfect for kids who love to compete in all kinds of contests and have fun with great friends, David A. Kelly’s new series teaches readers that when you’re a most valuable player, you love sports, always show spirit, and never give up! And don’t miss bonus back matter filled with cool sports facts in every book.
128 pages, Library Binding
First published May 24, 2016
11 people are currently reading
47 people want to read
About the author
David A. Kelly
66 books95 followersDavid A. Kelly is the author of over 30 children's books, including the bestselling Ballpark Mysteries series, the MVP series, the brand-new Football Mysteries series, and more.
Mr. Kelly is also the author of the early reader, Babe Ruth and the Baseball Curse and the picture books Tee Time on the Moon and Miracle Mud: Lena Blackburne and Secret Mud that Changed Baseball.
He has written about travel and technology for the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Chicago Sun Times, and many other publications. Mr. Kelly lives in Newton, MA, with his family.
For more information, visit David’s webpage – www.davidakellybooks.com. He's available for school and library visits, in person or virtually.
Mr. Kelly is also the author of the early reader, Babe Ruth and the Baseball Curse and the picture books Tee Time on the Moon and Miracle Mud: Lena Blackburne and Secret Mud that Changed Baseball.
He has written about travel and technology for the New York Times, the Boston Globe, the Chicago Sun Times, and many other publications. Mr. Kelly lives in Newton, MA, with his family.
For more information, visit David’s webpage – www.davidakellybooks.com. He's available for school and library visits, in person or virtually.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
January 26, 2021
I prefer Kelly's Ballpark Mysteries but this one was fine. It's a bit smaller scale as it's just focused around a school's Olympics event and the mystery wasn't as strong as most of the Ballpark ones, IMO. We also have a cast of five kids trying to solve the mystery so that gets to be a lot to keep track of for such a short book, but I do give points for the diversity in the cast and I also appreciate that Kelly always makes a point to include female law enforcement officers in his books. My son enjoyed it and was eager to read the next one in the series.
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August 2, 2016I’m not sure I really need more mysteries in my chapter book collection, but I do need more sports themed books. I was also happy to see that two of the children pictured on the front of the book are not white. As far as I can remember their ethnicity isn’t commented on (I really don’t remember if their skin color or hair were mentioned) so it was a choice by the illustrator to make them non-white.
This book falls into that odd space where the diversity of the kids isn’t really commented on. On the one hand I want books where the diversity is incidental, but I also wonder if that’s just surface diversity and not okay. The thing about this book is, it’s a very simple chapter book with a fast paced mystery. Diversity, particularly ethnicity, doesn’t factor into the story and might be interesting to explore if it wasn’t a book intended for kids who are just learning to get through chapter books. If you load these books down kids don’t want to read them until they’re older. I’m fairly confident in our collection of chapter books. There is a range of types of stories and the diversity is considered in some and not others. I think it’s fine to add this to our collection for those kids who want to literally see themselves (on the cover), but want a fun, easy mystery. You’ll have to take your own opinion about this into consideration and an assessment of your own collection to know if it’s the right book for your library.
In terms of story, it was a simple, fun mystery. Someone is trying to sabotage the school olympics and five friends decide they need to find out who. It isn’t a huge surprise. It isn’t a deep book, but it was a lot of fun. I do recommend it if you are looking for more sports books that weren’t written thirty years ago. Also, why are there so many baseball books in the chapter book genre? I think we have one kid a year who plays baseball and yet nearly every sports chapter book we have is baseball. A fun, quick mystery involving sports and sportsmanship is a win in my collection.
This book falls into that odd space where the diversity of the kids isn’t really commented on. On the one hand I want books where the diversity is incidental, but I also wonder if that’s just surface diversity and not okay. The thing about this book is, it’s a very simple chapter book with a fast paced mystery. Diversity, particularly ethnicity, doesn’t factor into the story and might be interesting to explore if it wasn’t a book intended for kids who are just learning to get through chapter books. If you load these books down kids don’t want to read them until they’re older. I’m fairly confident in our collection of chapter books. There is a range of types of stories and the diversity is considered in some and not others. I think it’s fine to add this to our collection for those kids who want to literally see themselves (on the cover), but want a fun, easy mystery. You’ll have to take your own opinion about this into consideration and an assessment of your own collection to know if it’s the right book for your library.
In terms of story, it was a simple, fun mystery. Someone is trying to sabotage the school olympics and five friends decide they need to find out who. It isn’t a huge surprise. It isn’t a deep book, but it was a lot of fun. I do recommend it if you are looking for more sports books that weren’t written thirty years ago. Also, why are there so many baseball books in the chapter book genre? I think we have one kid a year who plays baseball and yet nearly every sports chapter book we have is baseball. A fun, quick mystery involving sports and sportsmanship is a win in my collection.
March 5, 2018
Summary:
Franklin Elementary hosts an Olympics game every year. This year isn’t like every other year. This year someone is trying to destroy the games by sending threatening notes and doing things to manipulate the events. But classmates Max, Alice, Nico and the twins Luke and Kat aren’t going to let that happen. They band together to try and find out who’s doing this and put an end to it. Working as tiny detectives, they gather finger prints and collect clues to figure out who is behind all of this. One by one they narrow it down and they finally catch the person. They may have not won the gold medals for the different events, but they did get the MVP award for saving the games.
5 questions:
1. Does your school have an Olympics event or a field day? If so, what are some of the different events that take place? If not, what different events would you want to have?
2. If you were to get together with some friends to get to the bottom of something, what five friends would you choose and why?
3. What are some of the different events that took place at Franklin’s Elementary annual Olympics?
4. Who was trying to sabotage the games, and why were they doing it?
5. If you were to win a gold medal, what would you win it for, and why?
Citation(APA): Kelly, D. A., & Brundage, S. (2016). The gold medal mess. New York: Random House.
Franklin Elementary hosts an Olympics game every year. This year isn’t like every other year. This year someone is trying to destroy the games by sending threatening notes and doing things to manipulate the events. But classmates Max, Alice, Nico and the twins Luke and Kat aren’t going to let that happen. They band together to try and find out who’s doing this and put an end to it. Working as tiny detectives, they gather finger prints and collect clues to figure out who is behind all of this. One by one they narrow it down and they finally catch the person. They may have not won the gold medals for the different events, but they did get the MVP award for saving the games.
5 questions:
1. Does your school have an Olympics event or a field day? If so, what are some of the different events that take place? If not, what different events would you want to have?
2. If you were to get together with some friends to get to the bottom of something, what five friends would you choose and why?
3. What are some of the different events that took place at Franklin’s Elementary annual Olympics?
4. Who was trying to sabotage the games, and why were they doing it?
5. If you were to win a gold medal, what would you win it for, and why?
Citation(APA): Kelly, D. A., & Brundage, S. (2016). The gold medal mess. New York: Random House.
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November 11, 2016Max, Nico and Kat are excited for their annual school olympics. During practice one day, they find a suspicious note...someone plans to ruin their school-wide event. They notify the teachers who make sure a police officer is on stand by during the events. When the big day finally arrives, strange things begin to happen. Everyone slips on the grass from spilled oil during the relay race and they discover the tug-of-war rope has been tampered with. The three friends play detectives and put clues together to find the culprit before the rest of the olympics are ruined.
1. Explain why the author chose the title he did for this book.
2. Describe how the characters were able to come to the conclusion they did by the end of the book. What clues led them to finding the culprit?
3. If they had not found the culprit, how would the story have ended? What would have happened?
4. Describe how the characters were feeling in the beginning of the book compared to their feelings at the end of the book.
5. Describe the roles of Kat, Nico and Max. How did each character contribute to finding the culprit?
Kelly, D. A., & Brundage, S. (2016). The gold medal mess. New York: Random House.
1. Explain why the author chose the title he did for this book.
2. Describe how the characters were able to come to the conclusion they did by the end of the book. What clues led them to finding the culprit?
3. If they had not found the culprit, how would the story have ended? What would have happened?
4. Describe how the characters were feeling in the beginning of the book compared to their feelings at the end of the book.
5. Describe the roles of Kat, Nico and Max. How did each character contribute to finding the culprit?
Kelly, D. A., & Brundage, S. (2016). The gold medal mess. New York: Random House.
May 19, 2016
Five good friends, each of whom has his/her own special talent or interest, are excited about the school Olympics competition. But they quickly realize that someone is sabotaging several of the different events. Although they don't end up winning the competitions in which they expected to excel, they receive a much better reward, thus, giving birth to the MVP Club. This title is the first in this series, which promises to appeal to sports fanatics and anyone who enjoys mysteries. I liked all the characters and the interactions between siblings Kat and Luke because he's far less serious about sports than she is. The inclusion of some illustrations allows readers to see just what the characters are doing while gaining confidence in their own reading abilities.
August 2, 2016
Five friends, pictured at the beginning, are athletic and involved in many of their elementary school's activities. They all are looking forward to the school Olympics field day. When the principal gets an anonymous note advising him to cancel the Olympics, the friends decide to investigate to find out who is trying to ruin the event. They all want to play ... and win! With pleasing and numerous black and white illustrations, fast pacing and lots of sports action, this is a good early chapter book for sports fans.
May 8, 2016
Looks to be a fun new transitional chapter book series. Looking forward to more.
5 friends are enjoying the school's Olympic games, but someone is out sabotaging them. Part mystery, part sports book, this series will be great for readers who are ready for chapters but need a shorter length.
5 friends are enjoying the school's Olympic games, but someone is out sabotaging them. Part mystery, part sports book, this series will be great for readers who are ready for chapters but need a shorter length.
February 15, 2018
First book of a good solid series for grades 2-4. Fiction for boys and girls.
March 26, 2018
The school Olympics are being threatened by a saboteur. Can any of the kids figure it out before the school cancels the olympics? Cute. elementary and up
July 29, 2024
This was a fun mystery about a school olympics that is being threatened. Someone is writing notes wanting them to cancel OR ELSE and they don't, but then things start going wrong. The 5 kids that are the main characters in this series try to figure out the whodunnit. One of them is a photographer and they say a picture says 1000 words right?! My only complaint is that 5 characters is a lot to follow, but we plan to continue the series!
July 17, 2020
This was a good story about a group of five multi-ethnic friends. They solved the mystery of who was wrecking their Olympic Day.
August 31, 2020
Good for mystery and sports lovers. Diverse group of kids. They mystery isn't that great, and the motive even lamer.
August 30, 2025
Another fun mystery story. I liked how the friends worked together to solve the mystery.
November 4, 2016
Solid if unspectacular mystery featuring some sports action. I had hoped that this series would be a bit more sports-oriented but solving the mystery really takes center stage. A bit predictable and formulaic but kids at this level who are into mysteries would enjoy it.
July 20, 2016
Themes are appealing, but it's a stock story.
Early chapter book readers interested in sports will enjoy it.
Early chapter book readers interested in sports will enjoy it.
July 27, 2016
1 star for the boring story; bonus star for including a female chief of police.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews