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Pool Panic
Jenny has always loved swimming, so this year she’s finally decided to join the swim team. Jenny cruises through the pool during practice, but when she sees the crowd of spectators at her first meet, she freezes up. Can Jenny overcome her fears and help lead her team to victory? This fast-paced sports story eBook is a winning read for any young athlete!
56 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2016
124 people are currently reading
42 people want to read
About the author
Jake Maddox
553 books83 followersWho 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.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 5, 2020
I saw that Jenny helped her team while getting over her fear witch is swimming in front of a giant crowd.
August 17, 2016
One of the best traits of Jake Maddox's youth sports novels is that the moral is clear to anyone who reads them, yet doesn't interfere with the telling of a good story, never coming across too strongly or in a preachy manner. The depth of the lesson varies from book to book, but Pool Panic's is among the more carefully wrought, worth lingering on for a few extra beats. Pressure to excel in sports or any competitive pastime can short-circuit talented performers and render them average or below, and it takes proper perspective to combat that. It should be natural to do one's best in competition, but we often desire so strongly to win that we tense up and commit foolish errors, costing ourselves accomplishments we deserve. Overcoming that internal barrier frees us to realize the greatness within our grasp.
Jenny Brown and Maya Granger had fun in the pool all summer leading up to sixth grade. They're fast, smart swimmers, and Maya wants to try out for the school team together. Jenny is reluctant, but she had such a good time this summer in the pool. Why not give it a shot? After they both easily qualify for the team, Jenny relaxes, and the other girls are so outgoing and inclusive that Jenny is convinced joining the team was a terrific idea. Until the first competition, that is, when Jenny enters the pool area and sees hundreds of spectators in the stands. What if she freezes up and makes a fool of herself in front of them? Jenny's apprehension turns to self-fulfilling prophecy when she tightens up at the start of her first swim, and she finishes behind her opponents in every event after that. Jenny swam like a champ in practice, but under gameday pressure she fades every time. She's bitterly disappointed in her inability to come through for her teammates.
Maya and the other girls know Jenny has the skills to be elite, she just has to disconnect her brain and let her talent lead the way to victory. They help her train under simulated competition conditions and take her to sing karaoke with them at a pizza restaurant to get her used to performing publicly. These outings do their part to put Jenny at ease, but it's only after an incident at the local pool where Jenny saves a younger girl struggling in the deep end that it dawns on Jenny why she has difficulty swimming her best in competition. She needs to stop dwelling on how people judge her swimming, and focus on being just one member of a team. Then her nerves will fade away as if it were never an issue. Team play is about working together toward a common goal, using every asset your group has to reach it. As Jenny understands by the end of the story, "Doing her best and winning was a great feeling, but helping others was the best feeling of all!" Savvy competitors realize that individual glory is part and parcel of how the team performs, and when an athlete comprehends that, it's usually a turning point in their career.
Most Jake Maddox books don't assign ages to the characters, so Pool Panic is different in that regard. Perhaps it's to delineate Jenny from the younger girl she rescues, so we get a better feel for the significance of what she did. Jenny's journey to understanding herself as a competitor is one every athlete takes, and can teach us something about unleashing our own potential. When we release ourselves from the obligation of meeting achievement standards that may or may not be attainable, we're free to discover how good we can actually be, and that's the primary appeal of sports in the first place. I'd give Pool Panic two and a half stars, and if it were a longer work that allowed more depth, I'd probably rate it higher. This is one of the better selections in the Jake Maddox sports library, and I recommend it to fans of the series.
Jenny Brown and Maya Granger had fun in the pool all summer leading up to sixth grade. They're fast, smart swimmers, and Maya wants to try out for the school team together. Jenny is reluctant, but she had such a good time this summer in the pool. Why not give it a shot? After they both easily qualify for the team, Jenny relaxes, and the other girls are so outgoing and inclusive that Jenny is convinced joining the team was a terrific idea. Until the first competition, that is, when Jenny enters the pool area and sees hundreds of spectators in the stands. What if she freezes up and makes a fool of herself in front of them? Jenny's apprehension turns to self-fulfilling prophecy when she tightens up at the start of her first swim, and she finishes behind her opponents in every event after that. Jenny swam like a champ in practice, but under gameday pressure she fades every time. She's bitterly disappointed in her inability to come through for her teammates.
Maya and the other girls know Jenny has the skills to be elite, she just has to disconnect her brain and let her talent lead the way to victory. They help her train under simulated competition conditions and take her to sing karaoke with them at a pizza restaurant to get her used to performing publicly. These outings do their part to put Jenny at ease, but it's only after an incident at the local pool where Jenny saves a younger girl struggling in the deep end that it dawns on Jenny why she has difficulty swimming her best in competition. She needs to stop dwelling on how people judge her swimming, and focus on being just one member of a team. Then her nerves will fade away as if it were never an issue. Team play is about working together toward a common goal, using every asset your group has to reach it. As Jenny understands by the end of the story, "Doing her best and winning was a great feeling, but helping others was the best feeling of all!" Savvy competitors realize that individual glory is part and parcel of how the team performs, and when an athlete comprehends that, it's usually a turning point in their career.
Most Jake Maddox books don't assign ages to the characters, so Pool Panic is different in that regard. Perhaps it's to delineate Jenny from the younger girl she rescues, so we get a better feel for the significance of what she did. Jenny's journey to understanding herself as a competitor is one every athlete takes, and can teach us something about unleashing our own potential. When we release ourselves from the obligation of meeting achievement standards that may or may not be attainable, we're free to discover how good we can actually be, and that's the primary appeal of sports in the first place. I'd give Pool Panic two and a half stars, and if it were a longer work that allowed more depth, I'd probably rate it higher. This is one of the better selections in the Jake Maddox sports library, and I recommend it to fans of the series.
November 8, 2018
I actually liked this book and this book kinda teaches you life lessons like never give up because you never know if your good at something until you believe,try,and keep going.Keep trying until you reach your goal.
August 2, 2021
Jake Maddox book about a great swimmer who has stage fright to overcome to help her swim team.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews