It’s basketball season in the fourth book of this highly illustrated middle grade series from the nationally syndicated cartoonist of “In the Bleachers,” starring a kid who plays the same position in every benchwarmer.
Steve is King of the Bench. No brag. It’s just a fact. And this season, Steve and his athletically challenged best friends Joey and Carlos—along with super athlete Becky O’Callahan—are joining the Mighty Plumbers basketball team. But instead of playing on the court, Steve is waiting on the sidelines to perform his top-secret ritual that turns the tide of every game in an instant.
Why is it a secret? Well, big, drooly duh, everyone knows it’s a strict rule when selling a book not to blurt out the whole juicy plot!
Perfect for fans of Timmy Failure and Diary of a Wimpy Kid, King of the Bench is an ode to teammates, underdogs, and benchwarmers everywhere.
Moore is a writer, syndicated cartoonist, film creator/producer and former news executive. He created the comic "In the Bleachers," distributed to hundreds of newspapers and websites. At the The Los Angeles Times, Moore served as Exec. News Editor.
Moore co-created and wrote the original story for “Open Season” (Sony Pictures Animation.) He served as Exec. Producer. The film grossed nearly $200 million. The franchise has generated four DVD sequels.
He also created the animated film "Alpha & Omega" (Lionsgate Films.) Moore wrote the original story, screenplay and served as Producer. The franchise has generated seven DVD sequels.
Moore grew up in La Canada Flintridge, California. He graduated from Oregon State University and completed his masters degree at the University of Oregon.
This was a very good book I spent lots of time reading it because I just loved it so much. |All of the smaller games leading up to the championship. Also the kids motivation to become a starter in the lineup. All the drama that surrounded the team that made it harder to compete. I really liked this book and would recommend it to any reader.
Silly and fun book read to George and Tito. Lots of repeating from his other books in the series, but it seems like the kids like that, I let them finish the lines.
*Spoiler Alert* Steve is most likely the best benchwarmer in the city. He makes his school basketball team but only plays in one game all season, because while he is on the bench in the end of game 1 he see’s a rat stealing a protein bar he tried to stop it and he accidentally slid about 10 feet. When he did it his team was losing and after he slid they came back and won. After that everyone started calling it the “rally slide,” and his coach told him to do it whenever they were losing in the end of the game. That season his team the spiro mighty plumbers were un-defeated. While he was at home he practiced rebounding because he wanted to be a “lean mean rebounding machine,” and get to play in a game. One thing I liked was that it wasn’t all about the sports games there were also details like the fall dance, his classes, at home, and bullies.