What do you think?
Rate this book
1 for All
J.J. Pickett, captain of the Traverse Middle School Musketeers, thinks this is the year he will lead his eighth-grade team to the conference title. But bad breaks, a new coach, and a long-standing grudge sabotage his hopes and leave him struggling on and off the court. Can he and his teammates come together to salvage what seems like a lost season?
142 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 4, 2020
3 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 22, 2021
Empathy and the importance of team building are the lessons learned by J.J., the protagonist in 1 for ALL. It is how he gets there that make this a compelling read. There are several richly detailed themes, first and foremost, J.J. is experiencing the painful difficulties of social status in Middle School. Other themes include budding romance, parental difficulties and bullying. Basketball ties the story together and is a metaphor for how to approach teamwork. Plus the detailed description of the games make this an entertaining and compelling read for kids who like basketball, but really for any kid in middle school and adults too.
October 20, 2020
McCollum was able to transport this reader back to teenage memories of musky-smelling locker rooms, sweaty palms, roiling emotions, and the heady perfumes of the opposite sex—no mean feat, since those years are buried in neurons six decades in the making. Not only that, I learned something about basketball with quick action scenes, hand-sketched play diagrams, and dialogue spot-on for a new generation of kids. I know McCollum’s journalistic work to be accurate and entertaining. He makes the transition to telling a story of young angst seem effortless, although as a writer myself, I know it’s not.
October 2, 2020
In this era of lies and deception, I want to be fully transparent: I know Sean McCollum, and consider him a friend. Twenty-five years ago we both worked at Scholastic Classroom Magazines, and he memorably provided me with a very helpful list of places to see on my first visit to Minnesota. That being said, I can't even remember the last time I saw him or was even on the same continent as him. Sean's a bit of a globetrotter. (Not a Harlem Globertrotter, mind you, but I promise we'll get to basketball in just a minute.)
What else do I know of Mr. McCollum? He's a great guy, a sports nut, smart as all get-out, and a tremendous nonfiction writer. Ah, but what about middle-grade fiction? I had no idea! And that, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, is why I feel I can give this book a totally unbiased review.
Your honor, i LOVED 1 for All. I read many sports books when I was a kid, but I think they were all biographies. (Every visit to the library, I'd look at but not grab From Lew Alcindor to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar , because I really wanted to read about Jabbar, but had no clue who this Alcindor guy was.) Did they even have sports fiction when I was young? Hmm. So I don't have a ton of experience with this kind of book. I did read Plunked by Michael Northrop; that was a good one! But what I really appreciated about 1 for All is that it seems to be a very different sort of sports story. For one, it's not about "Will they win the championship?" The Traverse Middle School Musketeers are not going to make the playoffs. In fact, they stink.
This is a big disappointment for team captain J.J. Pickett, No. 1 on the court, No. 1 in our hearts. He had such high hopes for this squad. But bad luck and bad blood haunt the Musketeers all season long, plus the fact that they go through more coaches than Spinal Tap had drummers.
In another interesting twist, our hero J.J. is a bit of a jerk! It's not that he's a bad guy — quite the opposite — it's just that higgledy-piggledy adolescent Big Mouth weirdness so many of us go through. (I remember my own mom sadly yelling at 12-year-old me, "You've changed!" and me left wondering, "I have?") So that's affecting J.J.'s own behavior and athletic performance.
Can the Musketeers pull it together so the season isn't a total washout? We follow them game-by-game, with enough exciting play-by-play description and coach's play diagrams to more than satisfy any young hoops obsessive. (There's a glossary in the back for anyone who's a little shaky on the game's finer points.) A team-photo illustration in the front of the book was very helpful to refer to as each character was introduced.
But what makes this book extra special is how McCollum weaves in so many issues that adolescents deal with, without ever being preachy or heavy-handed. The kids in the book cope with bullying, the ache of crushes, struggling families, socioeconomic differences and prejudices, racism, body shaming, recovering from huge personal mistakes, facing our own flaws, loyalty to friends, and more. Yikes, it's a wonder that any tween can concentrate on basketball for even a quarter! But they should find some comfort within these pages. 1 for All is 1 book for all middle-grade sports fans to relate to and enjoy.
What else do I know of Mr. McCollum? He's a great guy, a sports nut, smart as all get-out, and a tremendous nonfiction writer. Ah, but what about middle-grade fiction? I had no idea! And that, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, is why I feel I can give this book a totally unbiased review.
Your honor, i LOVED 1 for All. I read many sports books when I was a kid, but I think they were all biographies. (Every visit to the library, I'd look at but not grab From Lew Alcindor to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar , because I really wanted to read about Jabbar, but had no clue who this Alcindor guy was.) Did they even have sports fiction when I was young? Hmm. So I don't have a ton of experience with this kind of book. I did read Plunked by Michael Northrop; that was a good one! But what I really appreciated about 1 for All is that it seems to be a very different sort of sports story. For one, it's not about "Will they win the championship?" The Traverse Middle School Musketeers are not going to make the playoffs. In fact, they stink.
This is a big disappointment for team captain J.J. Pickett, No. 1 on the court, No. 1 in our hearts. He had such high hopes for this squad. But bad luck and bad blood haunt the Musketeers all season long, plus the fact that they go through more coaches than Spinal Tap had drummers.
In another interesting twist, our hero J.J. is a bit of a jerk! It's not that he's a bad guy — quite the opposite — it's just that higgledy-piggledy adolescent Big Mouth weirdness so many of us go through. (I remember my own mom sadly yelling at 12-year-old me, "You've changed!" and me left wondering, "I have?") So that's affecting J.J.'s own behavior and athletic performance.
Can the Musketeers pull it together so the season isn't a total washout? We follow them game-by-game, with enough exciting play-by-play description and coach's play diagrams to more than satisfy any young hoops obsessive. (There's a glossary in the back for anyone who's a little shaky on the game's finer points.) A team-photo illustration in the front of the book was very helpful to refer to as each character was introduced.
But what makes this book extra special is how McCollum weaves in so many issues that adolescents deal with, without ever being preachy or heavy-handed. The kids in the book cope with bullying, the ache of crushes, struggling families, socioeconomic differences and prejudices, racism, body shaming, recovering from huge personal mistakes, facing our own flaws, loyalty to friends, and more. Yikes, it's a wonder that any tween can concentrate on basketball for even a quarter! But they should find some comfort within these pages. 1 for All is 1 book for all middle-grade sports fans to relate to and enjoy.
Read
August 8, 2020From Kirkus Reviews—https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...
An eighth grade basketball player tries to turn around a losing season while wrestling with his worst opponent—his own ego—in this novel.
J.J. Pickett, captain and top scorer of the Traverse Middle School Musketeers basketball team, thinks the so-far winless season will go down the drain when the team’s 6-foot-2 center, Mike Belcher, gets an ankle injury and the coach abruptly quits. These disappointments come on top of other stresses that J.J. faces, including family tensions caused by his dad’s slumping contracting business; competition with his hated rival, Belcher, for the attention of classmate Anita Garcia; and a general, simmering 13-year-old angst. J.J. and his teammates are dubious when Mr. Gumble, the school’s unprepossessing custodian, takes over as coach. But the janitor turns out to be a great mentor who whips the team into shape with grueling line-running drills; teaches the players a scrappy, fast-break game featuring a full-court trap press defense to force adversaries into turnovers; and institutes the corny but stirring rallying cry “All for one, and one for all!” The Musketeers start clawing their way back against bigger teams, but J.J.’s berserk competitiveness, which channels his unhappiness with the world against his opponents, gets him benched, and he’s forced to do so some soul-searching about his attitude. When Mr. Gumble is replaced by Belcher’s jerk of an uncle, J.J. has to figure out a way to restore the team’s order, one that may require him to swallow his pride. McCollum’s energetic tale probes themes of self-awareness and self-restraint, team spiritedness, and players’ love of the game. The narrative features sharply drawn characters, pungent schoolyard dialogue—“You’ve got all the class of a zit, Belchbreath”—and plenty of vigorous play-by-play to hold young basketball fans’ interest. Meanwhile, the author manages to get inside J.J.’s head with prose that’s Hemingway-esque in its spare but penetrating directness: “J.J. had a face that looked younger than he liked. He wanted a hawk’s face, something sharp and fierce. A hawk’s yellow eyes would be cool, too, he thought. He was too small and looked too harmless for what he wanted to be.” The result is an absorbing and perceptive tween-age adventure with considerable literary flair.
A crackerjack sports yarn that conveys youthful psychology in a way that feels authentic.
An eighth grade basketball player tries to turn around a losing season while wrestling with his worst opponent—his own ego—in this novel.
J.J. Pickett, captain and top scorer of the Traverse Middle School Musketeers basketball team, thinks the so-far winless season will go down the drain when the team’s 6-foot-2 center, Mike Belcher, gets an ankle injury and the coach abruptly quits. These disappointments come on top of other stresses that J.J. faces, including family tensions caused by his dad’s slumping contracting business; competition with his hated rival, Belcher, for the attention of classmate Anita Garcia; and a general, simmering 13-year-old angst. J.J. and his teammates are dubious when Mr. Gumble, the school’s unprepossessing custodian, takes over as coach. But the janitor turns out to be a great mentor who whips the team into shape with grueling line-running drills; teaches the players a scrappy, fast-break game featuring a full-court trap press defense to force adversaries into turnovers; and institutes the corny but stirring rallying cry “All for one, and one for all!” The Musketeers start clawing their way back against bigger teams, but J.J.’s berserk competitiveness, which channels his unhappiness with the world against his opponents, gets him benched, and he’s forced to do so some soul-searching about his attitude. When Mr. Gumble is replaced by Belcher’s jerk of an uncle, J.J. has to figure out a way to restore the team’s order, one that may require him to swallow his pride. McCollum’s energetic tale probes themes of self-awareness and self-restraint, team spiritedness, and players’ love of the game. The narrative features sharply drawn characters, pungent schoolyard dialogue—“You’ve got all the class of a zit, Belchbreath”—and plenty of vigorous play-by-play to hold young basketball fans’ interest. Meanwhile, the author manages to get inside J.J.’s head with prose that’s Hemingway-esque in its spare but penetrating directness: “J.J. had a face that looked younger than he liked. He wanted a hawk’s face, something sharp and fierce. A hawk’s yellow eyes would be cool, too, he thought. He was too small and looked too harmless for what he wanted to be.” The result is an absorbing and perceptive tween-age adventure with considerable literary flair.
A crackerjack sports yarn that conveys youthful psychology in a way that feels authentic.
August 21, 2020
What a fantastic book for kids who are fascinated both by sports and by human beings who struggle with their own imperfections. 1 for All is full of great basketball action, just detailed enough to make you feel like an insider but not so technical that it will alienate readers who aren't hoops geeks. The real engine of the book, however, are the kids themselves. Their conflicts are recognizable to anyone familiar with middle school: envy, embarrassment, insecurity. The basketball court is where the conflicts play out, but it's clear all the way through that the real stage is life. I felt on every page of 1 For All that I was in the hands of an accomplished storyteller. The characters felt like friends by the end, and I read the last chapter with a big old lump in my throat.
August 7, 2020
For those of you missing live sports - its energy, the way it draws you in and makes you feel invested; excited and hopeful, then disbelieving and angry, elated again and occassionally a little heartbroken... well, here is the next best thing to being at a live game. Grab a snack and a beverage, then immerse yourself in this story and start cheering for your new team, "The Musketeers".
There is plenty of well described on the court action, berserk competitiveness, grueling training, clever coaching, ego checking moments and uplifting team spirit to make you an instant fan of "1 for All", team captain, J.J.Pickett, and author, Sean McCollum.
There is plenty of well described on the court action, berserk competitiveness, grueling training, clever coaching, ego checking moments and uplifting team spirit to make you an instant fan of "1 for All", team captain, J.J.Pickett, and author, Sean McCollum.
August 17, 2020
As a librarian in a public library for over two decades, I highly recommend this book. The story line is easy to follow, and pulls the reader in by relentlessly pushing forward on and off the court. The experience and emotions of middle students are brought to life in such a way that even adult readers can relate to the characters. There are so many good things happening between the pages - true friends, mistakes, honesty, forgiveness, emotions, teamwork, and life lessons that are timeless. Highly recommended for young readers, especially for those who are reluctant readers.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews