Hitting the Shot - (Sports Illustrated Kids Heroes and Heartbreakers) by Eric Braun (Paperback)

About the Book

"Buzzer-beaters, walk-off homers, and more! In this Sports Illustrated Kids book, discover the all-time greatest clutch moments in sports history. Discover more about Christian Laettner's last-second shot in the NCAA playoffs. Read about how Kerri Strug landed a near-perfect vault performance on an injured ankle, helping the U.S. gymnastics team win gold at the 1996 Summer Olympics. Find out how the "Hail Mary" football play first got its name in a 1975 NFL game with just seconds left. With eye-popping photographs and heart-pounding text, this book is sure to attract sports enthusiasts, young and old"--

Book Synopsis

Buzzer-beaters, walk-off homers, and more! In this Sports Illustrated Kids book, discover the all-time greatest clutch moments in sports history. Discover more about Christian Laettner's last-second shot in the 1992 NCAA men's basketball tournament. Read about how Kerri Strug landed a near-perfect vault performance on an injured ankle, helping the U.S. gymnastics team win gold at the 1996 Summer Olympics. Find out how the "Hail Mary" football play first got its name in a 1975 NFL game with just seconds left. With eye-popping photographs and heart-pounding text, this book is sure to attract sports enthusiasts, young and old.

Review Quotes

A gripping sports-writing style pulses through the Sports Illustrated Kids: Heroes and Heartbreaks series, which gives exciting play-by -play accounts of unexpected victories and unfathomable failures in the world of sports. One of the series' biggest strengths is the sheer variety of sports represented in its pages. Yes, football, basketball, baseball, and soccer are there, but so are hockey, tennis, boxing, golf, swimming, and gymnastics. Short passages in the second-person present bookend each title's main text, helping to reel in readers, and scattered fact boxes add historical context throughout. Beating the Odds presents sports upsets in which the underdogs came out on top, as with Naomi Osaka's 2018 defeat of Serena Williams dur-ing the U.S. Open. Tears will be shed during Dropping the Ball, as readers witness athletes at career lows, such as when hockey player Steve Smith scored on his own goal during the 1986 Stanley Cup playoffs. According to Hitting the Shot, dutch moments in sports demand amazing athletic feats performed under extreme pressure-for example, an injured Kerri Strug's near-perfect gymnastics vault during the 1996 Summer Olympics. Incredible comebacks are the name of the game in Making the Miracle, which highlights Bethany Hamilton's success as a pro surfer after losing her arm to a shark at-tack. There's never a dull moment in these books, which showcase the value of perseverance, hard work, joy, and humility.--Julia Smith "Booklist"

About the Author

Eric Braun is the author of dozens of books for young readers. His favorite things to write about include history, fairy tales, and especially sports. One of his books was read by an astronaut on the International Space Station. Besides stories, he loves bike riding, camping, adventures, and wearing hats. Learn more at heyericbraun.com.