Take Your Best Shot

4 for 4 #4

by John Coy

Middle school and life on and off the basketball court are what four friends deal with in this satisfying conclusion to the 4 for 4 series. Here are four very different boys dealing with family, friends, school, and sports, told in a believable and accessible style. John Coy writes sports stories that run deep, and this series scores more and more readers each season. You'll win big fans in readers who like Mike Lupica, Chris Lynch, and Matt Christopher if you introduce them to the boys from 4 for 4 .

Genres: Sports

192 pages

First published February 28, 2012

About the author

John Coy is the author of young adult novels, the 4 for 4 middle-grade series, and fiction and nonfiction picture books. John has received numerous awards for his work including a Marion Vannett Ridgway Award for best first picture book, a Charlotte Zolotow Honor, Bank Street College Best Book of the Year, Notable Book for a Global Society, and the Burr/Warzalla Award for Distinguished Achievement in Children’s Literature. He lives in Minneapolis and visits schools around the world.

Reviews

[Hailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

I LOVE THIS BOOK SOOO MUCH. It relates to me so much!!!! I just love it.

[Carter Dittmann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Personal Response: Personally I think this is a great book. It involves boys with tough decisions to make in life. Jackson Kennedy and his buddies Gig, Isaac, and Diego are all big basketball players. They are all faced with game-changing challenges. It really shows how much courage it takes to become one who loves to compete in games. Just how much it takes to except great challenge in life and in the game.

Plot Summary: Jackson Kennedy and his three friends are the best friends that anyone could ever ask for. They are always there for each other, and everyone has the others backs. No matter the situation in life or game, the three buddies will always get out the best way possible. When the dance is coming around, all the boys try to get dates to the dance. They all end up going with the girl whom they like the most and, have a very good time.

Characterization: Jackson Kennedy is the main character of the story. He plays basketball and he loves the sport. Jackson is a very unique boy, and loves to spend time with family and friends. Jackson is in middle school, he is a very outgoing and competitive boy. When Jackson is faced with a situation, he always tries to find the best way out and comfort everyone.

Recommendation: I would recommend this book to any person age 7 and older. The text of the story is easy to comprehend, and easy to stay with the flow of the story. I would recommend to anyone who likes a great sports story, and loves basketball. This is not a terribly long book, so it will easily keep someone´s attention with the text and how the author explains this book.

[Athos · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story is about a middle school boy named Jackson. The book takes place in Jacksons middle school, and his homes. Jackson wants to ask rudy to the school dance but a boy named Chaz asked her before him. Jackson asked out his friends Gig, sister named Sydney. Jackson went to the the dance with Sydney and got his first kiss. Some themes i think go with this story are acceptance, breaking boundaries, and strength of character.

[Matthew Conway]

Was a really good book

[RobertH]

The title is Take Your Best Shot by John Coy and John Coy lives in Minneapolis, MN and he is a children’s book writer and won numerous awards for his books. His genre of what he writes are sports kids books like he writes basketball,football,baseball,soccer,esc. The grade level he writes are usually from 6th-8th grade books. The summary of this book about this kid named Jackson who has 4 sport loving friends who always stick together, and they are getting used to the routines of middle school like detention, tons of homework, girls, schools dances, esc and he plays basketball while having to focus on on four of these things.
The theme or central idea of this book is there is always stay positive while things aren’t going your way and Jackson thought that and there is problems in this book that he has to figure them out and one of them are his crush that he thought she liked him but she like a different guy and the school dance was coming up so he didn’t really have no one to go with but he found someone that he kinda liked and was comfortable around of and she was good at basketball but one thing was she was the sister to one of his bestfriends Gig and they were going through some problems as well there father was in Afghanistan fighting and he got seriously injured and didn’t know if he will live or die. Also Jackson’s mom was getting married to Jackson’s step dad and when all this is happening Isaac their best basketball player and also one of Jackson’s best friends is leaving the team and moving to the traveling team even though he doesn’t even want to. So he needs to make some decisions so he can turn his middle schools year out.
He makes some pretty good decisions to turn around his middle school year around and everything turned out well Gig’s dad lives but had to amputate one of his legs but better then having him die and the school dance did well he asked out Sydney(Gigs sister) and they went to the school dance and they kissed. Also Isaac went to the traveling team but Jackson’s team still beat the best team in there conference. My Analysis is that I recommend this book because it shows all different qualities of genres and if you love sports this is the book for you because it shows how he makes the game winning shot and everyone would like to make the game winning shot. The ending was good because Jackson’s Mothers marriage went great and he found out to like Ben’s step dad and his daughters.

[Nemo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think this is a good book, and I like it. It is talk about the basketball school life, Jackson and his friends are basketball player too. The story got lot of challenge, and they solve the problem. It show a lot of themes, like pay what you got, pay how much, get how much. If you want to get some thing, you need to work hard for it. : )

[Yewon kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was too hard to understand.

[Trevor Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author of this book is John Coy. I have read another book by this author and love is creative writing I love how he incorporates a everyday teenagers life into a book. This book compares to his other writings by the sports and challenges they face and how they accomplish them. The main character of this book is Jackson. Jackson affected the story by being himself and not letting anyone tell him what he should do or think. Gig played a big role in this story be him a Jackson being best friends anyone always being there for each other. Diego and Isaac played the same role being a best friend. I thought the theme of this book was to do what you think is right not what others think. The main idea for this book was to entertain readers about some life lessons for when they go to high school or middle school. I liked how the book was fairly short and got to the point in the story. I did not like how they would start to talk about one thing in one paragraph then all of sudden they switch to a different part of the story but it made kept reading to see what happened next so I guess it was a good thing. Overall I really enjoyed reading this book and recommend for anybody who likes the author John Coy or likes sports books.

[Reggie Ruiz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Take Your Best Shot by John Coy is about a 12 year old boy named Jackson who is in middle school. He is on the basketball team with his best friends, Gig, Diego, and Issac. Issac, who's the best player on their team, is offered a chance to play on the travel team, however, the four friends made an agreement to stick together on the team. However, Isssac's father forces him to join the travel team. Jackson begins to struggle in school, racking up two detentions due to talking about homework in class. Jackson also learns that his mother will marry Ted, his soon to be step-father. Without Issac on his basketball team, Jackson and his teammates learn the hard work and team work are more important than raw talent in the game of basketball.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

onathan Gabay
6c English
Mr. Brook
Nov.26.12

Take Your Best Shot by John Coy, is about a 12-year-old boy named Jackson who is going to middle school. He is discovering that middle school is really hard with detention, homework, and the expectations that his teachers and family have of him. Jackson is on the basketball team and he is doing well as a player during their practices. Although, one of his teachers Mr. Tedesco is giving his parents a bad report of Jackson’s progress during parent teacher conferences. But he is fortunate because his other teachers are giving better reports to his parents.

[Colby L · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is the last book in the 4 FOR 4 series. This book, along with the other books in this series, is about Jackson, Gig, Isaac, and Diego. There's a dance coming up, and everybody is going. Except for Jackson. With basketball, school, and homework, how will Jackson ever find a date for the dance? I think this is a great book to finish off this series. I would recommend this book to anybody who likes sports!

[Miss Pippi the Librarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Basketball, friendship, family, and a school dance brings twists and turns to Jackson's life. His basketball team is split up while at home his mom is marrying her boyfriend.

Themes: basketball, skills, teamwork, friendship
Characters: Jackson, Gig, Isaac, and Gig (numerous other classmates and ball players)

Artwork: none
Author's Note: none

Reviewed from a library copy.

[Andrea · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read for a class I'm taking...okay read for 3rd-6th grade boys, but huge lack of character development, and tons of names used...first, last, nicknames...hard to keep straight. Not my favorite - but I'm not a big basketball person either and there was a lot of game talk included.