Snowboard Standoff

by Scott Ciencin, Fabian Cobos (Illustrator), Sergio Martínez (Illustrator)

Isaac Foster is far from cold-hearted, but this talented freestyler is pretty rigid in his ways. He's efficient, calculating, and believes there's a best way to do every trick in the book. Kai Palakiko, on the other hand, is an open-minded former surfer who believes adaptability is key to snowboarding success. But on Isaac's team, you either fall in line, or you fall by the wayside.

Genres: Sports

56 pages, Library Binding

First published August 1, 2011

About the author

Scott Ciencin was a New York Times best-selling novelist of 90+ books. He wrote adult and children's fiction and worked in a variety of mediums including comic books. He created programs for Scholastic Books, designed trading cards, consulted on video games, directed and produced audio programs & TV commercials, and wrote in the medical field about neurosurgery and neurology. He first worked in TV production as a writer, producer and director. He lived in Sarasota, Florida with his wife (and sometimes co-author) Denise.

(Also wrote under the pseudonyms Nick Baron and L.J. Oliver)

Reviews

[Michael Huscusson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Summary: Isaac and four of his friend’s team up for a snowboarding competition, until one of his friends breaks his leg. Kai, who has never snowboarded before, steps in to his place. Through tough training from Isaac, Kai performs great in the competition and helps his team defeat Team Alpha, the past champions and bullies of the competition.

Classroom Use: I feel like this story could be used as a read aloud in front of the class. Lots of students are very interested in snowboarding and skiing. Also, lots of students have participated in competitive events. After reading, you could have a share aloud between different table groups about a time they were in a competitive event.

The characters in this story fit perfectly for the story line. There were two different sides, the team of friends trying to win for each other and then the full of themselves bullies on the opposing team.

[Noah Ayala · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book was a good book, it shows that even though you might be new to a certain thing you can still do you a good thing, Because Kai the main character of the book is a surfer and he wasn't good at snowboarding at first then he was the tournament winner for the team.

[Brady · Rating 3 out of 5]

pretty neat

[Barbara · Rating 2 out of 5]

When one of Team Rogue's snowboarders is injured right before a big competition, surfer Kai steps in to take his place. Team captain Isaac Foster is leery about his ability to translate his talents on the water to the snow, but he does well except for his landings. Snowboard fans will enjoy this one although there's no way that they'll buy Kai's immediate mastery of the sport--all within one week.