{"product_id":"milliondollar-throw-isbn-9780142415580","title":"Million-Dollar Throw","description":"\u003cb\u003eFrom the #1 \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author of HEAT and TRAVEL TEAM.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003eEveryone calls Nate Brodie \"Brady\" because he's a New England quarterback, just like his idol, Tom Brady. And now he's got a chance to win a million dollars by throwing one pass through a target at halftime in the Patriots; Thanksgiving night game. More than anything, Nate's family needs the money—his dad's been downsized, his mom's working two jobs, and they're on the verge of losing their house. The worry is more weight than a 13-year-old can bear, and it's affecting his playing for his own football team. Suddenly the boy with the golden arm is having trouble completing a pass . . . but can he make the one that really counts?\u003cb\u003ePraise for \u003ci\u003eMillion-Dollar Throw\u003c\/i\u003e: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Lupica's football action engages, and his delineation of the athlete's thought process and emotional highs and lows of competition feels visceral and real.” –\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Lupica explores the themes of believing in yourself and handling pressure. Teens who love sports fiction . . . will find this book a rapid, enjoyable read.” –\u003ci\u003eVOYA \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“Lupica injects plenty of suspenseful sports action into the plot and creates a cast of uniformly likable characters whose faith in teamwork and in each other ultimately earns handsome rewards for all. A natural for graduates of Matt Christopher's sports stories.” –\u003ci\u003eBooklist          \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eMike Lupica\u003c\/b\u003e is the #1 bestselling author of many popular books for young readers, including \u003ci\u003eFantasy League\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eQB 1\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eHeat\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTravel Team\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eMillion-Dollar Throw\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eThe Underdogs\u003c\/i\u003e. He has carved out a niche as the sporting world’s finest storyteller. Mike lives in Connecticut with his wife and their four children. When not writing novels, Mike Lupica writes for New York's \u003ci\u003eDaily News,\u003c\/i\u003e appears weekly on ESPN's \u003ci\u003eThe Sports Reporters, \u003c\/i\u003eand hosts \u003ci\u003eThe Mike Lupica Show \u003c\/i\u003eon ESPN Radio. You can visit Mike Lupica at mikelupicabooks.com\u003cb\u003eChapter 1\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThis was always the best of it for Nate Brodie, when he felt the slap of the ball in his hands and began to back away from the center, when he felt as if he could see the whole field, and football made perfect sense to him.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eSometimes when you were thirteen nothing seemed to make sense, and the world came at you faster and trickier than flying objects in a video game.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eIt was never like that for him in football.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eNever.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eNate had been having more and more trouble figuring out his world lately, especially with everything that had been happening to his family. School was school—he tried hard, but there were times he just felt lost, in search of answers that wouldn’t come.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eAnd no matter how hard he tried, how hard he could try, he\u003cbr\u003ewas never going to make sense out of what was happening to his friend Abby.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eBut on a Saturday morning like this, underneath all the sun and blue sky, with the guys in the line already into their blocks and Nate feeling as if he had all day to throw the ball—feeling that weird calm he always felt in the pocket—he had all the answers.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eFootball was like this for Nate Brodie.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eAs he scanned the field now, he recognized one of those answers he instinctively knew. Pete Mullaney, his favorite receiver, was about to break into the clear. Once he did that, Nate knew Pete was going to run all day.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eWhen it was just Nate and Pete and some of the other guys on the team playing touch football in the empty lot next to Nate’s house, they called this play “Hutchins-and-Go.” One day Nate had told Pete to fake toward the Hutchins’ house, the one on the other side of the lot, fake like he was running a sideline pattern in that direction, and then, as soon as the guy covering him bit, Pete was supposed to plant his outside foot and spin and take off down the sidelines.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe play had just always been called Hutchins-and-Go after that.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eNate watched as Pete sold his fake now, sold it like he was selling candy, didn’t rush, even turned and looked back for the ball. That was when the defensive back on him committed, turned, and looked for the ball himself.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eOnly Pete was gone.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eAnd the ball wasn’t coming, at least not yet.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eNow it was just a question of what kind of throw Nate wanted to make. Because with the kind of arm he had—his buds and teammates always called him “Brady,” knowing that Tom Brady was Nate’s all-time favorite player—there were a couple of ways he could go. Nate could put a lot of air beneath the ball, really hang it up there and let Pete use those jets of his to run under it. Or Nate could gun one right now, throw one of those dead spirals that was the same as one of his football fastballs, put so much sting and hurt at the end of the pass that Pete sometimes said he wished he was allowed to wear a catcher’s mitt.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eNate decided to put this one way up there.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eMoon shot.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eHe rolled to his right now, feeling pressure coming from his left, a right-handed quarterback’s blind side, without actually seeing it. But just to make sure, to know exactly how much time he had, he shot a quick look over his shoulder and saw that the\u003cbr\u003eHollins Hills’ nose tackle had cleared Malcolm Burnley, Nate’s center and the best blocker Valley had, on an outside route and was coming hard, thinking he might have a shot at getting his first sack of the day.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eNate knew he didn’t.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eIn no hurry, Nate kept moving toward the sideline, toward the Valley bench, almost feeling as if he were floating. Having cleared the pocket completely, a nice patch of open green waited for him a few yards in front of Coach Rivers.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eHe stopped now, planting, making sure to square his shoulders so he didn’t drop his arm angle and sidearm the ball, setting himself on his back foot, carrying the ball high. The throwing mechanics that Coach said you pretty much had to be born with.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eAnd he let the ball rip.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eKnowing that the cornerback who had been covering Pete was never going to catch up with him and that the Hollins Hills safety had no chance of getting over to the sideline in time.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eHe watched the ball like it was on a string, like one of those perfect casts his dad used to make across the water when the two of them still had time to go fishing together, before his dad began working all the time.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eHe hoped his mom was getting this on the video recorder that was on its last legs and had been for a while, because his dad—working a double shift on Saturdays now—wasn’t here to see it in person.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe ball came down into Pete Mullaney’s hands, Pete in perfect stride, just crossing the Hollins Hills 10-yard line.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003ePete pressed the ball to the front of his white uniform with those sure hands of his and crossed the goal line. Then he turned and just tossed the ball to the referee, because if you played on a team with Nate Brodie, if he was the one throwing you the ball, you knew enough not to do some kind of crazy touchdown dance afterward.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eYou could be happy, just not happy enough to show the other team up.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eNate was running down the sideline now, almost as fast as Pete just had. All the things that were confusing about his thirteen-year-old life lately—the things that made him sad and just plain mad once he got away from a football field—Nate had left them all in his dust.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBy the time Nate got to Pete, the little wide receiver was on the Valley sideline, waiting for him with his arms stretched wide. Nate, taller than Pete by a whole helmet, grabbed him, picked him up, put him down just as quickly, as much celebration as he was going to allow himself, mostly because there was still some game left to play.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003ePete said, “That throw was legit.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“You always say that,” Nate said.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“No, Brady, this time I really mean it. That throw was, like, righteous.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eNate laughed now, couldn’t help it. “I had the wind behind me.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003ePete Mullaney shook his head, smiling from behind his face mask. “Dude,” he said, “as far as I can tell, your arm is pretty much where the wind starts.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eNate ran over to Coach Rivers then, to get the play Coach wanted them to run on the conversion. Then he ran back on the field and told his teammates he was faking to LaDell and then taking it in himself, on a roll to his left.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eNobody touched him. Valley was up 22–7. They all knew the game was over, even with the clock showing two minutes, straight up, left.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eHe and Pete ran off the field together, knowing that the forty-yarder they’d just hooked up on had put this one in the books.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eWhen Nate got back to the bench, Coach Rivers gave him a simple handshake.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“A Brady throw all the way,” he said.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“I wish,” Nate said.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“I’m serious,” Coach said. “Biggest throw of the season.”\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eFor now, Nate thought.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eFor now.","brand":"Viking Books for Young Readers","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44885797142757,"sku":"NP9780142415580","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780142415580.jpg?v=1767732703","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/milliondollar-throw-isbn-9780142415580","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}