Book Description
Who says winning isn't everything?Not the people who live on Spruce Island, my new home. Around here, little things -- you know, like world peace -- are definitely second to basketball. I probably shouldn't even have gone out for the team. I mean, I'm no Shaq. But I wanted to make friends. Boy, did I! Big friends. Well, just one, actually -- Ed. He's a bigfoot. But he's just a kid bigfoot. So when he...um...dropped in on my coach, we got this great idea. Teach him how to play basketball. Give those win-hungry fans something to cheer about. So we did. And you'll never believe what happens when you teach a bigfoot to slam dunk. Wow!

Simon & Schuster
Who says winning isn't everything? Not the people who live on Spruce Island, my new home. Around here, little things -- you know, like world peace -- are definitely second to basketball. I probably shouldn't have even gone out for the team. I mean, I'm no Shaq. But I wanted to make friends. Boy did I! Big friends. Well, just one actually -- Ed. He's a bigfoot. But he's just a kid bigfoot. So when he...um...dropped in on my coach, we got this great idea. Teach him how to play basketball. Give those win-hungry fans something to cheer about. So we did. And you'll never believe what happens when you teach a bigfoot to slam dunk. Wow!

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Preface

My name is Picasso Dewlap. I'm a seventh grader at Spruce Island Middle School in Maine. We moved here to the island from Chicago last year when I was in sixth because my father got a job with the Bumstock Lawn Ornament Company. He designs ceramic lawn ornaments. They're the little statues -- usually stuff like pink flamingos and elves and birdbaths -- that people put out on their lawns for decoration.

We moved in early November. That's when I started keeping a journal. I thought I'd have lots of exciting adventures living on an island, and I wanted to write them all down and make a book out of them -- and then sell the story to Hollywood, and I'd star in the movie and do my own stunts and everything and be a millionaire by the time I started high school.

But life on Spruce Island was boring. I didn't catch a great white shark or ride on the back of a whale or even rescue a drowning fisherman. I just went to school and came home and wondered when I was going to make some friends and have some fun.

I thought I could make friends if I was on the basketball team, so I tried out. And guess what -- I made it! (Even though I was lousy.) Only a couple of guys got cut from the team, and they were even worse than I was -- believe it or not.

Anyway, I've written this preface to let you know what went on before my book starts. Believe me, you wouldn't want to read the entries in my journal before I went out for the basketball team. Even some of them after I made the team could put you to sleep.

The good stuff started on December 19, so that's the beginning of this book.

I've done my best to write an accurate account of the story -- you know, what people looked like and who said what and everything -- so whoever reads this book can get a clear idea of what went on. I didn't write the story for myself. I didn't need to. I could never forget what happened if I live to be a hundred.