#1 New York Times bestseller Mike Lupica scores from downtown with his Comeback Kids series for young middle-grade readers. It's simple. All Billy Raynor wants to do is shoot. After all, he is one of the best shooters in the league. But with his dad as his coach, and his parents newly separated, somehow everything's become complicated. His brother Ben, the piano prodigy, hardly talks anymore. His mom is always traveling on business. And his dad is always on his case about not being a team player. But when Ben's piano recital falls on the same day as the championship game, it is Billy who teaches his dad the true meaning of being a team player. Praise for the Comeback Kids: Lupica portrays the action clearly and vividly, with a real sense of the excitement and unpredictable nature of the games. These are worthy additions to collections seeking to draw in middle-grade boys with an enthusiasm for athletics.” School Library Journal These should score big with middle-graders looking for alternatives to Matt Christopher's titles.” Publisher’s Weekly This title is a good choice for reluctant readers with a background in baseball.” School Library Journal Praise for the Comeback Kids: “Lupica portrays the action clearly and vividly, with a real sense of the excitement and unpredictable nature of the games. These are worthy additions to collections seeking to draw in middle-grade boys with an enthusiasm for athletics.” – School Library Journal “These should score big with middle-graders looking for alternatives to Matt Christopher's titles.” – Publisher’s Weekly “This title is a good choice for reluctant readers with a background in baseball.” – School Library Journal Mike Lupica is the author of multiple bestselling books for young readers, including QB 1 , Heat, Travel Team, Million-Dollar Throw, and The Underdogs. 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 Daily News, appears on ESPN's The Sports Reporters and hosts The Mike Lupica Show on ESPN Radio. You can visit Mike Lupica at mikelupicabooks.com One It had been three days since Billy Raynor’s dad told them that he was going to live in a different house. His mom explained that it was something known as a trial separation.” Yeah, Billy thought, a separation of thirteen blocks he’d counted them up after looking at the map in the phone bookplus the train station, plus the biggest park in town, Waverly Park, where all the ballfields were. His parents could call it a trial separation” all they wanted, try to wrap the whole thing up in grown- up language, the way grown- ups did when they had something bad to tell you. But they weren’t fooling Billy. His dad had left them. Now his mom was leaving, too. She wasn’t leaving for good. It was just another one of her business trips, one Billy had known was coming. She’d told him and his sister and his little brother that she had to go back up to Boston for a few days because of this big case she was working on. A real trial, instead of a dumb trial separation. That was why it was no big surprise to him that her suitcases were in the front hall again, lined up like fat toy soldiers. And why it was no surprise that the car taking her to the airport, one that looked exactly like the other long, black, take-her-to-the-airport cars, was parked in the driveway with the motor running. Another getaway car, Billy thought to himself, like in a movie. From the time his mom had started to get famous as a lawyer, even going on television sometimes, she always seemed to be going somewhere. Now it was because of a case she’d been working on for a while. She said it was an important one. But as far as Billy could tell, they all were. So she was going to be up in Boston for a few days. And his dad was now on the other side of town, even though it already felt to Billy like the other side of the whole country. Billy was ten, and both his parents were always telling him how bright he was. But he wasn’t bright enough to figure out what had happened to their family this week. He wondered sometimes if he was ever going to figure out grown-ups. His best friend, Lenny, said you had a better chance of figuring out girls. All he knew for sure, right now, the end of his first official week of living with only one parent in the house, was this: It was about to be no parents in the house. And on this Saturday morning, with his sixteen- year- old sister, Eliza, still at a sleepover and his brother, Ben, already at his piano lesson, pretty soon it would be the quietest house in the world. With their dad gone, at least the arguing between his parents had stopped. Only now Billy couldn’t decide what was worse, the arguing or the quiet. Of course, Peg would be around. Peg: the n