This book has it all: drama, suspense, sports, history, romance. Bobby and his friends play basketball, but since their junior high school doesn’t have a gym, they are an unofficial team –no coach, no uniforms, and they hitchhike to most of the games. When Bobby finds out there’s an extra slot in the local tournament, the Owls really get down to it. Bobby starts hanging around the high school practices to see how they practice, and he tries to get the Owls to do the same drills. The suspense comes into play with their new (and attractive) teacher, Miss Delaney. One day when Bobby is staying after school for detention, he looks out the window and sees a man threatening Miss Delaney. He scares the guy off by yelling out the window, but he just can’t let it go until he finds out who the man is and why he’s hassling Miss Delaney. The ensuing surveillance turns up Nazi connections (the book takes place just at the end of WW II), a secret marriage and a phony identity. The romance comes with Bobby’s best friend, Joanie, who Bobby maybe has more feelings for than he realized. The Owls are great friends –always there for each other, even when they clash about what to do on the basketball court or who is Joanie’s boyfriend. If you’ve read any of Parker’s adult novels about the detective Spenser, you’ll recognize his character in the young Bobby. There’s a ton of historical information inserted in separate sections of the book that really set the scene of the time period. Review by Stacy Church
