They call it Twenty-One Nights with the Knights. But for Elvin Bishop—fourteen, overweight, and a self-proclaimed non-athlete—the summer "retreat" is more like the twenty-one trials of hell. As everyone around him slips smoothly into a slot in his chosen sport, Elvin is pounded on the football field, slammed on the baseball diamond, and tortured on the wrestling mat. An he still can't find a slot.But when his three weeks of torment come to an end, Elvin realizes that he's learned a thing or two. Like the value of a true friend. And the fact that everyone pays their dues sooner or later—even the guys on top. From the acclaimed author of "Shadow Boxer" and "Iceman, " here is a raw, darkly funny story about growing up and finding a place in the world.

I used to have a mother, and a friend, and anotherfriend. Now I got relationships. Elvin Bishop is fourteen—an official Young Adult. Having barely survived the sports camp that he and his best friends, Frankie and Mikie, attended in SLOT MACHINE, Elvin is actually ready for high school to begin. Or so he thinks. Suddenly, he's hurled into a whole now social scene, where relationships-the right relationships—are the name of the game. Leave it to Elvin to fall for exactly the wrong kind of girl—the kind of girl who is definitely not a part of any guy's cool plan. And that's just the beginning of his problems. With an appetite that forces him to shop at the Big and Tall, a mother who still talks to her long-dead husband, and a nasty case of hemorrhoids, is becoming cool something that Elvin can even pull off? 00-01 Tayshas High School Reading List

Elvin Bishop's uncle is a lot like Elvin's father. They're both dead, for instance. But Elvin's cool with that; it's the way it's been for as long as he can remember. Then one day it turns out that Uncle Alex isn't exactly dead. He is, instead, sitting on the couch, chewing a scone, and preparing to make up for lost time by fixing his sad-sack nephew before it's too late. Not long out of prison and perhaps not long for this world, Alex embarks on a crash course of tough love designed to turn Elvin into a real Bishop man. Despite his mighty powers of resistance and denial, Elvin is dragged on an odyssey that introduces him to glam tuba, hellfire-hot food, and the horrors of gym membership. Along the way he finds things he never wanted to look for—lost relatives, history, roots, regrets, and his own wobbly brand of strength.