From FIFA World Cup Champion, Olympic gold medalist, and bestselling author Alex Morgan comes the twelfth and final book in an empowering and fun-filled middle grade series about soccer and friendship. There are only two games separating the Kicks from the regional championship title. And with the Kentville Kangaroos boys’ team also on their way to the championship, Devin can’t contain her excitement for her friends! That is until Steve, Devin’s crush, admits that he doesn’t think girl soccer players are as good as the boys. Devin’s certain that the only want to prove him wrong is to work hard and player harder, like she’s always done. Instead, the Kicks and the Kangaroos place a bet: Whoever can get the most fans in the stands at their games is clearly the better team. But when their plans to bring in spectators puts both of their championship games in jeopardy, Devin has to make a choice. Is beating the boys worth risking the title the Kicks have played so hard for?

Not a Fan has already called more than one million readers to consider the demands and rewards of being a true disciple--moving from fan to follower in their relationship with Jesus. After years of serving God, pastor and bestselling author Kyle Idleman had a startling revelation: for too long, he had been living as a fan of Jesus; someone who tried to make Christianity seem as appealing, comfortable, and convenient as he possibly could to others. Idleman decided something had to change--he needed to embark on the journey of becoming a completely committed follower of God, not just a fan. Fans want to be close enough to Jesus to get all the benefits, but not so close that it requires sacrifice, while followers are all in and completely committed to Christ. Not a Fan gives you the tools you need to determine exactly where you stand when it comes to your relationship with Jesus. No matter where you are in your walk with Christ, Not a Fan calls you to consider the demands and rewards of being a true disciple. With frankness and a touch of humor, Idleman invites you to: Examine your relationship with God Determine if you're following Jesus or just following the rules Pray the way Jesus prayed Start truly living for the one who gave his all for you This expanded and updated version of Not a Fan also includes a new introduction and an entirely new chapter about how to practically live out the book's core message. Join Idleman as he challenges you to take an honest look at your relationship with Jesus and discover what it really means to be a follower.

100 EXTRAORDINARY STORIES ABOUT ORDINARY THINGS SIGNIFICANT OBJECTS: A Literary and Economic Experiment Can a great story transform a worthless trinket into a significant object? The Significant Objects project set out to answer that question once and for all, by recruiting a highly impressive crew of creative writers to invent stories about an unimpressive menagerie of items rescued from thrift stores and yard sales. That secondhand flotsam definitely becomes more valuable: sold on eBay, objects originally picked up for a buck or so sold for thousands of dollars in total — making the project a sensation in the literary blogosphere along the way. But something else happened, too: The stories created were astonishing, a cavalcade of surprising responses to the challenge of manufacturing significance. Who would have believed that random junk could inspire so much imagination? The founders of the Significant Objects project, that’s who. This book collects 100 of the finest tales from this unprecedented creative experiment; you’ll never look at a thrift-store curiosity the same way again. FEATURING ORIGINAL STORIES BY: Chris Adrian • Rob Agredo • Kurt Andersen • Rachel Axler • Rob Baedeker • Nicholson Baker • Rosecrans Baldwin • Matthew Battles • Charles Baxter • Kate Bernheimer • Susanna Breslin • Kevin Brockmeier • Matt Brown • Blake Butler • Meg Cabot • Tim Carvell • Patrick Cates • Dan Chaon • Susanna Daniel • Adam Davies • Kathryn Davis • Matthew De Abaitua • Stacey • D'Erasmo • Helen DeWitt • Doug Dorst • Mark Doty • Ben Ehrenreich • Mark Frauenfelder • Amy Fusselman • William Gibson • Myla Goldberg • Ben Greenman • Jason Grote • Jim Hanas • Jennifer Michael Hecht • Sheila Heti • Christine Hill • Dara Horn • Shelley Jackson • Heidi Julavits • Ben Katchor • Matt Klam • Wayne Koestenbaum • Josh Kramer • Kathryn Kuitenbrouwer • Neil LaBute • Victor LaValle • J. Robert Lennon • Jonathan Lethem • Todd Levin • Laura Lippman • Mimi Lipson • Robert Lopez • Joe Lyons • Sarah Manguso • Merrill Markoe • Tom McCarthy • Miranda Mellis • Lydia Millet • Maud Newton • Annie Nocenti • Stephen O’Connor • Stewart O’Nan • Jenny Offill • Gary Panter • Ed Park • James Parker • Benjamin Percy • Mark Jude Poirier • Padgett Powell • Bob Powers • Todd Pruzan • Dan Reines • Nathaniel Rich • Peter Rock • Lucinda Rosenfeld • Greg Rowland • Luc Sante • R.K. Scher • Toni Schlesinger • Matthew Sharpe • Jim Shepard • David Shields • Marisa Silver • Curtis Sittenfeld • Bruce Sterling • Scarlett Thomas • Jeff Turrentine • Deb Olin Unferth • Tom Vanderbilt • Matthew J. Wells • Joe Wenderoth • Margaret Wertheim • Colleen Werthmann • Colson Whitehead • Carl Wilson • Cintra Wilson • Sari Wilson • Douglas Wolk • John Wray

This book assesses the transformation of football fan culture from a gender perspective. Referring to the notions of homosociality, hegemonic masculinity and performative perspectives on gender and fandom, it investigates the processes of women entering the world of football fandom. Drawing on multidimensional qualitative and quantitative research, the book analyses different aspects of female fandom, such as women’s socialisation to be a fan, building their sense of fan identity, ways of performing fandom, and gender. Also, it explores the response of male fans by shedding light on the sense-making process of a growing number of female fans in the stands and its consequences for prevailingly male football culture. This study stands out for its richness and diversity of empirical material used in order to make a significant contribution to our understanding of social dynamics related to the changing nature of female football fandom. The book is fascinating reading for researchers and students in a broad range of areas, including gender studies, sociology of sport, football, women’s studies and Central Eastern European studies. It is also a valuable resource for scholars, and football and club authorities who have an interest in understanding the development of female football fandom and its impact on the male fandom community.

From FIFA World Cup Champion, Olympic gold medalist, and bestselling author Alex Morgan comes the empowering and fun-filled middle grade series about soccer and friendship. Aligned to Common Core Standards and correlated to state standards. Chapter Books is an imprint of Spotlight a division of ABDO.

“Olmsted opens a window into a psychologically compelling world of passion and purpose.” —Harvey Araton, author of Our Last Season: A Writer, a Fan, a Friendship Larry Olmsted’s writing and research have been called “eye-opening” (People), “impressive” (Publishers Weekly, starred review), and “enlightening” (Kirkus Reviews). Now, the New York Times and Washington Post bestselling author turns his expertise to a subject that has never been fully explored, delivering a highly entertaining game changer that uses brand-new research to show us why being a sports fan is good for us individually and is a force for positive change in society. Fans is a passionate reminder of how games, teams, and the communities dedicated to them are vital to our lives. Citing fascinating new studies on sports fandom, Larry Olmsted makes the case that the more you identify with a sports team, the better your social, psychological, and physical health is; the more meaningful your relationships are; and the more connected and happier you are. Fans maintain better cognitive processing as their gray matter ages; they have better language skills; and college students who follow sports have higher GPAs, better graduation rates, and higher incomes after graduating. And there’s more: On a societal level, sports help us heal after tragedies, providing community and hope when we need it most. Fans is the perfect gift for anyone who loves sports or anyone who loves someone who loves sports.

In this accessible study, a journalist examines the science, philosophy, and sociology behind being a sports fan. Sports fandom is either an aspect of a person's fundamental identity, or completely incomprehensible to those who aren’t fans at all. What is happening in our brains and bodies when we feel strong emotion while watching a game? How do sports fans resemble political junkies, and why do we form such a strong attachment to a sports team? Journalist Eric Simons presents in-depth research in an accessible and brilliant way, sure to interest readers of Malcolm Gladwell. Through reading the literature and attending neuroscience conferences, talking to fans, psychologists, and scientists, and working through his issues as part of a collaboration with the NPR science program RadioLab, Eric Simons hoped to find an answer that would explain why the attractive force of this relationship with treasured sports teams is so great that we can’t leave it. Praise for The Secret Lives of Sports Fans “Adroitly mixing research with feature reporting, Simons unveils some intriguing discoveries. . . . There’s a lot of science to digest, but Simons’s affable writing style—and his great eagerness to profile actual people, including himself—infuses the data with heart and soul.” —Publishers Weekly “An intriguing ride through “all the wondrous quirks and oddities in human nature.” —Kirkus Reviews

Everybody involved in sport, from the bleachers to the boardroom, should develop an understanding of ethics. Sport ethics prompt discussion of the central principles and ideals by which we all live our lives, and effective leadership in sport is invariably ethical leadership. This fascinating new introduction to sport ethics outlines key ethical theories in the context of sport as well as the fundamentals of moral reasoning. It explores all the central ethical issues in contemporary sport: from violence, hazing, and gambling to performance enhancement, doping, and discrimination. This book not only investigates the ethical, social, and legal underpinnings of the most important issues in sport today, but also introduces the reader to the foundations of ethical leadership in sport and discusses which leadership strategies are most effective. Each chapter includes original real-world case studies, learning exercises, and questions to encourage students to reflect on the ethical problems presented. Sport, Ethics and Leadership is an essential resource for any course on sport and leisure studies, the ethics and philosophy of sport, or sport and leisure management.

"To be a fan is to scream alone together." This is the discovery Hannah Ewens makes in Fangirls: how music fandom is at once a journey of self-definition and a conduit for connection and camaraderie; how it is both complicated and empowering; and how now, more than ever, fandoms composed of girls and young queer people create cultures that shape and change an entire industry. This book is about what it means to be a fangirl. Speaking to hundreds of fans from the UK, US, Europe, and Japan, Ewens tells the story of music fandom using its own voices, recounting previously untold or glossed-over scenes from modern pop and rock music history. In doing so, she uncovers the importance of fan devotion: how Ariana Grande represents both tragedy and resilience to her followers, or what it means to meet an artist like Lady Gaga in person. From One Directioners, to members of the Beyhive, to the author's own fandom experiences, this book reclaims the "fangirl" label for its young members, celebrating their purpose, their power, and, most of all, their passion for the music they love.

The View from the Stands is both the story of one fan's love of the game and an examination of the effect baseball has had on fans everywhere throughout its history. A collection of stories and insights compiled during the summer of 2002 in each of MLB's thirty parks, The View from the Stands provides us with the fans' perspective on every team and stadium in the league, and on the most important issues currently affecting the game. It gives a voice to the masses of people who fill our stadiums, and it explains how a child's game became the business it is today. This book examines the entire experience of live baseball, from the uncomfortable seats to the misplaced marketing ventures to the incredible feeling of seeing Bonds circle the bases. Baseball touches our lives in so many unexpected ways. By introducing us to the little boys who rush to the edge of the stands in Wrigley, the recovering alcoholic who found a new family at the Metrodome, and many others from all walks of life, The View from the Stands tells the story of our love of the game--what draws us in and what keeps us coming back for more.