Go Long!

It's Tiki and Ronde's second year on their junior high school football team, the Hidden Valley Eagles. The eighth-grade season is here, and the boys have come together as a team. Now key starters, Tiki and Ronde are ready for a great season, and with hard work and determination, maybe they will even go all the way to the State Championship!

But when Coach Spangler announces that he has been asked to move up to the high school team, and Mr. Wheeler, the science teacher, is tapped for the head coaching job, the season seems over before it begins. Sure, Coach Wheeler played college football until he was benched by an injury, but it just isn't the same. Tiki wants to give Coach Wheeler a chance, yet the team's loyalties are divided. What does a science teacher know about the game of football? Can the team work together, get behind their new coach, and play smart?

Inspired by the childhood of NFL superstars Tiki and Ronde Barber, Go Long! is a story of teamwork, perseverance, and what it takes to be a champion.

Ronde Barber is a record-holding cornerback who retired after fifteen seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. He is one of only two cornerbacks selected to the Pro Bowl five times. He is married with two daughters.

Tiki Barber is a record-holding retired running back for the New York Giants. He married and is the father of four children.

Paul Mantell is the author of more than 100 books for young readers, including books in the Hardy Boys and Matt Christopher series.

Kadir Nelson is an award-winning American artist whose works have been exhibited in major national and international publications, institutions, art galleries, and museums. Nelson is the illustrator of many beloved, award-winning, and?bestselling picture books including, We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball, winner of the Coretta Scott King and Robert F. Sibert Award;?Thunder Rose, written by Jerdine Nolen, which received a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Award;?Ellington Was Not a Street, written by Ntozake Shange, which received a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award;?Hewitt Anderson’s Great Big Life,?written by Jerdine Nolen, which won the 2005 Society of Illustrators Gold Medal; and?Mama Miti:?Wangari Maathai and the Trees of Kenya?by Donna Jo Napoli called “stunning” by Kirkus Reviews in a starred review.?He is also the illustrator of Deloris Jordan and Roslyn M. Jordan’s?Salt in His Shoes?and Spike Lee and Tonya Lewis Lee’s?Please, Baby, Please and?Please, Puppy, Please. Kadir Nelson lives in Los Angeles.