When your high-tech sneakers vanish, can you still be brave enough to face your biggest bully?
What's worse than being called too short for basketball? Losing your secret weapon high-tech sneakers to a gang of sneaky third graders.
Thirteen-year-old Bernard "Hoop Kid" Jones thought fancy sneakers would solve all his problems—finally dunk, silence his park bully, and prove he's got game. But when the shoes malfunction and launch him into a public pool, he leaves them to dry… and they disappear.
Now Bernard has exactly one day to find them before facing his bully. And his parents.
Armed with only bus fare, determination, and his talking basketball Coach G5000, Bernard races across Kansas City in a wild adventure filled with unforgettable characters, including a tiny bus driver proving size doesn't matter, a truth-telling BBQ pitmaster, a wise jazz musician, and a basketball legend with a shocking secret about his bully.
With each stop, Bernard gets closer to his sneakers… and to a truth he never expected: maybe he never needed them in the first place.
A high-energy basketball adventure for fans of Ghost by Jason Reynolds and The Crossover by Kwame Alexander. Perfect for readers who love underdog stories, laugh-out-loud humor, and discovering that real courage comes from within—not from a box with really cool sneakers.
