travel team mike lupica chapter summary

"Travel Team" Summary

By Mike Lupica

sports | 304 pages | Published in NaN

The #1 Bestseller!Twelve-year-old Danny Walker may be the smallest kid on the basketball court -- but don't tell him that. Because no one plays with more heart or court sense. But none of that matters when he is cut from his local travel team, the very same team his father led to national prominence as a boy. Danny's father, still smarting from his own troubles, knows Danny isn't the only kid who was cut for the wrong reason, and together, this washed-up former player and a bunch of never-say-die kids prove that the heart simply cannot be measured.For fans of The Bad News Bears, Hoosiers, the Mighty Ducks, and Mike Lupica's other New York Times bestselling novels Heat, The Underdogs, and Million-Dollar Throw, here is a book that proves that when the game knocks you down, champions stand tall.

Estimated read time: 5 min read

One Sentence Summary

After being cut from the travel basketball team, Danny Walker forms his own team and seeks redemption in the championship game.

Table of Contents

Introduction, brief synopsis, main characters, chapter summary, main events, themes and insights, reader's takeaway.

"Travel Team" is a young adult novel written by Mike Lupica. This inspiring and heartwarming story revolves around a 12-year-old boy named Danny Walker. The book addresses themes of determination, friendship, and the pursuit of dreams. Set in a small town in the United States, the narrative follows Danny as he strives to overcome obstacles and fulfill his passion for basketball. As the protagonist navigates challenges both on and off the court, readers are taken on a journey of self-discovery and perseverance.

Plot Overview

Danny Walker is a talented basketball player with dreams of making it to the travel team, an elite squad that competes in prestigious tournaments. However, Danny's hopes are dashed when he is cut from the team due to his small stature. Despite the setback, Danny refuses to give up on his passion for the game. With the help of his friends and the support of his coach, he sets out to form his own team and prove himself on the court.

The story is primarily set in the town of Middletown, a close-knit community where basketball holds significant importance. The vivid description of the town and its basketball culture provides a rich backdrop for the protagonist's journey. From the local courts to the intense tournament arenas, the setting plays a crucial role in shaping the events of the narrative.

Chapters 1-5

Danny dreams of making the travel basketball team, but his hopes are crushed when he is cut due to his size. Heartbroken, he seeks solace in his friends and begins to consider forming his own team.

Chapters 6-10

With the encouragement of his coach and friends, Danny starts assembling a group of players to form a new team. He faces skepticism and challenges but remains determined to prove himself.

Chapters 11-15

As Danny's team begins to take shape, they face opposition from other players and teams. The narrative delves into themes of friendship, teamwork, and the resilience of the human spirit.

Chapters 16-20

The newly formed team begins to train and prepare for upcoming tournaments. Danny's leadership and unwavering dedication inspire his teammates, and they start to bond both on and off the court.

Chapters 21-25

The team faces its first competitive challenges, testing their skills and camaraderie. Danny's growth as a player and a leader becomes evident as they navigate victories and setbacks.

Chapters 26-30

As the narrative reaches its climax, the team's hard work and determination are put to the ultimate test in a high-stakes tournament. Danny's journey of self-discovery and the power of belief come to the forefront.

• Danny's heartbreak after being cut from the travel team.
• The formation of Danny's own basketball team with the support of his friends and coach.
• The team's training and preparation for tournaments.
• Competitive challenges and victories that test the team's resilience.
• The climax at the high-stakes tournament, where Danny and his team face their ultimate test.
• Perseverance: The novel explores the theme of perseverance as Danny refuses to give up on his dreams despite facing numerous obstacles.
• Friendship: The importance of friendship and support is a central theme, highlighting the impact of loyal companions like Will in Danny's journey.
• Belief in oneself: The narrative emphasizes the power of self-belief and determination in overcoming adversity.

"Travel Team" offers readers an inspiring and relatable story about the pursuit of dreams and the resilience of the human spirit. Through Danny's journey, readers are reminded of the power of perseverance, friendship, and self-belief in the face of challenges.

In "Travel Team," Mike Lupica crafts a compelling narrative that not only captures the passion for basketball but also delves into universal themes of determination and friendship. The protagonist's journey serves as a source of inspiration for readers of all ages, making the book a poignant and uplifting read.

Travel Team FAQ

What is 'travel team' about.

Travel Team is a young adult novel about a 12-year-old boy named Danny Walker who is determined to form his own basketball team after being left out of his town's elite travel team.

Who is the author of 'Travel Team'?

The author of 'Travel Team' is Mike Lupica, a renowned sports journalist and author of many sports-themed novels for young readers.

What age group is 'Travel Team' suitable for?

The book is generally suitable for readers aged 10-14, but older readers and adults who enjoy sports-themed stories may also find it engaging.

Is 'Travel Team' part of a series?

No, 'Travel Team' is a standalone novel and does not belong to a series.

What are the main themes in 'Travel Team'?

The main themes in 'Travel Team' include perseverance, friendship, teamwork, and the love of basketball. The book also addresses issues of family dynamics and personal growth.

Books like Travel Team

By Nicole Williams

Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk

By Ben Fountain

By Ginger Scott

The Art of Fielding

By Chad Harbach

You are using an outdated browser. Please upgrade your browser to improve your experience.

• 168,891 literary resources
• 172 content providers
• 53,470 books

Travel Team Summary and Analysis

FreeBookNotes found 4 sites with book summaries or analysis of Travel Team . If there is a Travel Team SparkNotes, Shmoop guide, or Cliff Notes, you can find a link to each study guide below.

Among the summaries and analysis available for Travel Team , there are 1 Full Study Guide, 2 Short Summaries and 1 Book Review.

Depending on the study guide provider (SparkNotes, Shmoop, etc.), the resources below will generally offer Travel Team chapter summaries, quotes, and analysis of themes, characters, and symbols.

Travel Team

By mike lupica, full book notes and study guides.

Sites like SparkNotes with a Travel Team study guide or cliff notes. Also includes sites with a short overview, synopsis, book report, or summary of Mike Lupica’s Travel Team.

eNotes - Travel Team

Short book summaries.

Sites with a short overview, synopsis, book report, or summary of Travel Team by Mike Lupica.

SuperSummary (Plot Summaries) - Travel Team

Wikipedia - Travel Team

Book reviews.

Sites with a book review or quick commentary on Travel Team by Mike Lupica.

GoodReads - Travel Team

More Books by Mike Lupica

FreeBookNotes has 9 more books by Mike Lupica, with a total of 40 study guides.

Travel Team

43 pages • 1 hour read

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-7

Chapters 8-14

Chapters 15-21

Chapters 22-28

Chapters 29-33

Character Analysis

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Discussion Questions

“One good passer changes everything.” 

Basketball is about teamwork and about having fun. Danny learns this throughout the novel, finding that being valuable to a team doesn’t necessarily mean scoring all the points. One of his greatest skills as a player is the fact that he can pass well, and he comes to be more and more confident in his abilities by the end of the book.

“So, cool, he’d set aside this place in his heart for his dad and what his dad could give him. Wanting more but not expecting more, happy when his dad would show up, even unexpected, the way he did tonight, sad when he left.”

Danny learns so much about his dad over the course of the novel. At the start, they have a strained relationship in which his dad is only present periodically in his life. He wants nothing more than to feel his family reunited, and while Ali and Richie do not explicitly get back together by the end of the novel, both Ali and Danny have better relationships with Richie. 

“Danny was always struck first by how tall somebody was, was always playing off this adult’s height against somebody else’s. He did the same with kids, like he was comparison shopping, never really knowing how tall other kids were in feet and inches, even if he knew exactly what he was on a daily basis, exactly fifty-five inches—no sneakers—by his last check in the door frame of his room.”

Danny is constantly thinking about others’ height at the beginning of the novel, noticing how much taller others are than him. At first, he allows this to hurt his confidence, not sure that he can beat teams filled with larger players. He eventually lets himself accept the fact that his height doesn’t matter.

Don't Miss Out!

Access Study Guide Now

Related Titles

By Mike Lupica

Mike Lupica

Million Dollar Throw

Summer Ball

Featured Collections

Books that Feature the Theme of...

View Collection

Coming-of-Age Journeys

Realistic Fiction (High School)

Teams & Gangs

Travel Team Literature Guide

Description

SuperSummary’s Literature Guide for Travel Team by Mike Lupica provides text-specific content for close reading, engagement, and the development of thought-provoking assignments. Review and plan more easily with plot and character or key figures and events analyses, important quotes, essay topics, and more.

Note: This rich text-study resource for teacher and student support does not contain activities, quizzes, or discussion questions. For ready-to-use classroom materials, please consider one of our Teaching Units , which feature writing and discussion prompts, comprehension and analysis questions, and creative pre-built activities.

LITERATURE GUIDE

Delve into the easy-to-navigate 42-page guide with table of contents for chapter-by-chapter summaries and analyses on Travel Team . Build rich lessons using our comprehensive analyses of the book’s multiple themes, symbols, and motifs such as "Physical Size Versus Emotional Maturity" and "The Meaning of a Team".

Featured content also includes:

• Commentary on major characters
• 25 important quotes with accompanying analysis
• 10 thoughtful essay topics for writing or discussion

✏️ How to use:

Created to provide a thorough review and to support students’ deep understanding of Travel Team , our literature guide quickly refreshes teachers on important plot points or events throughout the book as well as essential themes, symbols and motifs. The contents of the guide provide a strong framework for helping students understand the underlying meaning of a work of literature.

Questions & Answers

Supersummary.

• We're hiring
• Help & FAQ
• Privacy policy
• Student privacy
• Terms of service
• Tell us what you think

Travel Team

Buy from other retailers, what's .css-1msjh1x{font-style:italic;} travel team about.

The #1 Bestseller! Twelve-year-old Danny Walker may be the smallest kid on the basketball court – but don’t tell him that. Because no one plays with more heart or court sense. But none of that matters when he is cut from his local travel team, the very same team his father led to national prominence as a boy. Danny’s father, still smarting from his own troubles, knows Danny isn’t the only kid who was cut for the wrong reason, and together, this washed-up former player and a bunch of never-say-die kids prove that the heart simply cannot be measured. For fans of The Bad News Bears, Hoosiers, the Mighty Ducks, and Mike Lupica’s other New York Times bestselling novels Heat, The Underdogs, and Million-Dollar Throw, here is a book that proves that when the game knocks you down, champions stand tall.

What Kind of Book is Travel Team

Book lists that include travel team.

The Creative Behind the Book

Mike Lupica is the author of multiple bestselling books for young readers, including the Home Team series, QB 1, Heat, Travel Team, Million-Dollar Throw, and The Underdogs. He has carved out a niche as the sporting world’s finest storyteller. Mike lives in Connecticut with his wife and their four children. When not writing novels, he writes for Daily News (New York) and is an award-winning sports commentator. You can visit Mike Lupica at MikeLupicaBooks.com.

What Has Mike Lupica Said About This Book

Nothing yet! Let Mike Lupica know that you want to hear from them about their book.

More Books by Mike Lupica

Other Books You Might Enjoy If You Liked Travel Team

Book Details

Contribute to this page.

So, SO close to perfection!

Just the barebones.

• Help Center
• Gift a Book Club
• Beautiful Collections
• Schedule Demo

Book Platform

• Find a Book
• Reading App
• Community Editors

Authors & Illustrators

• Get Your Book Reviewed
• Submit Original Work

Follow Bookroo

We will keep fighting for all libraries - stand with us!

Internet Archive Audio

• This Just In
• Grateful Dead
• Old Time Radio
• 78 RPMs and Cylinder Recordings
• Audio Books & Poetry
• Computers, Technology and Science
• Music, Arts & Culture
• News & Public Affairs
• Spirituality & Religion
• Radio News Archive

• Flickr Commons
• Occupy Wall Street Flickr
• NASA Images
• Solar System Collection
• Ames Research Center

• All Software
• Old School Emulation
• MS-DOS Games
• Historical Software
• Classic PC Games
• Software Library
• Kodi Archive and Support File
• Vintage Software
• CD-ROM Software
• CD-ROM Software Library
• Software Sites
• Tucows Software Library
• Shareware CD-ROMs
• Software Capsules Compilation
• CD-ROM Images
• ZX Spectrum
• DOOM Level CD

• Smithsonian Libraries
• FEDLINK (US)
• Lincoln Collection
• American Libraries
• Canadian Libraries
• Universal Library
• Project Gutenberg
• Children's Library
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• Books by Language
• Additional Collections

• Prelinger Archives
• Democracy Now!
• Occupy Wall Street
• TV NSA Clip Library
• Animation & Cartoons
• Arts & Music
• Computers & Technology
• Cultural & Academic Films
• Ephemeral Films
• Sports Videos
• Videogame Videos
• Youth Media

Search the history of over 866 billion web pages on the Internet.

Mobile Apps

• Wayback Machine (iOS)
• Wayback Machine (Android)

Browser Extensions

Archive-it subscription.

• Explore the Collections
• Build Collections

Save Page Now

Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future.

Please enter a valid web address

• Donate Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape

Travel team

Bookreader item preview, share or embed this item, flag this item for.

• Graphic Violence
• Explicit Sexual Content
• Hate Speech
• Misinformation/Disinformation
• Marketing/Phishing/Advertising
• Misleading/Inaccurate/Missing Metadata

plus-circle Add Review comment Reviews

2 Favorites

Better World Books

DOWNLOAD OPTIONS

No suitable files to display here.

IN COLLECTIONS

Uploaded by [email protected] on August 24, 2011

SIMILAR ITEMS (based on metadata)

Travel Team Characters

By mike lupika, travel team character list.

These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own.

Written by Callie Labrador

Danny Walker

Danny is the main character in the novel and is a very likeable twelve year old boy. His passion in life is basketball and he has a prodigious talent for the game, but although his game-playing abilities are impressive his greatest talent is his basketball IQ which is far beyond his years. His talent is partly natural, inherited from his father, Richie, and partly the result of hard work; all of Danny's basketball heroes are exponents of out working their contemporaries and Danny strives to emulate them. Although he likes his team-mates Danny's favorite times are spent alone in his driveway shooting hoops and playing one-on-one against carefully positioned lawn chairs. Danny also lives basketball because it is a bond with his father.

Danny is constantly frustrated by his inability to grow taller and measures himself regularly with little marks in the wall that he keeps hidden behind a poster in his bedroom. Although he makes self-deprecating comments about being short he is both self-conscious and upset about it, especially when being short is what takes travel basketball away from him.

Danny is a very aware boy who instinctively knows that he lives in a less desireable part of Middletown, that he attends a less prestigious school and that his mom cannot afford the new sneakers for him that other kids have, but he has come to terms with this and accepts it as the way things are. He admires and appreciates his mother and would love his parents to reunite, but is realistic enough to understand this is unlikely to happen.

Richie Walker

Richie Walker is Danny's father. He was drafted by the GoldenState Warriors and his career was cut short by a car accident that left him badly injured; the accident was always said to be caused by his losing control of the car but the truth is that Richie was an alcoholic who drove drunk. He has spent his life angry and resentful but by re-connecting with his son through basketball he is trying to make a fresh, positive start. Richie is not tactile and communicates through sports analogies and basketball terms. He is a loving father but learning daily how to show it.

Ali is Danny's mother and her life is dedicated to making him happy. She is firm but fair, and despite her anger towards Richie for leaving them tries to encourage Danny to have a relationship with him, although she tries to mitigate his disappointments and avoid getting his hopes up. She is not a big sports fan but realizes its importance in Danny's life and occasionally agrees to learn some basketball terminology. Ali is the backbone of the family and even twelve year old Danny recognizes she is "the strongest one of all of us".

Will Stoddard

Will is Danny's best friend and although he presents himself as a joker is sensitive enough to try to protect Danny from watching the Vikings travel team run their practice. Will is constantly talking, like a continual commentary on life, and is a comedic observer of situations with brutal truth in his comedy. Will is good at basketball but not as devoted to the sport as Danny.

Ty is Middletown's other basketball prodigy and he and Danny play instinctively together. He is a thoughtful, generous boy whose pleasant nature comes from his mother, not his overbearing father. Ty values friendship as highly as playing on a winning team and is instrumental in creating a winning Warriors team.

Tess Hewitt

Tess is tall, beautiful and smart. She has strong problem solving abilities and seems to have already out a plan into action before anyone else has even thought of a solution. She and Danny have a special friendship and she is gently concerned that he likes her more than any other girls. She has outstanding shopping skills and is a good friend.

Mr Eoss is the type of adult who never has a first name and is always "Mister".He is a bully who thinks his word goes in all situations. Having been the Mayor of Middletown he now believes himself to be Mayor of everything else as well. He is domineering and seems angered by his son's desire to actually enjoy basketball, believing enjoyment to be largely irrelevant. Growing up, he played basketball with Richie and it is apparent he was envious of his talent and success. A thoroughly un-likable man, he does seem to mellow slightly as the novel comes to an end.

Update this section!

You can help us out by revising, improving and updating this section.

After you claim a section you’ll have 24 hours to send in a draft. An editor will review the submission and either publish your submission or provide feedback.

Travel Team Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Travel Team is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Did the Warriors win the championship in the end and if they did who did they beat

The boys realize that if Mr Ross extending an olive branch to Richie is possible, then anything is possible, and in true underdog fashion they win the game. The Warriors beat Middletown.

What had Jeff Ross done after the tryouts?

Jeff Ross called Danny personally to tell him that he'd made the team. Danny's parents were old friends of his.

Who is a static character?

I might consider Ali Walker. She is still strong at the end of the book.

Study Guide for Travel Team

Travel Team study guide contains a biography of Mike Lupica, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Travel Team
• Travel Team Summary
• Character List

Wikipedia Entries for Travel Team

• Introduction