Toby Wheeler 8th Grade Benchwarmer

  One important conflict in the book is friendship. In the beginning of the book Toby was really close to his best friend JJ. Then JJ started hanging out with his new friends, Stephen and Valerie, and started spending less time with Toby.Whenever JJ was with Stephen and Valerie, he would act like a jerk to Toby. Soon JJ barely hung out with Toby. Since JJ barely spent any time with him, Toby decided to join the school basketball team since JJ was already on it. When Toby joined the team, JJ hardly ever spoke to Toby during practices and games. At the end of the book Toby and JJ became friends again. 

  Another important conflict in the book is parents pressuring kids to do good in sports. In the book JJ's dad pressures him to do good in basketball. He made JJ practice all the time and watch tapes of games when he was not practicing. Whenever JJ had a bad game, his father would yell at him and make him watch tapes of old games. The pressure eventually led to JJ quitting basketball and leaving the team. At the end of the book JJ came back to the team and helped them win the championship.

Toby Wheeler 8th Grade Benchwarmer

The book Toby Wheeler 8th Grade Benchwarmer is about an 8th grader named Toby Wheeler who joins his middle school basketball team only to become a benchwarmer. He only joined the basketball team to spend more time with his friend J.J. When he goes to the team practice he expects to immediateley become a starter or sixth man, but he ends up becoming the 12th man. In the beginning of the season he was always at the end of the bench and never got to play, but as time went on his role increased and he started playing more. His team eventually won the championship at the end of the season.


The authors purpose is to show that it takes a whole team to win in basketball. His purpose is also to show that if you work hard to become a better player, it will pay off in the end. For example, in the beginning of the book Toby was a benchwarmer, but after practicing hard to become a better player, it paid off and he started to perform better in games and in practice which led to him getting more playing time.