The book Travel Team written by Mike Lupica has the literary merits of plot development. The story has parts rising up to the main plot and what the effect of the plot is afterwards. Therefore the literary merit of the story is plot development.

The main plot to the story is about a kid named Danny Walker. He is one of the shorter kids of his age. Danny loves basketball. He eats, sleeps, and breaths basketball. He is a great player, not only for his size, for anyone. He was on the town’s travel team in the 6th grade. He knew that he was one of the best players on the court in every game. All this thinking changes when he gets cut from the 7th grade team. This discourages Danny and he talks about never playing basketball again. Danny’s father, Richie Walker, played on the town’s same travel team when he was Danny’s age. Their team ended up winning the national championship and Richie Walker grew up to play for the Golden State Warriors. He would have been a star, but a bad car accident took him from the game. He now wants to give kids like Danny, who didn’t make the travel team because of something other than their skill level, a second chance. Richie Walker starts a team including Danny with all of the other rejects of the tryouts.

After the section of the main plot there are sections on what the plot leads up to. The Middletown Warriors, Danny’s team’s name, start off very poorly. Danny and his father already knew the team wouldn’t be very good. An example is, “Nothing. Danny decided after the first hour. They had nothing. They were either hopeless or helpless, he could go either way (pg. 84). They were willing to work harder to make the team better though. An example of this is, ‘Keep your eyes on the prize little man,’ Coach Kel said when he got out of the car. ‘I’m trying, Coach K (pg. 182),’ Danny said. ‘I’m trying.’ The warriors, who thought they wouldn’t win any games started winning and in the tournament they beat the main travel team! The reason they were all on the warriors, to show that nothing but faith matters.

The literary merit of the book, plot development, was shown throughout the book. The plot developed through the story and supported rising action which led up to the climax at the end of the book. The plot development helped show the relationship between the main plot and the rest of the story, that the boy didn’t make the team because he was too short and his dad wanted to help him and other kids prove that heart is all it takes.