Haikyu!! vol 1 by Haruichi Furudate

Shōyō Hinata loves playing volleyball, but he hasn't have enough people in his middle school club to make a full team.  Instead, he practices with whoever will set the ball for him - the girls' volleyball team, a women's volunteer team. When he finally gets enough people to enter his first and last ever tournament of middle school, they lose miserably to Tobio Kageyama's team that is a favorite for National competitions. When Hinata and Kageyama both end up at the same high school, they must set aside their middle school egos, learn to be teammates, and learn to share the spotlight before they can officially start playing with the official High School Club Volleyball team.  The team captain pit Hinata, Kageyama, and a veteran player against two new first-year hopefuls.  Whichever team of newbies wins will join the team.

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The main theme of this series seems to be that Volleyball club is intense!  Many of the athletic feats Hinata and Kageyama perform are drawn with much exaggeration and in similar manners to action-y, fight sequences from other manga.  Hinata is about a foot too short to do all the things he wants to, but he has some raw athletic ability, including some impressive speeds and jumping height. Hinata and Kageyama are polar opposites for each other, so there's definitely going too be some tension driving this series as they learn to be teammates together.

VIZ rates this for teen, and the story is mostly set in high school, but there is nothing in the first volume that would make this inappropriate for middle school audiences.  

Sara's Rating: 9/10
Suitability Levels: Grades 7-12

Publisher: VIZ Media
Publication Date: July 5, 2016
ISBN: 9781421587660 (Paperback)

Tags: Rating: 9/10, Suitability: Middle School, Suitability: High School, Manga, Sports, School Age, VIZ Media