Falling Short by Ernesto Cisneros was first published in 2022. This middle grade realistic novel tells the story of best friends, Isaac Castillo and Marco Honeyman, two sixth graders who each feel they need to change to make their parents happy. Isaac, a star basketball player, wants to improve his grades, and Marco, a talented scholar, wants to join the school basketball team. Despite adverse circumstances and a lack of natural aptitude, each perseveres until they achieve their goals. As they struggle with school bullies and problems at home, the two rely on one another for support and to make their dreams a reality. Falling Short received the 2022 International Latino Book Awards for Best Youth Latino Focused Chapter Book and Best Youth Chapter Fiction Book.

This study guide refers to the 2022 Quill Tree Books hardcover edition.

Content Warning: The source text and this guide contain depictions of bullying and substance use disorder.

Plot Summary

Isaac Castillo and Marco Honeyman are best friends and next-door neighbors beginning their first year of middle school. Both boys live with their mothers; Isaac’s mother and father recently separated, and Marco’s parents have been separated for some time. Both boys worry that who they are is not enough for their parents and have vowed to change things this school year. The two best friends have little else in common, however. Marco is a physically small boy who can be socially awkward. He is an academic all-star who believes his father would like him more and spend more time with him if he were an athlete; his plan for the year is to become involved in athletics. Isaac is a tall, muscular, and popular boy who is a talented basketball player. He blames himself for putting stress on his parents with his constant academic troubles, and he hopes that if he can have a good academic year, it will bring them back together.

Isaac is worried about Marco navigating the social scene of middle school without him, but Marco quickly makes three new friends: Oscar, Jorge, and Orlando. In his first class, Isaac makes friends with Alexxander, a basketball player who goes by the nickname “Dos Equis.” At lunch, Isaac sits with Marco and his new friends, but Isaac has a hard time keeping up with their conversation and wishes he could spend time with his own friends and former teammates, Luis, Nick, Ryan, and Saul.

After lunch, Marco and Isaac have physical education (PE) class together; Marco has another run-in with Byron Miller, an athletic eighth grader who taunted Marco for being so small earlier in the day. Isaac decides to beat the older boy when they are running laps; Isaac runs so hard that he throws up and has to go to the nurse’s office. Byron continues bullying Marco when Isaac is gone, and Nick and Ryan intervene. As the boys talk afterward, Nick and Ryan misunderstand Marco’s comments about basketball and urge him to try out for the team, believing him to be a great player. Nick and Ryan excitedly start calling him “Mugs,” after a famously short professional basketball player. Marco decides that he will try to make the team.

When Isaac’s father finally arrives to pick Isaac up, he is drunk. Wanting to get his father home and parked as quickly as possible, Isaac asks to go to his father’s new apartment instead of back home. Isaac discovers that his father has gone to a lot of trouble to make the apartment inviting for Isaac, and they spend the afternoon happily watching movies and eating junk food.

Meanwhile, Marco is at home researching everything he can about basketball. He finally goes over to Isaac’s and practices shooting, using Isaac’s hoop. Despite practicing for hours, however, he cannot make a single shot. He injures a finger, which Isaac’s mother ices for him, but he keeps on practicing. After Isaac arrives home from his father’s, his parents argue about his father not taking responsibility for making sure that Isaac does his homework and stays organized for school. Marco climbs into Isaac’s bedroom window, and the two talk. Marco helps Isaac get organized for school.

Isaac starts his second day of school determined to do better, but in the first period he accidentally seriously injures Dos Equis, and his guilt becomes all he can think about. When he is talking to Ryan and Nick at lunch, he learns about Marco’s basketball plans and resolves to help his friend learn to play. Marco sees his doctor, who tells him that he should rest his injured finger and not practice basketball for at least a week. After school, he immediately goes back to practicing, imagining what it would be like to finally make his dad proud. Isaac sees him practicing and spends time helping him; when he suggests that Marco shoot “granny” style, Marco finally makes his first successful shot. Isaac realizes that Marco might be able to play defense, and he begins teaching him how to guard another player; he is impressed with Marco’s determination and willingness to play through his pain.

That night, his mother unexpectedly must take his grandmother to see a doctor, but his father is too drunk to pick up Isaac. Isaac ends up spending the evening at Marco’s house, helping Marco learn more about basketball. Late that night, he tries to get through his homework, but Marco interrupts him, climbing into his window in the middle of a panic attack. Marco started his homework late and got stumped by a math problem; Isaac calms Marco down and gets him to go to sleep. Isaac works into the early morning to complete Marco’s math homework for him, leaving his homework unfinished.

The next day at school, before the first bell rings, Marco starts Isaac’s math homework while Isaac tackles his science work. They run out of time, so Marco sends Isaac off to class and hides in a restroom stall all first period to finish the rest of Isaac’s work. Isaac is grateful that he is more determined than ever to get Marco on the basketball team. At tryouts that afternoon, Marco’s pre-existing finger injury and the praise of Isaac and his friends motivate Coach Chavez to take it easy on Marco. Marco demonstrates enough skills to secure a spot on the basketball team. When Chavez learns of Byron’s bullying of Marco, he kicks Byron off the team. After tryouts, Isaac’s father takes both boys out to eat to celebrate, but Marco has a hard time enjoying himself when he compares Isaac’s relationship with his father to his and his father’s relationship.

The next morning, Isaac learns that his father has been in a serious car accident. He and his mother go to the ER, where Isaac’s father is unconscious and hooked up to many tubes and machines. Marco is devastated when he hears the news; Isaac’s father, Manuel, has often been more of a father to him than his father has. When he finally wakes up, he apologizes to his wife and son for his drinking. He knows that he is lucky to be alive and swears that he will make the most of the second chance he has been given.

Two weeks later, Isaac’s grades are the highest they have ever been. The boys play in a basketball tournament. Marco is thrilled that his father has shown up, determined to make him proud. The first game goes badly for Marco, however. He is so embarrassed that he sits out the team’s second game. Isaac and Marco’s team makes it to the tournament’s final game against Byron’s new team. Many of the players on Marco and Isaac’s team get sick from drinking tainted juice, and Marco ends up feeling like he must play in the final game to support his remaining teammates. After Byron fouls Marco twice, Marco gets a free throw opportunity that ties the game. When Isaac makes a shot at the buzzer, their team wins the tournament. Having both accomplished their goals, the boys realize that making others proud of them is not as important as being proud of themselves.