King of the Bench is a series of books written by Steve Moore.
The series follows the life of a young boy named after the author. He attends Spirou T. Agnew Middle School with his two friends Carlos Dias and Joey Linguini, where the three of them regularly sign up for various sports teams.
However, they're not the best athletes the school has to offer (that honour goes to Becky O'Callahan). In fact, they're what you might call "benchwarmers". Not that that bothers them that much. In fact, they consider it about as fun as being out on the field. But, when they are out on the field, they certainly can throw their own weight around. Just not as much as the rest of the team.
The series has four books:
- Book 1: No Fear!
- Book 2: Control Freak
- Book 3: Kicking and Screaming
- Book 4: Comeback Kid
King Of The Bench contains examples of:
- Alliterative Name: Jimmy Jimerino
- Big Man on Campus: Jimmy Jimerino acts like one, complete with his own posse who always laugh at his jokes, no matter how many times he tells the same ones over and over again.
- Freudian Excuse: We learn in "Kicking and Screaming" that the reason Jimmy Jimerino is such a bully is because his dad is always pressuring him to be the best athlete.
- Gasshole: Carlos is one. In fact, his burp-talking does quite a bit of good for building up team spirit.
- In-Series Nickname: The coach of the school is referred to by Steve as "Coach Earwax" because of his habit of digging earwax out of his ears with his car keys.
- The principal of Nike Prep is referred to as "Jeeves" because of how polite and butler-like he is.
- Jerk Jock: Jimmy Jimerino because of his dad.
- Junior High: Steve is a middle school kid.
- Laser-Guided Karma: For all the ruckus he made in "Kicking and Screaming", Jimmy Jimerino's dad is sentenced to spend all future games sitting in front of Principal T.
- Miniature Senior Citizens: The principle of the school, Principal T, is a very tiny woman.
- My Beloved Smother: Steve's mom is a "turbo-hyper-worrywart" about every sports activity he takes part in because he's an only child.
- Passionate Sports Girl: Becky O'Callahan. She's on the team in every book in the series.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: In the first book, when Jimmy sees Steve's pet snake, Fido, he freaks out and costs the team the last game of the season.
