An insightful, gripping account of basketball and bias.
Political events surrounding the 1936 Olympics intersect with the evolution of basketball in this outstanding history.
The first game of basketball was played in 1891 without nets or dribbling. Created by James Naismith as an indoor winter activity that would support Muscular Christianity, early participants from the YMCA training program in Springfield, Massachusetts, soon spread the new game worldwide. When basketball was added as a sport in the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Hitler saw it as an opportunity to showcase German might and athletic superiority. Meanwhile, American basketball players were holding fundraisers to help with travel costs while many Americans were calling for a boycott of the games altogether. Maraniss (Strong Inside, 2016, etc.) includes little-known facts about basketball, brutal information about Nazi Germany, and the harsh realities of blatant racism in the U.S. and Germany alike. The U.S. basketball team was all white; despite feeling conflicted by rampant anti-Semitism on both sides of the Atlantic, one Jewish player still chose to compete. Written with the captivating voice of a color commentator and the sobriety of a historian, Maraniss peppers readers with anecdotes, statistics, and play-by-play action, shining a spotlight on names found only in the footnotes of history while making it painfully clear that racism affected both politics and sport, tarnishing, a bit, each gold medal and the five Olympic rings.
An insightful, gripping account of basketball and bias. (afterword, Olympic basketball data, bibliography, index) (Nonfiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Nov. 5, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-525-51463-3
Page Count: 240
Publisher: Philomel
Review Posted Online: Aug. 20, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2019
Delightful.
A sweet second-chance romance set against the backdrop of the Korean entertainment industry.
Eighteen-year-old Min Sori’s life is a far cry from that of the average girl her age. To start with, there are her parents: Her father is a politician with presidential aspirations, and her mother is CEO of Joah, the major record label who signed XOXO, the hottest boy group of the hour. Sori’s relationship with her ambitious, absentee parents isn’t the closest—in fact, it’s strained at best. Sori has her own career as a rising model and Joah trainee, although she’s lost her passion for music and doesn’t really want to be an idol anymore. She just needs to find the courage to tell her mom that. But Sori is exhausted, thanks to her stressful family situation and feelings for ex-boyfriend Nathaniel Lee, XOXO’s Korean American lead vocalist and dancer, who’s extremely off-limits. It doesn’t help that their chemistry is still sizzling or that his family feels more comforting to her than her own. When push comes to shove, she may have to confront her feelings all at once—for Nathaniel, her parents, and her future. This charming companion to XOXO (2021) features lived-in characters and a swoony love story. Romanized Korean is smoothly incorporated throughout the book, and the South Korean setting is richly developed.
Delightful. (Romance. 13-18)Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024
ISBN: 9780063299306
Page Count: 352
Publisher: HarperTeen
Review Posted Online: Oct. 21, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2023
Sports’ biggest social movement moment of the decade gets a special homage.
Louisiana high school football star Russell Boudreaux chooses to take a stand.
NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick captured the world’s attention by kneeling during the national anthem to bring attention to police brutality against Black Americans. His courageous actions, which resulted in his expulsion from professional football, galvanized a generation of Black athletes to use athletic platforms to spotlight social injustice. This novel draws on this context to weave a tale about two up-and-coming Black high school football players trying to make the most of their final season and escape the harsh realities of their hometown lives. Russell is the Jackson High Jaguars’ formidable tight end, unstoppable when paired with his best friend and game-changing quarterback, Marion. Yet, when White players from well-off rival Westmond incite a fight during a game using racial epithets, Marion must deal with the unjust consequences of biased policing that not only land him off the team, but possibly in jail. Even worse, one of the officers involved was reassigned following the unprosecuted police murder of a Black boy in nearby Shreveport. For Gabby, Russell’s love interest and self-proclaimed intersectional feminist, this requires a courageous stand—but facing up to injustice brings unforeseen consequences; readers must navigate the complex ethics that inform a principled activist stance. Debut author Buford delivers a novel that bridges the mighty dreams of Last Chance Uwith the trenchant social critique of The Hate U Give.
Sports’ biggest social movement moment of the decade gets a special homage. (Fiction. 12-18)Pub Date: Sept. 14, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-335-40251-6
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Inkyard Press
Review Posted Online: July 7, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2021
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