TAKE THE SHOT

Looming team tryouts don’t quite overshadow friendship and family crises for a b-balling Florida seventh grader.

Energized by summer lessons in both hoops and life in Hoop Con (2024), Raam Patel faces a barrage of challenges as middle school commences: financial worries at home and the dismaying discovery that his bullying, charismatic basketball nemesis Payton Newman is now his classmate. Payton isn’t just a rival for a coveted spot on the school team; he’s also pulling Raam’s lifelong best friend, Cake, into his circle. Despite Raam’s obsessions with practicing and staying focused on the boards in the face of Payton’s jeering, the story contains little direct hoops play. What stand out instead are Raam’s experiences of daily life, from the rich evocation of the values and rhythms in his Hindu Indian American family and community to his crush on a classmate and his repeated efforts to get his coach to stop mispronouncing his name as “Ram.” Raam also wrestles with his dawning realization that Cake’s obsession with his social media presence and getting in with Payton signals a fading friendship. Sports journalist Shah really puts it to his protagonist with a family emergency just as the tryouts are beginning; seeing how he responds will give readers more good reason to cheer him on.

Light on hoops action, but when it comes to social-emotional substance, nothing but net.