A solid collection of choice basketball nuggets, “from the thrill of Cinderella teams to breathtaking, game-winning...
For basketball enthusiasts, an overview of the NCAA’s championship, highlighting the Final Four contestants.
It starts with 68 teams and proceeds by loss and elimination until two collegiate basketball squads square off in the finals. But, as Doeden has wisely estimated, it is often in the semifinals that the most memorable games are played: the Final Four. He starts this survey with the birth of modern basketball, its evolution from a rather flat-footed contest to its current electric wizardry, and on to the inevitable desire to crown a national champion at the end of the season. Doeden is clearly a sports enthusiast, capable of investing the most hackneyed phrases—“thrills, chills, and more than a share of heartbreak”—with total sincerity. Three-quarters of the book, which is saturated with glossy color photographs, is given over to memorable games, and the picks are almost a given. But Doeden still imbues them with considerable romance, especially when underdogs make it to the closing brackets. He also introduces important issues facing the sport today, such as player compensation and the potentially deleterious effects of the one-and-done model: players putting in one year of college (or one year after high school, period) before their eligibility to turn professional.
A solid collection of choice basketball nuggets, “from the thrill of Cinderella teams to breathtaking, game-winning buzzer-beaters.” (sources, glossary, further reading, index) (Nonfiction. 12-16)Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-4677-8780-2
Page Count: 64
Publisher: Millbrook/Lerner
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
Without that frame, this would have been a fine addition to the wacked-out summer-camp subgenre.
Survival camp? How can you not have bad feelings about that?
Sixteen-year-old nerd (or geek, but not dork) Henry Lambert has no desire to go to Strongwoods Survival Camp. His father thinks it might help Henry man up and free him of some of his odd phobias. Randy, Henry’s best friend since kindergarten, is excited at the prospect of going thanks to the camp’s promotional YouTube video, so Henry relents. When they arrive at the shabby camp in the middle of nowhere and meet the possibly insane counselor (and only staff member), Max, Henry’s bad feelings multiply. Max tries to train his five campers with a combination of carrot and stick, but the boys are not athletes, let alone survivalists. When a trio of gangsters drops in on the camp Games to try to collect the debt owed by the owner, the boys suddenly have to put their skills to the test. Too bad they don’t have any—at all. Strand’s summer-camp farce is peopled with sarcastic losers who’re chatty and wry. It’s often funny, and the gags turn in unexpected directions and would do Saturday Night Live skits proud. However, the story’s flow is hampered by an unnecessary and completely unfunny frame that takes place during the premier of the movie the boys make of their experience. The repeated intrusions bring the narrative to a screeching halt.
Without that frame, this would have been a fine addition to the wacked-out summer-camp subgenre. (Fiction. 12-14)Pub Date: March 1, 2014
ISBN: 978-1-4022-8455-7
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire
Review Posted Online: Jan. 14, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 2014
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fresh, beautifully written look at high school sports that sparkles with strong female athletes.
“The girls who played varsity last season each still nurse a secret wound, the thinnest of scabs capping a mountain of scar tissue.”
The intense pressure that Coach exerts on these former field hockey champions is far less than what they place on themselves. They are tormented by last season’s championship loss: Ali and Kearson choked; Mel, the leading scorer, didn’t score at all; and Phoebe limped off the field. This year, the West Essex Wildcats—including new members Grace and Luci—are willing to give up romance, free time, and family for the privilege of being a Wildcat. At sleepovers before weekend games the girls enjoy dinner, movies, and bonding, but on this night, the first before the new season, devastating secrets are revealed. Anyone who raised a high school championship trophy—or dreams of doing so—will find Vivian’s (Stay Sweet, 2018, etc.) book powerfully familiar and sink deeply into this juicy read. The writing is both poetic and blunt, just like the badass Wildcats. The pace may frustrate—it takes a while to grasp that the book is not about the season but a series of perspectives and shocking reveals over the course of one long night. The end, while satisfying, lacks sophistication. Most main characters are white; Ali is Korean American, and Luci is Argentinian and white American.
A fresh, beautifully written look at high school sports that sparkles with strong female athletes. (Fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: March 31, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5344-3990-0
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Dec. 21, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2020
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