Quarterback Joe Mitchell and his tightknit backfield are leading the Hillcrest High Panthers to a second straight championship season and have promised to go on to college together. Then word spreads that a major football school is interested in Joe, and only Joe, while a newspaper article claims that he's actually carrying his team single-handedly. Joe's certainty melts into confusion and doubt: Is he really that good? Should he stand by his promise, or keep his options open? Meanwhile, the shaken Panthers barely beat a weak rival and face an undefeated powerhouse for the season's last game. Joe's labored, repetitive agonizing slows the first half, but the pace picks up; Dygard can always be relied on for vivid sports action, and the climactic gridiron battle is as exciting as any in sports fiction. Finally, after the Panthers lose by a whisker, Joe realizes he's made his decision, most of his friends, clearer-eyed, are unsurprised. Uneven, but a strong finisher. (Fiction. 12-16)
Pub Date: Sept. 21, 1992
ISBN: 0-688-11471-7
Page Count: 208
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1992
Mick Johnson wants to be a star running back. He’s good, but not good enough. The trouble is the red zone, the 20 yards in front of the end zone, and he’s not quite powerful enough to crunch his way in against big defenders. He begins working harder, lifting weights and taking protein powders, but progress is slow. He starts going to Popeye’s gym, where his trainer introduces him to steroids—gym candy—and then to “stacks,” mixes of pills and injections. This cautionary tale, told in first person, is a methodical working out of the psychology of the high-school athlete willing to do anything to gain an edge. It’s a moral tale, too, as Mick realizes what he has lost for his gains. After almost killing a friend and himself and going through rehab, he understands the almost-irresistible lure of the drugs that promise to make him more than he could be on his own. A superb sports novel with no easy resolutions and a good match with Robert Lipsyte’s Raiders Night (2006). (Fiction. 12-15)
Pub Date: Sept. 3, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-618-77713-6
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2007
A provocative shot but far from a slam-dunk.
After a promising young talent is shot dead on a neighborhood basketball court, the game takes on new meaning for a community in mourning.
Middle schooler Tony “Tone” Washington lost a close friend when a police officer opened fire on honor student Dante Jones, cutting the nationally ranked basketball player’s life short. The working-class Milwaukee neighborhood Tone and his family live in is no stranger to injustice, so in the aftermath, a rally, protest, and candlelight vigil are organized in tragically routine fashion. All the while, Tone’s focus is on making an elite local AAU basketball team, partially in commemoration of his late friend but also because—despite recognizing some of the disconcerting aspects of so much of your future being determined as a young teen—the sport takes up a significant space in the lives and dreams of the boys in his neighborhood. But the overlap of hoop dreams and police brutality ultimately makes for some uncomfortable and uneven narrative beats. As Tone narrates his interactions with Dante’s younger brother, Terry, the latter boy is obviously and justifiably angry and hurt because of his very personal loss, making Tone’s dogged focus on basketball strike a hollow note. Despite some compelling reflections on community and emotional health, sports clichés abound on the way to the national championship, and the impact of Dante’s death only three months earlier is not fully explored. Most characters are assumed Black.
A provocative shot but far from a slam-dunk. (Fiction. 12-16)Pub Date: Sept. 6, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-06-306959-6
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: July 12, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2022
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