Pick-Up Game: A Full Day of Full Court - Softcover

Various

Softcover

ISBN 10: 076366068X ISBN 13: 9780763660680

Publisher: Candlewick, 2012

Synopsis

"Nine all-stars in the field of YA lit contribute stories. . . . An anthology of stand-alone stories that invite — no, demand — a straight read-through." — Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books (starred review)

Nine of YA literature’s top writers, including Walter Dean Myers, Rita Williams-Garcia, Adam Rapp, Joseph Bruchac, and Sharon Flake reveal how it all goes down in a searing collection of short stories, in which each one picks up where the previous one ends. Characters weave in and out of narratives, perspectives change, and emotions play out for a fluid and fast-paced ode to the game of street basketball. Crackling with humor, grit, and streetball philosophy, and featuring poems and photographs by Charles R. Smith Jr., this anthology is a slam dunk.

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From School Library Journal:

Gr 8 Up-Some of the most distinguished names in YA literature are represented in this collection of linked stories set on a celebrated New York City playground basketball court known as the Cage. Such luminaries as Walter Dean Myers, Bruce Brooks, Rita Williams-Garcia, and Robert Lipsyte examine the ways in which players, wannabes, and hangers-on interact in the vibrant, freewheeling subculture of inner-city playground hoops. All of the action takes place on one day, with recurring characters. The contributors offer different takes on them, forcing readers to consider the individuals from a variety of points of view. It is fascinating to see how these writers bring their own unique social and artistic vision to the portrayal of the individuals who weave in and out of the narratives. The stories are of uniformly high quality; one of the real crowd-pleasers is Sharon G. Flake's "Virgins Are Lucky," which stars a sassy, self-respecting girl who decides not to text the handsome star player who has so casually given her his number. Other characters who will live on in readers' memories are Adam Rapp's smart-mouthed, sensitive eighth-grader recently rescued from homelessness by a brooding Iraq War veteran and Joseph Bruchac's Native American man, stricken with respiratory problems as a result of his rescue work at the World Trade Center. Tying all the stories together is a shared love and respect not only for the game itself, but also for the lavishly talented (and all-too-often fatally flawed) legends of New York City playground basketball. An outstanding collection that belongs in every high school library.-Richard Luzer, Fair Haven Union High School, VT (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

About this edition

• Publisher: Candlewick
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 076366068X
• ISBN 13: 9780763660680
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176
• Editor: Aronson Marc, Smith Jr. Charles R.
• Illustrator: Smith Jr. Charles R.