Title: Pick and Roll
Author: Kelsey Blair
Author Page at Lorimer: Kelsey Blair
Publisher: James Lorimer & Company
Year: September 1, 2014
Pages: 80 (e-book)
[Disclaimer: I was provided a preview copy of this via NetGalley in exchange for my fair and unbiased review. The version I read and now review was in the form of an e-book I accessed through Adobe Digital Editions on ny Nook reader. Pages numbers may not correspond exactly to other versions.]
Fry reading Level: 3.0 (according to publisher)
Reading age: Grades 4-8 (ages 10-13, again, according to the publisher).
Those who are interested in sports, especially girls basketball, will be interested in this short volume from Lorimer author Kelsey Blair. This is a middle school aged book which I think will appeal to both boys and girls even though the book focuses almost entirely on tension filled, junior high sports world of girls basketball. I suppose unless one has lived it they would never know that the world of junior high sports is so competitive, tension filled, and melodramatic. Nevertheless, that is the impression I got while reading this book. I am not suggesting that is a bad thing merely that this is the nature of the book.
The only real complaint I have about the book is that I think students from the United States who read this volume will be a little confused by the spelling of some words. For example, the words 'offense' and 'defense' are consistently spelled 'offence' and 'defence.' I'm not privy to the publisher's intentions so I cannot make any predictions, but it might be helpful if versions sold in the US had these words spelled with their American English spellings.
The story of Jazz, a junior high girls basketball player, is a fun read. It is written by a woman who herself was a basketball player and who, thus, understands basketball and the lingo and nomenclature well. Technically, the book is spot on. As far as the behavior of junior high girls, I suppose that is spot on too, but I'm from a generation that grew up reading Blubber and Otherwise Known as Shelia the Great. Blair was a little more subtle in describing this tension, and that might be a good thing. I liked that the difficulties experienced by the girls in the book were resolved relatively easily--and on the basketball court. While there was some teenage jealousy and subterfuge going on in the story, the author does a good job of writing about it in a tactful manner. In other words, it wasn't too terribly hyperbolic.
Some of the language and technical basketball lingo might need a little translation for some readers, but I think the author captures well the spirit of teenage jealousies and rivalries and has translated them into a readable story with genuine characters. Jazz is a complex character and offers many surprises throughout the story. There are times when she is likable and other times when she is difficult to figure, but I think young people reading the story will understand all to well the complexities of junior high social politics. And I think they will enjoy the story as I did.
4/5 stars
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