BASKETBALL (OR SOMETHING LIKE IT)
by Nora Raleigh Baskin
HarperCollins
ISBN: 0060596104
Ages 8-12
176 pages

North Bridge is your typical white (well, almost) well-to-do suburban community. What is not typical is their basketball team. It's a mess.

The demanding parents insist that their boy play every game, that the coach be fired --- coach after exasperated coach --- and that their child practice until he becomes the team's star player. And nothing less will do.

Meanwhile there's the team, to use the word loosely. Jeremy, a terrific basketball player, moves abruptly from the city to North Bridge to live temporarily with his grandmother. But Jeremy doesn't feel like he belongs (surprise, surprise) and doesn't want to play basketball.

There's Hank, whose parents expect him to be the star player. They come to every game, cameras in hand. But in the season's most crucial game, Hank gets himself purposely kicked out of the competition. Dad is not happy.

Then there's Nathan. He's the world's worst player, but he tells his parents that he's terrific. When they come to the final game of the season, Nathan is dying. Amazingly, he executes a brilliant pass --- perfectly to a player on the opposing team. And then, when the score is tied, and there's a few seconds left in the game, who do you think has to make the winning --- or losing --- penalty shot?

As for Mr. Bischoff --- the coach the team ends up with in their final, crucial game --- well, he's a loser too. He swears and yells at the players. His son, by a strange coincidence, plays guard in all the games, even though there are better players.

Anabel is a North Bridge basketball groupie. She can't play on the team, of course, but she does play a very important part in helping the squad become a real team and even --- miracle of miracles --- win!

How all this comes about is a great story, full of wonderful surprises. The characters will ring true for any kid who has ever played basketball and has parents who have nagged and pushed him or her to be the best player on the team.

BASKETBALL (OR SOMETHING LIKE IT) is a marvelous and touching book that might --- just might --- leave a tear in your eye.

   --- Reviewed by Robert Oksner (oksnerinc@attglobal.net)

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