Pick-Up Game: A Full Day of Full Court (review)
2011; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 64; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/bcc.2011.a414053
ISSN1558-6766
Autores Tópico(s)Gambling Behavior and Treatments
ResumoReviewed by: Pick-Up Game: A Full Day of Full Court Elizabeth Bush Aronson, Marc , ed. Pick-Up Game: A Full Day of Full Court; ed. by Marc Aronson and Charles R. Smith, Jr. . Candlewick, 2011. [176p]. ISBN 978-0-7636-4562-5 $15.99 Reviewed from galleys R* Gr. 7-12. Nine all-stars in the field of YA lit contribute stories that form a cumulative portrait of a ten-hour summer day at the famous West 4th Street Cage in Greenwich Village. Walter Dean Myers tips off with a tale that introduces Waco, a white guy with a powerhouse style, eerily cold breath, and "dead" eyes who freaks out his opponents. Bruce Brooks takes up the next game featuring KaySaan, a Vietnamese brainiac indifferent to b-ball until he discovers the fascinating biophysics of the play. Players move in and out of the various tales, created by one author but picked up later by another, creating a flow that mimics the action in and around the Cage. Baller hopefuls share the literary limelight with spectators (Sharon Flake follows the flirtation between chick-magnet Chester and an adoring fan ambivalent about her virginity), a film student (Rita Williams-Garcia creates a Spike Lee mini-me [End Page 268] who agrees to focus on a heavily scouted, overrated egomaniac but finds the real story in a street-hardened female athlete), and a disabled bystander who brokers a settlement over court time between a professional film crew and the pick-up teams that claim the Cage. Charles R. Smith supplies poetic segues between the stories, and Marc Aronson provides a closing note on the protocol for assembling the title: "We chose the date and gave each author a time slot. Each author knew who was on the court because we didn't let an author write a new story until the previous one was done." The process certainly works, resulting in an anthology of standalone stories that invite—no, demand—a straight read-through. [End Page 269] Copyright © 2011 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
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