Rimshots: Basketball Pix, Rolls, and Rhythms (Picture Puffins)
Grade 5 Up?Through unusual fonts and splashes of color, the design of this book mirrors the exuberant nature of this American pastime. Like the game, the poems are quick, energetic, and highly rhythmic, and the prose pieces, personal and passionate. The author/photographer reveals his unabashed love of the game and insight into the personal dynamics of the sport in each double-page spread. The pieces are both varied and accessible. In the humorous narrative "No Sole," different voices lecture a player complaining about how much his new shoes hurt. Each narrator remembers how it was "when I was your age," from no high-tech shoes, to no new shoes, to no shoes at all. In '"Please Put Me In, Coach!!"' a boy's pleading voice promises "not to hog," and "I'll listen to you now" if only he can go back in the game. "School's in Session" and "The Sweetest Roll" are gracefully shaped poems that will inspire students to create their own selections. The concluding piece, "Everything I Need to Know in Life, I Learned from Basketball," will surely find its way onto locker-room and gymnasium walls. All of the superb dual-toned photographs depict young men. Once students and teachers become aware of this title, it will bounce right off the shelves.?Lee Bock, Glenbrook Elementary School, Pulaski, WICopyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.