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Summary
Summary
Four players with one thing in common: the will to win
Malcolm wants to get to the NBA ASAP. Roko wants to be the pride of his native Croatia. Crispin wants the girl of his dreams. M.J. just wants a chance.
March Madness is in full swing, and there are only four teams left in the NCAA basketball championship. The heavily favored Michigan Spartans and the underdog Troy Trojans meet in the first game in the semifinals, and it's there that the fates of Malcolm, Roko, Crispin, and M.J. intertwine. As the last moments tick down on the game clock, you'll learn how each player went from being a kid who loved to shoot hoops to a powerful force in one of the most important games of the year. Which team will leave the Superdome victorious? In the end it will come down to which players have the most skill, the most drive, and the most heart.
Author Notes
Paul Volponi is the author of the critically acclaimed young adult novel Black & White. From 1992 to 1998, he taught adolescents on Rikers Island in New York City to read and write. Mr. Volponi worked at a day treatment center like Daytop teaching students and helping them prepare for the GED. Mr. Volponi lives in New York City.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 8 Up-The fates of four college basketball players come together as their teams meet in a semifinal game of the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Malcolm McBride and Michael Jordan (who bears the burden of being named after the game's greatest player) are members of the vaunted Michigan State Spartans while Roko Bacic and Crispin Rice play for the underdog Troy University Trojans. Their stories are told by means of flashbacks, journal entries, newspaper accounts, and TV interviews weaving in and out of the play-by-play. Brash, outspoken Malcolm, who grew up in a crime-ridden Detroit housing project and whose sister was killed in a drive-by shooting, makes no secret of his desire to secure a lucrative pro contract after one year of college basketball. For Roko, basketball is his ticket to a better life after his escape from war-torn Croatia. Michael's self-confidence has suffered from his inability to live up to his famous name, and Crispin is having second thoughts about a hasty (and public) proposal to a possibly faithless girlfriend. Malcolm, Michael, and Roko come across as being especially complex, multifaceted, driven individuals. Malcolm is in many ways the least likable but most compelling of the protagonists. He boldly speaks truth to power in challenging a college athletic system that routinely exploits student athletes while raking in hundreds of millions of dollars from their unpaid labors. With exciting game action and a candid exploration of the hypocrisy inherent so-called amateur sports, this gritty, realistic, and riveting novel deserves the wide audience it will no doubt attract.-Richard Luzer, Fair Haven Union High School, VT (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
A much-anticipated Final Four basketball game is played by the underdog Troy University Trojans and the Michigan State Spartans. As the nerve-racking game unfolds, flashbacks, newspaper articles, interviews, and journal entries introduce readers to four players and their previous struggles and successes. This is a well-structured story that conveys each player's passion for the game and desire to win. (c) Copyright 2012. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
(Fiction. 12 up) ]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* There's a strange alchemy in the sporting world, where a single game can take on mythic proportions, thanks to orbiting clusters of mini dramas in perfect alignment around it. Volponi's novel creates such a game in an NCAA tournament Final Four match between the heavily favored Michigan State Spartans and the uber-underdog Trojans, of Troy University. The Spartans are loaded with NBA-caliber talent, including one-and-done freshman superstar and trash-talker extraordinaire Malcolm McBride, while the Trojans fuel their Cinderella-story winning streak with team play led by an underrated Croatian point guard, Roko Bacic. But there's also a Spartan benchwarmer who's flailing under the weight of his name, Michael Jordan, and a Trojan center struggling to keep his mind on the court and off his maybe-cheating fiancee and cheerleader, Hope, nicknamed Hope of Troy by the media, angling for a feel-good human-interest story. Volponi dribbles out the players' backstories as the game goes into single, double, and then triple overtime, and in so doing finds room to comment on the divide between raw talent and focused dedication, individualism and teamwork, and confidence and arrogance. Most fascinating and timely is the discussion of the uncomfortable truth that although college athletics has become a multi-billion-dollar business, the players who make it all possible aren't allowed a dime of the earnings. As with all clutch performances, Volponi nails it when it counts in this dynamic story.--Chipman, Ian Copyright 2010 Booklist
New York Review of Books Review
THERE'S a lot more to playin' ball than just playin' ball. If you've spent time inside a hoops gym or run fives at the local streetball hot spot, you get this. I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that pickup basketball, along with all the armchair philosophy that colors it, taught me the world. But to the uninitiated, basketball is nothing more than what it looks like: a game. And books set against the backdrop of a game are often labeled like cans of soup and stuck on shelves reserved for "reluctant readers." Novels with sports themes can certainly lure jocks into the library, but the best of them reach toward literature. In time for the N.C.A.A. tournament, two basketball-infused novels, "The Final Four," by Paul Volponi ("Hurricane Song"), and "Boy21," by Matthew Quick ("Sorta Like a Rock Star"), move beyond the pick-and-roll, albeit to different degrees. "The Final Four" addresses March Madness head-on. Volponi builds the novel around a semifinal game, a thrilling, quadruple-overtime marathon that pits the perennial powerhouse Michigan State Spartans against the Cinderella of this fictional tournament, the Trojans of Troy University (yes, Trojan War references are scattered throughout). The story takes place over the course of the four overtime periods. Basketball action is certainly at the forefront, but the reader is continually pulled out of the Louisiana Superdome and thrust into the back stories of four players: the Spartans' Malcolm McBride, the blue-chip freshman with an attitude, and Michael Jordan, the scrappy sub known as M. J., whose game bears little resemblance to that of his famed namesake; and the Trojans' Roko Bacic, the charismatic, team-oriented Croatian, and Crispin Rice, who, just before the tournament, publicly proposed to his cheerleader girlfriend. This constant halting of forward momentum grows tiresome, but Volponi uses the structure to flesh out the off-court lives of his characters. We learn that Malcolm and Roko, seemingly polar opposites, are both motivated by loss. We read M. J.'s thoughtful college essay depicting the intricate social order inherent in pickup basketball. And a newspaper article breaks down the tremendous amount of money generated by the annual tournament and explores whether these so-called amateur athletes should start getting a piece of the pie. Volponi looks at March Madness from several angles, and one of the book's strengths is that it never slips into any kind of narrative agenda. But there are missteps. Besides pacing issues, some of the on-court banter is silly and longwinded. (After a hard screen frees Malcolm for a 3-pointer, his teammate barks: "Money McBride! We're the new Shrek and Donkey." Malcolm, pointing at his opponent, replies: "No, he's Donkey. But I'll take that Money tag.") Still, Volponi adroitly renders authentic and inspired basketball action, and ultimately the game is what's on display here. Basketball functions much differently in "Boy21," Matthew Quick's beautiful novel set in the fictional working-class, Irish-mob-influenced town of Bellmont. For Finley McManus (not so affectionately known at his high school as White Rabbit), the game serves as both identity and escape. The book opens with Finley musing, "Sometimes I pretend that shooting hoops in my backyard is my earliest memory." He's a point guard and returning starter on his high school squad, though he's more of a role player than a star. Finley and his longtime girlfriend, Erin Quinn, who plays on the girls' team ("probably the best girls' player in the state - no exaggeration"), work tirelessly on their games. Their plan is to have successful senior seasons, graduate, then move far away from Bellmont. They're so committed to basketball, in fact, that they break up every season so their relationship won't become a distraction. Finley's world is shaken, though, when his coach asks for a favor. Transferring in is a new kid whose parents have been murdered. His name is Russell Allen, but he refers to himself as Boy21, and he believes he's from outer space. He also happens to be one of the top-ranked point guards in the nation. Finley's coach asks him to befriend Russ and help integrate him into his new environment. This sets up a wonderfully complex dynamic: If Boy21 is as good as advertised, Finley will lose his starting spot and his identity. But if Finley refuses to help, he'll be violating his own personal code: "I do whatever Coach asks of me. He's my coach." Quick masterly handles the friendship that emerges, letting it build organically toward a moving scene in which the boys share heavily guarded personal secrets. "Boy21" also manages to avoid classic sports-novel devices. The story doesn't lead to each team member setting aside ego or culminate in the championship game. In fact, the basketball season fades as dangerous neighborhood elements converge on the people Finley cares about. One of the most powerful moments is when Finley first begins to question his loyalty to the game and his coach. It is this depth that makes "Boy21" more than a first-rate novel fueled by basketball; it's a first-rate work of art. Matt de la Peña is the author of many novels, including "Ball Don't Lie" and his latest, "I Will Save You," which has just been released in paperback. He attended college on a basketball scholarship.