Hoop Dreams (Brian Chieco)

Title: Hoop Dreams
Author: Ben Joravsky
Publisher: Turner Publishing
Pages: 300

Where did you find the book? I saw the documentary that the book is based on and I liked it, so I read the book to see if it was as good as the documentary.

Brief Summary: The book is based on the two main characters, Arthur Agee and William Gates. They are both teenage African Americans growing up in inner city Chicago who have dreams of playing professional basketball. The book follows their lives freshman through senior year in high school. Not only does it follow their dreams of playing basketball, the book goes into depth about their daily life, friends, and obstacles they face.

Audience: I think the audience for this book is young adults, especially men and who are interested in sports, because of the topic of this book.

Author’s writing style: The author, Ben Joravsky, divides the book into four chapters, freshman through senior year, and switches back and forth between Arthur’s and William’s life between the chapters. Most of the book is quotes from the character, and the author seems to tell straight forward what occurs in their lives. The author definitely pays close attention to their dreams of playing pro basketball and the obstacles that they face, in addition to the competition between the two. Quote: “At first Arthur envied William’s promotion to varsity. He was happy for his friend, but he feared his own talents were wasted on freshman competition,” (47).

Passages:
“Alas, with the NBA lockout the summer league was canceled; so went Arthur’s first shot at the NBA. It seemed to him the story of his life- the next break would be his first,” (290). This quote struck me that I was surprised of how much bad luck that Arthur went through. He overcame many challenges in high school, and he still faced obstacles in and after college to pursue his dream.

“The coach ran down a list of William’s accomplishments- all-conference, all-state, four-year starter- before presenting him with the team’s Most Valuable Player award,” (271). This quote struck out to me because of how William was in fact the better basketball player than Arthur, but Arthur’s team made it farther in the state tournament. William had far more accomplishments and awards, but in the end it was Arthur’s team that prevailed.

“When William returned to the doctor’s office, he got the news he wanted to hear. The tear was in the cartilage. Wolin explained that his options were two-fold: they could excavate a good chunk of his cartilage or sew the tear,” (160). This quote struck out to me because I made a connection with the character. I knew what the character was feeling when the doctor told him the news of his knee. I felt like I was back in the doctor’s office when I hurt my knee and received the news of the MRI.

Interaction with book: I could really relate to the characters and events that happened in the book. Although I do not have dreams of playing the NBA, I could relate to their dreams of succeeding on their high school teams. Also, when William hurt his knee and surgery, that part really spoke to me because I went through the same experience he did. I can relate to William with how hard the recruiting process is because my brother is going through the same thing right now with football, and I see how difficult it is to decide where you want to play a college sport.