Hello all, sorry for the lack of posts this past week. I mentioned that I did something interesting last week besides reading. Let me fill you in. I was in the hospital for emergency gallbladder removal surgery. Luckily it was dealt with quickly. I’m already feeling much better, it did throw me off my schedule for both my schoolwork and my hobbies. But I managed to get a few books in. Funnily enough, the first thing I asked for in post-op was reading material. If that doesn’t make me a book nerd, I’m not sure what will.
Synopsis
I wanted to focus on the newest graphic novel that I’ve read Hoops by Matt Tavares. The book gives a fictional account based on true stories, of a girls’ basketball team from the 1970’s. Tavares is best known for other sports picture books. So I think he was a good fit for this topic.
The book focus a team in the 1970s Indiana. The team the story follows is the newly formed girl’s basket ball team at Wilkins Regional High School. They are in their rookie season. They have to do everything from making their own snacks to fighting to use their own high school gym.
Unlike the boy’s team the Bears, the so dubbed “Lady Bears” don’t have buses to take them to their games. However, they seem to be winning pretty consistently. They don’t even have uniforms and have to borrow other teams old ones or make their own. With help from a committed female coach the team pushes through to an unimaginable victory
Review
I thought this book came out at a good time. The reason being we are now discussing trans people in sports and I see the parallels here. The characters are getting judged and looked down on for being women, the same way our trans athletes are today.
It is a good thing to look back on one’s history to think and move forward within the present time. This book was based partly on interviews from several women’s basketball teams that formed in the 1970s. I think that bit of real history grounded the story It made it all the more appealing to read.
I’d give this book four stars. I enjoyed the narrative line. I also enjoyed the main and side characters. In addition I enjoyed the art itself. It is bright and vibrant and fit well with the narrative.
I’d recommend this book for young to middle teens, especially those engaged with sports. It is also especially timely not only for its revelance to trans issue but for its relvance to things like Title 9 which could be pulled back through the anti-DEI initiatives.
Do you enjoy sports based books? I usually enjoy those about individual sports like swimming so this is a bit of a unusual topic for me. Let me know your favorites in the comments.
About the Author
Matt Tavares is the author-illustrator of the New York Times best-selling picture book Dasher, as well as Red and Lulu and several sports biographies, including Becoming Babe Ruth and Growing Up Pedro. He is also the illustrator of Twenty-One Steps: Guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier by Jeff Gottesfeld, The Gingerbread Pirates by Kristin Kladstrup, ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas,and Over the River and Through the Wood,among many other picture books. Matt Tavares lives in Maine.
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