The Basket Counts [Hardcover]

Mike Weaver (Illustrator)

Book Description

Age Level: 8 and up

Illustrations and poetic text describe the movement and feel of the game of basketball.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

There is a studied pomp to both art and text in this collection of poems about basketball. Weaver's debut artwork is sometimes visually interesting, as when high-rise buildings menacingly dwarf the city playground chain-link fence, or when a wheelchair-bound player pops "the s h a r p e s t wheelchair/ wheeeelies." His full-page paintings feature careening angles, skewed perspectives, a multicultural cast of characters and hip teens. Often, however, Weaver's attempt to convey symbolic action is cartoon-like: literal flames surround players who are in the zone as the text announces, "Me/ hot./ You/ burn." Abstract curlicues swirl around the ball, net and players to suggest movement. While Adoff's "shaped speech" (made manifest in unorthodox letter spacing) is authoritative, it tends to call attention to itself rather than amplify the substance of the poems. Despite its striking cover of a basketball with a Seurat-like pebbled surface and shiny black lines, this self-conscious book about shooting hoops misses the mark. Ages 8-12. (Feb.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal

Grade 5-8-Adoff's visual and rhythmic poetry suits his subject well. Twenty-eight original poems describe the action and contemplation, sensation, and frustration of the game of basketball in the voices of short, tall, male, female, wheelchair-bound, and homeless young adults. The words are set precisely on the page, with varying letter spacing and justification, so that the shape of the text, white space, and title are as important as the words themselves. And yet, as important as the poems are visually, they need to be read aloud: "-pebble/rubber/ball/popping/up into/my right/palm-." Young people should enjoy reading these selections to one another, whether they are fans of the sport or not. Weaver's brightly colored illustrations, which feature urban kids of different races, are somewhat distracting. Adoff does such a brilliant and unique job of describing action, form, and motion through sound and structure that the bright pictures, depicting the illustrator's view of the action, make it difficult to concentrate on the actual poems. This title is suitable for a slightly younger audience than Charles R. Smith, Jr.'s Rimshots (Dutton, 1999). It is reminiscent of Robert Burleigh's Hoops (Harcourt, 1997), but offers a wider selection.
Nina Lindsay, Oakland Public Library, CA
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 48 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing; 1st edition (February 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0689801084
• ISBN-13: 978-0689801082
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 6.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,587,116 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For Hoopsters Young and Old, July 17, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Basket Counts (Hardcover)

Arnold Adoff's collection of poems makes connections for young, old (but never too old to take it to the hoop), female and male. My son and daughter (9 and 11) loved this book, and I am ordering it for my sister (a college coach). The illistrations are fabulous! These poems are inspirational and thoughtful.

4.0 out of 5 stars A slam dunk for poetry and basketball enthusiasts, March 15, 2011

By 

Eez rants and raves (Oregon) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Basket Counts (Hardcover)

Beautifully illustrated, this book makes you feel the pulse and rhythm of basketball. Connecting you to the sport in a way that nothing else can, except for actually playing, the poetry in this book puts the reader into the drive of the player and the textures of the court. For those who love the sport of basketball, this book is a quick and enjoyable read. The illustrations are divided equally between male and female players and also include a a boy driving to the hoop in a wheelchair, all of which are drawn to capture the energy and flow of the words in the book. The books type is laid out differently on each page to capture the individual thoughts of each poem. My favorite poem is aptly titled In your face and ends with, "I want you to memorize the back of my head". This is the dream and goal of all basketball players and the book captures many other similar hoop thoughts equally well. I would recommend this book particularly to female athletes ages 13-18 because of the strong emphasis on both female and male characters in the poems. I would also recommend this to boys ages 13-16 who enjoy the sport or who are reluctant readers.
The Basket Counts by Arnold Adoff
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2.0 out of 5 stars No Continuity, July 5, 2007

By 

A. Luciano (Lowell, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Basket Counts (Hardcover)

This book consists of free-verse poems that explore different aspects of basketball, from early-morning driveway practice, to shooting small objects into a hoop behind a bedroom door, to intense moments during a game.

The illustrations in this book were beautiful, and there were some nice moments in the poetry. However, the book as a whole didn't grab me. There was no continuity to the poems; instead of following one person or one team through a day or a season, the poems were random snippets of different basketball experiences, with different angles and different narrators. I also found the spacing of the poems very distracting. Many parts were organized into blocks, which looked good when the eye first skimmed the poem, but made them more difficult to read and process.