From School Library Journal
Grade 8 Up–On the neighborhood basketball court, Andre Anderson jockeys for position among his multicultural group of buddies, but, off the court, the African-American teen's writing talent puts him in the spotlight. Given the opportunity to write a feature article on racism for the national magazine where he works as an intern, he addresses his feelings honestly. As a result, he is brutally attacked by a group of racists, hoping to silence his pen by symbolically crushing his hand in a car door. The incident incites a gamut of responses among his friends, his Latina girlfriend, and his family. His cousin, Cedric, collects a group of avengers and invites Andre's best friend, Shawn, to join them. The white teen is torn between loyalty to his pal and his nonviolent sensibilities. Andre's father, also victim of a racial attack as a teen, loses patience with his son's sullen withdrawal from the family and berates him out of frustration. Andre finally regains partial use of his hand, returns to the hoops court and his friends, and is publicly honored. There are a number of contrivances here and since only a few sentences of Andre's article are shown, it is unclear what would have caused him to be so viciously targeted. The dialogue-filled sparring is fresh and accurately portrays the dynamics among urban teens and their families. However, this is not a sports story and readers attracted to the title and cover might be disappointed. This is a revision of a 2003 title (Milk Mug).
–Vicki Reutter, Cazenovia High School, NY Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Gr. 7-10. Heavy on agenda, angry speeches, and coarse teenage banter, this decidedly unsubtle fiction debut, billed as the first of a trilogy, follows a budding African American writer from triumphs in hoops, love, and literature through a brutal beating by white separatists to a reaffirmation of self and spirit. Sitomer ably captures the lightning speed of mood shifts among adolescents, as 17-year-old Andre fumbles his way into a closer relationship with Gwen, a temperamental Latina, while getting into the faces of friends and family (usually over racial issues), then quickly making up. Assaulted (assailants aren't identified though the author drops heavy hints) in the wake of a published article about resolving his own racial tensions, Andre comes back slowly, and by the end is once again confidently sinking both verbal and basketball shots. Unvarnished it may be, but this will engage unpracticed older readers, and it may prompt them to reexamine some of their own racial attitudes.
John PetersCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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