Red-Hot Hightops

September 1, 1987
Kelly is a real pro when she's playing basketball at home, not in a school game. But when the team is counting on her, she freezes up. Then a mysterious pair of red hightop sneakers shows up in her locker. When Kelly puts them on she plays better than she ever hasshe's aggressive to a fault. But she agonizes over where the shoes came from, and finds out only after she decides to destroy them, because they work a little too well. She learns that they were magic, a plot device that doesn't jibe well with the realistic sportsplay. Some of the writing is simplistic, glossing over a situation or issue that would have been better depicted in a scene ("Kelly and her siblings never minded doing tasks their mother asked them to do''). All sorts of people pay more attention to Kelly's shoes than is reasonable to expect, and the answer to the mystery of her benefactor is too easy. But the book is packed with brisk, authentic action scenes on the court for which Christopher is well known, with appeal for middle reader sports lovers. Ages 9-11.

December 1, 1987
Gr 4-7 -Kelly is a great basketball player, so long as she doesn't have to perform in front of a crowd. But after finding a pair of red hightop sneakers in her locker, she suddenly becomes a confident, aggressive, and slightly wild player. Everyone attributes the change to the new sneakers. Are they hexed? Kelly thinks so, and she begins to doubt her ability to play without them, even though they cause trouble with teammates and opponents. Christopher throws in clues to implicate many of Kelly's friends and the coach as the anonymous sneaker doner, but many of them are dead ends contrived to make this slight plot into a sports story with a mystery angle. There's little suspense in either category. The sports action is full of shot-jab-foul-shot, but even in the close games the tension isn't there to make it exciting. There's an unfortunate reference to not being an "Indian giver." Once the unbelievable secret of the sneakers is revealedbest friend Ester had them chemically treated to improve Kelly's gamethe story comes quickly to a close. It's hard to believe the sudden interest everyone has in the power of Kelly's sneakers in this far-fetched story that is taken oh-so-seriously. Susan Schuller, Milwaukee Public Library