True Legend

August 1, 2012
In a didactic but well-crafted sports story, a teen basketball phenomenon learns not to take his own superstar future for granted. Not yet 16, Drew "True" Robinson has been treated like a star since some of his first forays onto the basketball court. When he spots a talented, solitary older player on his neighborhood court late one night, Drew thinks he's seen a ghost. What he's met is a cautionary tale: The man, who tells Drew to call him Donald, is a former basketball legend who lost everything when he became too invested in the hype surrounding him. When Drew too begins to make mistakes on the court, he seeks out Donald, haunted by the man's story. Like Donald, most characters function equally well as symbols and as people: Mr. Gilbert, the rich benefactor who treats Drew like a luxury commodity; Drew's teammate and best friend, Lee, content to pick up Drew's off-the-court slack for the good of the game. The clear message here is that young athletes should not let fame go to their heads, a case made so well by the story that Drew's continued arrogance and poor decision-making is sometimes difficult to believe. A solid mix of character-driven realism and basketball action. (Fiction. 12-18)

COPYRIGHT(2012) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

February 1, 2013

Gr 8 Up-Lupica scores another winner with this cautionary tale of Drew "True" Robinson, a high school junior basketball phenom who almost gets lost in the perks and fame that come his way. When Oakley Academy owner Seth Gilbert witnesses Drew's passing and shooting talents, he moves the teen and his mother from New York to California, enrolls him at Oakley, gives Drew's mother a job, and takes charge of Drew's life. The teen readily accepts the computer, chauffeur, and comforts that Gilbert provides. But his starstruck self-perception is shaken when he befriends a mysterious "playground legend," who ultimately explains his own fall from grace. Drew begins to see the consequences of his self-absorbed life: opting for unsuccessful, show-stopping shots instead of passing to an open teammate, flaunting his skills and alienating a girl he likes, letting others help with his schoolwork, and allowing a devoted friend and teammate take the blame when he wrecks the owner's Maserati. In an emotional confrontation with Mr. Gilbert, Drew announces that he will start thinking for himself, making decisions based on his own values of honesty, compassion, and fairness. Loaded with action-packed, suspenseful basketball sequences, crisp dialogue, sharply drawn characters, and keen insight into contemporary basketball culture in America, Drew's story illuminates the realities and choices facing gifted young athletes. Although Drew's talent is basketball, teens will discover in him a universal adolescent need for acceptance, friendship, independence, and self-respect.-Gerry Larson, formerly at Durham School of the Arts, NC

Copyright 2013 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2012
Grades 6-9 Lupica's latest plants a 15-year-old basketball phenom at a personal crossroads where he is offered the customary devil's bargain. Already drawing national notice as a rising talent, point guard Drew True Robinson has been taken under the golden wing of a plutocrat patron and enticed to transfer to an exclusive private academy where the lionization even extends to having much of his schoolwork taken care of so that he can focus on his game. No sooner does Drew start to accept such privileges as his due, though, than he is brought up shortpartly by a pair of hard-nosed coaches, partly by his own dismay after self-serving behavior on the court results in two devastating losses, and partly by the sobering example of Urban Legend Sellers, a bitter older dude with mad playground-ball skills. Before an arrogance-fueled fall, Sellers had a future as bright as his own. Written in a fluid mix of slightly distant exposition and terse dialogue, the tale features plenty of suspenseful, expertly depicted hoops action along with choices both wrong and, ultimately, right made in the face of glittering temptations. Drew earns his sobriquet several times over by the end. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Sports columnist and ESPN host Lupica has leveraged his sportswriting chops into a series of best-selling novels for young athletes.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)