In the Paint

July 1, 2005
Gr. 5-8. After Matt Hill makes his middle-school basketball team, he spends a lot of time on the bench, watching the skilled point guard Grant Jackson. Gradually, Jackson and his friends recognize Matt's basketball abilities and invite him to become part of their group. But when their nocturnal activities involve hate crimes directed at the Asian owners of a grocery store, Matt decides that he wants out. Jackson is kicked off the team for his criminal actions, but he bears a deep grudge against Matt that leads to violence. Although the novel features many of the required elements of the standard sports story, fans of the genre may be disappointed by the brevity of the descriptions of Matt's games; the focus here is on the moral choices that Matt faces. This is a fast-moving, involving story, and Matt is a character that many readers will be glad they have gotten to know.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)