"Black and White" by Paul Volponi

Black and White is the story of two high school athletes. The main characters are Eddie (White) and Marcus (Black). Both play football and basketball and are very good at both. They are the stars of the basketball team and hope to continue to play in college. Marcus and Eddie are nicknamed Black and White because of their skin color. They haven’t had problems with each others’ race but this will come up was a problem later in the story. Marcus and Eddie rob people to get money but one stickup goes horribly wrong and Eddie shoots the man. The man recognizes Marcus and a woman from a previous stickup says she recognized Eddie. Marcus pleads guilty to receive a reduced sentence while the woman who accused Eddie does not know for certain that it was Eddie. Marcus is no longer allowed to participate on the team and they end up loosing in the first round of the playoffs. The book closes with Eddie and Marcus playing basketball one on one, one last time before Marcus goes off to prison.
The main theme in this story is racism. Eddie and Marcus are both different races but are best friends. Racism doesn’t come into play in the book until after both are accused of armed robbery and the shooting of one of the victims. Marcus, who is black, is unable to afford a lawyer due to the fact that he does not have a dad and his mom cannot pay for it. Eddie is able to afford a lawyer though, after his dad starts working overtime. Many of the black players on the basketball team are upset with Eddie when they learn that Marcus is going to go to jail even though Eddie shot the man. Other signs of racism in the book are toward Marcus. Some characters in the book think that Marcus became a criminal due to the fact that he lived in a poor neighborhood with a single mother.
A main conflict in the story is between Eddie and whether he will admit to being the one who shot the gun or whether he won’t admit it. Eddie feels awful about the fact that Marcus is taking the fall for him shooting the man in the robbery. However, Eddie does not admit to being the gunman and instead risks a trial. Eddie has a lot to loose because he has just taken a scholarship to go play basketball at St. John’s University. The conflict ends when Eddie, his family, and his lawyer agree that the woman, who was a victim of a robbery, does not have enough evidence to have Eddie go to jail.