Review for "SLAM"

I felt that Slam is a novel i can relate to and have much interest in. It is about an African American boy named Drew Lawson who lives in Harlem, New York. He is surrounded everyday by violence in his neighborhood, and other boys his age selling drugs on the corners and not making anything of themselves. He loves playing basketball, and it's what keeps him out of trouble. He is a senior playing for James Baldwin Academy and is the best on the team, and everyone knows it. He has dreams of eventually making it to the pro's, and won't stop at nothing until he gets there. He plays as the point guard and the previous year his team almost made it to the regional finals, but fell short. At the end of that year he knew that he was being watched by different scouts looking for talent. This year he knew that they would be back, and this is a big part of his plan on making his dreams come true. But when his team meets for practice to start the second half of the season, they learn that two new white players have joined the team coming from Europe. One of them is named Tomas, and is from the Czech Republic. He is pretty good, and is the one getting all of the coach's attention. This makes Drew mad since he is the star of the team, and the new guy is already the coach's favorite.

Drew has a lot on his mind with school and everything else that is going on. Even when Drew does very good, Coach House keeps him out of the game because he's not doing what the coach wants. Everyone knows that they need Drew in order to win, and Coach House ends up having to put him back in even when he's mad at him. His team makes the playoffs, and he knows that if they don't go all the way, his hopes of being picked by a Division I school may not happen. There are only four teams in the playoffs including them, and they end up beating two of them. Drew and Tomas learned that even though they had differences with eachother, they had to work together on the court and put everything else aside. They are very nervous for their last game, and if they lose it's all over. It was a very close game and was tied at almost the end. The other team scored at the buzzer though and it was all over. All of Drews hopes and dreams were crushed and he couldn't believe what happened. But in the end, he and most of his teammates ended up being asked by scouts to play for their colleges. Drew ended up playing as guard for DePaul University, and hoped to make his dream a reality by being drafted to the NBA one day.

This novel achieved my expectations, and i found it to be a book that made me not want to stop reading. Not only is it about a boy who plays basketball and follows his dreams, but it teaches good life lessons and shows that you can do anything you want if you put your mind to it. I think this would be a great book for most people, especially if you're into basketball like I am. You can take a lot of advice from this book and use it in real life. I recommend this novel and hope that you enjoy it as much as I did.