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randyribay's review
5.0
A poignant story with a unique cast and some of the best description of street ball I've ever read in a novel.
claudiaswisher's review
4.0
Sticky can't remember how he got that scar behind his ear, and won't tell anyone his 'real' name. He drifts from foster home to foster home, finally doing whatever he can to live 'down' to the expectations of others. Sticky's alone in the world, trying to make his own kind of sense...but the boy can play ball, and that's his world. His mentors at Lincoln Rec teach him how to deal with what life's given and taken away. de la Pena's prose is amazing. He's cast this novel with good guys and bad guys. We find ourselves rooting for Sticky to escape his life and find a real future. We're rooting for Sticky to realize he does deserve good things to happen. This is one I'm eager to recommend to my guys. They'll love it.
lmurray74's review
5.0
This is an emotionally messy book, and it speaks to experiences I've never had to go through, but I feel it rings true. The messiness of being a teenager, compounded by tragedies that life has thrown up at Sticky, is the heart of the story. The story is told in fairly short chapters and while there is a chronological story happening, there is also the back story. The more we read, the better we know Sticky, just as we get to know friends better: t doesn't happen in info dumps. I appreciate that this isn't written in first person as I feel that with YA first person doesn't always work. With Ball Don't Lie we also get the perspective of Sticky's girlfriend, and events aren't mediated through Sticky himself. The ending is maybe more optimistic than real-life but it's what we'd hope for. Leave them with hope, as people say.
vadersvalkyrie's review against another edition
4.0
While I wouldn't call myself the target audience, I enjoyed the author's style. Also, the main character's tick was unexpected and well done.
raethereviewer's review against another edition
5.0
Ball Don't Lie tells the story of Travis "Sticky" Reichard and his experiences being a white kid in the foster system, whose life heavily revolves around basketball. His circumstances are different, yet incredibly relatable. His idiosyncrasies make him even more of an underdog/outcast character that you just have to root for.
Initially, this story didn't quite catch my attention but after seeing John Green recommend it, I decided to give it a chance. I was not disappointed. Though the basketball jargon could be incomprehensible to a mild observer like me, it wasn't overly emphasized. I'd read basketball stories in the past, but I really enjoyed the writing style and setup of this one. I liked how the flashbacks tied in with what was actually going on in the story, instead of beginning with a chunk of exposition that wouldn't be necessary until later. The novel blended the past and present very well.
Initially, this story didn't quite catch my attention but after seeing John Green recommend it, I decided to give it a chance. I was not disappointed. Though the basketball jargon could be incomprehensible to a mild observer like me, it wasn't overly emphasized. I'd read basketball stories in the past, but I really enjoyed the writing style and setup of this one. I liked how the flashbacks tied in with what was actually going on in the story, instead of beginning with a chunk of exposition that wouldn't be necessary until later. The novel blended the past and present very well.
falconerreader's review against another edition
5.0
Holy Moly. Matt de la Peña don't lie either. (Though he about gave me a heart attack towards the end, there.)
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