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A review by saidtheraina
Training Camp by Wesley King
5.0
When I chose to read this book, I had no idea that Kobe Bryant was going to die on January 26, 2020.
I was preparing for my annual tour of local middle schools, and for those visits I'm always looking for books which center non-white people. I'm also always looking for books that will appeal to middle schoolers who don't identify as readers. And also books that center non-white people which fit into "genres" other than realistic. This checks so many of my boxes.
And although the Kobe Bryant branding made me hopeful that this thing might appeal to more hesitant readers, I worried that the girth of this thing would put those same kids off (did you notice it's almost 600 pages?). I also didn't love that the actual writer is the opposite of ownvoices.
But I decided to try it.
And although I loved the concept, and knew that many elements would appeal to emerging readers, I was still worried as I read it. Not only was it long, but that length came from the fact that the books contains five different tellings of exactly the same events (with slightly varying content depending on character perspectives). Would teens who didn't identify as "book people" have patience for the repetition?
But I enjoyed it, and was kind of into the giant red fuzziness of the thing (literal fuzzy cover, if you haven't seen it irl). So I decided to booktalk it.
And then Kobe died.
The kids definitely responded. I chose to sell it by abridging the scene that starts on page 26 where Rain encounters the moving floor. I never utter the word "basketball" in the booktalk. They were consistently into it.
I also have had conversations with a mother who said her picky-reader teen devoured the whole thing and where can we get the rest of the series.
One thing I love about this is that it ISN'T a realistic sports story. At least not only that. There are lots of great realistic-feeling scenes of playing basketball, but it's set in a dystopic world, and has a significant fantasy core. I mean, it sure seems like this should have been done before - magical coach? Seems like a ::duh:: moment once it occurred to me.
This is good. I hope this series, this publishing company (the publishing company's name is a reference to the magic in this book) doesn't die with Bryant.
I was preparing for my annual tour of local middle schools, and for those visits I'm always looking for books which center non-white people. I'm also always looking for books that will appeal to middle schoolers who don't identify as readers. And also books that center non-white people which fit into "genres" other than realistic. This checks so many of my boxes.
And although the Kobe Bryant branding made me hopeful that this thing might appeal to more hesitant readers, I worried that the girth of this thing would put those same kids off (did you notice it's almost 600 pages?). I also didn't love that the actual writer is the opposite of ownvoices.
But I decided to try it.
And although I loved the concept, and knew that many elements would appeal to emerging readers, I was still worried as I read it. Not only was it long, but that length came from the fact that the books contains five different tellings of exactly the same events (with slightly varying content depending on character perspectives). Would teens who didn't identify as "book people" have patience for the repetition?
But I enjoyed it, and was kind of into the giant red fuzziness of the thing (literal fuzzy cover, if you haven't seen it irl). So I decided to booktalk it.
And then Kobe died.
The kids definitely responded. I chose to sell it by abridging the scene that starts on page 26 where Rain encounters the moving floor. I never utter the word "basketball" in the booktalk. They were consistently into it.
I also have had conversations with a mother who said her picky-reader teen devoured the whole thing and where can we get the rest of the series.
One thing I love about this is that it ISN'T a realistic sports story. At least not only that. There are lots of great realistic-feeling scenes of playing basketball, but it's set in a dystopic world, and has a significant fantasy core. I mean, it sure seems like this should have been done before - magical coach? Seems like a ::duh:: moment once it occurred to me.
This is good. I hope this series, this publishing company (the publishing company's name is a reference to the magic in this book) doesn't die with Bryant.