Players

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Sweeney (Shadow; The Spirit Window) explores the disastrous effects of competitiveness gone too far in this suspenseful story about a high school basketball team. Corey, from whose point of view the novel is told, plus three other returning starters hope to win for the St. Philips Badgers an All-City Championship. But when transfer student Noah Travers is added to the roster, he throws the team off balance. Although Noah's athletic skills are impressive, he runs a one-man show on court. His hot-dogger antics breed resentment among players, who soon blame Noah for mysterious misfortunes such as starting center Luke's fainting spell before the first game, another key player's sudden decision to quit the team and the discovery of a gun in Luke's locker. As team captain, Corey must play referee off court as he tries to quell the rising tensions and give Noah a fair shot at proving himself. Sometimes the plot and the pop-psychology passages go overboard (as when Corey's sister tells him, "We need to grow up, Corey. We need to face the idea that there is bad in this world") and readers less gullible than Corey will pick up on clues the protagonist misses. Nonetheless, they will stay on the edge of their seats waiting to find out how far Noah's scheming will take him. Ages 12-up. (Oct.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.

Publishers Weekly

"Sweeney explores the disastrous effects of competitiveness gone too far in this suspenseful story about a high school basketball team," wrote PW. Ages 12-up. (Dec.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Children's Literature

Last year, as juniors, team captain, Corey, and his best friend, Luke, lead the Badgers to their best ever showing. This year, it looks like St. Philip's High School could finally take the basketball city championship. The lone newcomer to the team, Noah, could be the last missing piece for the team to go even farther. Noah has an awesome jump shot and there's no questioning his desire. But wherever Noah goes, he leaves a disturbing trail behind him. During the first game, Luke falls ill after taking medicine that Noah offered. Then the best defensive player suddenly quits the team without explanation, giving Noah more playing time. When a gun shows up in Luke's locker, Luke is expelled from school. Corey has always tried to believe the best of people, but now, for the first time in his life, he comes face to face with evil. Corey must come up with a plan to outsmart greed and lust for power in order to save both his friends' reputations and his dream basketball season. This novel is an adept introduction to a sad but necessary lesson: society isn't always made up of wellmeaning individuals. 2000, Winslow Press, Ages 12 up, $16.95. Reviewer: Christopher Moning

School Library Journal

Gr 8-10-High school senior Corey Brennan is looking forward to the start of a new basketball season, with the hope that his Catholic high school will have a shot at the Miami all-city trophy. As captain, Corey thinks of himself as the leader of the team, but he finds that things start unraveling as soon as the season starts. After a lot of detective work, Corey discovers that the problem is a transfer student, Noah Travers, who will stop at nothing to make the starting squad. His unbridled ambition leads him to blackmail, tampering with a player's medications, and planting a gun in a teammate's locker. Eventually, Corey tricks him into admitting his crimes. The novel ends with one last act of revenge, but Noah is foiled in these efforts as well. He is a deliciously nasty villain, with no redeemable qualities, and he provides plenty of over-the-top melodrama that many teen readers seem to crave. On the other hand, the portrait of Corey is more complex and subtle. He's a good but hardly perfect kid, trying to do his best as he confronts genuine evil for the first time in his life. Basketball fans may be disappointed that there isn't more on-the-court action, but the book scores as a fast-paced story of the unmasking of a sociopath.-Todd Morning, Schaumburg Township Public Library, IL Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Kirkus Reviews

Sports are a metaphor for life in Sweeney's outing (Spirit Window, 1998, etc.) where naïveté and trust meet up with unbridled ambition. Expectations are high for Corey's basketball team to win the title, but they need one more player in their starting line-up. Noah is new, from Georgia and suspected of racism by the black players. He's got such a good outside shot that Corey swings the whole team—except best friend Luke—into voting him in. High-school sports throughout the country vary somewhat, but few coaches would be so willing to pass such control to players, and this coach is one smart cookie. Gulp that implausibility and the access players have at half-time to kids not on the team and you're off. There's just enough play-by-play basketball to satisfy sports enthusiasts, but the emphasis is on Corey's education via the dirty work Noah is willing to dish out to not only play, but also to play first string and his preferred position, center. Corey has two sisters, one younger, vulnerable, and wise beyond her years, the other shortly to be married, and totally self-centered, but not as Machiavellian as Noah. The parents, as in most YA novels, are mostly invisible, and the romantic entanglements serve to complicate the friction surrounding who plays and who doesn't, but never demand the spotlight. Characters are appealing and less one-dimensional than in typical sports fare. Everything happens quickly and the message is valuable, if occasionally less than subtle. Kids who have played on teams will enjoy exploring the complexities of team dynamics, and basketball enthusiasts will simply lap this one up. (Fiction. 12-14)Troupe, Quincy TAKE IT TO THE HOOP, MAGICJOHNSON Illus. by Shane W. Evans Jump at the Sun/Hyperion (32 pp.) Sep. 2000