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The Playmakers

ebook
1 of 1 copy available
1 of 1 copy available
An entertaining, funny, and empathy-building story about underdogs who will stop at nothing to prove they're remarkable too.

Jax has something to prove. After trying out for the basketball team, he and his friend Nic don't make the final cut. Sure, Jax might be the shortest kid in the seventh grade, and Nic might not have a lot of confidence, but they've got skills.

Luke is the tallest kid in the seventh grade. He's not bad at basketball, but he didn't even try out for the team. Instead, Luke's an aspiring actor and auditioned for the school play. Unfortunately, he didn't get cast.

Jax and Luke decide to take matters into their own hands. They have a wacky, wild, outrageous idea, a plan that is sure to fail—unless it doesn't.

Jax decides to form his own basketball team and challenge the school team. Luke agrees to join the team, on the condition that Jax and his friends help Luke compete in a regional drama competition.

Miley, probably the smartest kid at school, agrees to help both Jax and Luke. She's been reading up on sports science and thinks she might have found a way for her friends to win through math.

Can a team of underdogs prove to the whole school that they have what it takes to be noticed, or will it all go horribly wrong?

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    • Kirkus

      February 15, 2025
      An Ohio boy puts together his own basketball team of mismatched seventh graders. When best friends Jax and Nic are cut from the middle school basketball team, Jax impulsively tells their coach, "We'll make our own team. And we'll be better than yours." Luke, who's 6 feet, 3 inches tall, is more interested in acting than basketball, but he doesn't get a part in the school play. Jax recruits Luke as a player in exchange for taking part in a theater competition with him. Eventually, the team members connect with intelligent, precocious, and lonely classmate Miley, who wants to improve her sports statistics skills: Helping the team improve their play would give her great college application material. The story is told through Jax's, Luke's, and Miley's alternating first-person points of view. Miley's entries appear as doodle-filled graphic journal entries. Full of drama, miscalculations, and turnovers, this story explores a fun scenario in which a bunch of kids with different interests and skills work together for a common purpose. Unfortunately, the innocent fun is undermined by racialized portrayals of two teammates in the otherwise largely white-presenting cast. Nic is cued Black, and his father is in jail, while teammate Koa, who's cued Pasifika, is repeatedly described in an othering way that references his "bush of curly hair" and the nickname "Animal" (from his old school); he's also "been through some stuff" that's similar to Nic's trauma. A heartfelt mix of basketball, theater, math, and friendship that's marred by stereotypical representation.(Fiction. 8-12)

      COPYRIGHT(2025) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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Languages

  • English

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