Point Guard

Point Guard
Mike Lupica
Simon & Schuster, 2017  265 pages
Grades 4-8
Sports
Home Team series #3

Gus is totally psyched to start the new basketball season, his last season before high school. He and his friend Jack are trying to convince their friend Teddy, who is more of a football player, to try out for the team. Teddy refuses, choosing instead to become the team manager, yet a different friend, Cassie, decides to play on the boys team instead of the girls. Cassie is an amazing athlete and makes the team easily, yet, even though they are friends, Gus is uncomfortable with having her as a teammate. Also making Gus uncomfortable is the center of the team, Steve Kerrigan, who, like his father who became the town mayor on an anti-Latino platform, constantly pokes fun at Gus's Dominican background and slips other racist slurs. As the season progresses Gus must learn to work with his teammates to play as a single unit and overcome his personal feelings. As he slowly learns to accept Cassie's place on the team, relations with Steve become more strained, especially after he agrees to support Steve's rival for class president, a Latina girl. Gus must follow his conscience and do what he feels is right, even if it offends a teammate. The book’s climax arrives the day after the election results are in and the kids are finally playing the last game of the season: the championship. Can the team work together to win the big game?

Mike Lupica is the reigning king of sports fiction for middle grade readers and for good reason. His books are chock-full of action for sports minded kids, yet contain an underlining message and connecting plotline, giving the book more substance beyond the endless games. Point Guard brings to light current controversies in America concerning immigration and the place new Americans hold in our country. Lupica mirrors our president's views towards Latinos by including the characters of Steve and his father, who became mayor with with the campaign to "make Walton great again". Lupica also champions female athletes with the character of Cassie, who despite opposition, chooses to play with the boys and is not afraid to play hard. Gus has conflicting emotions concerning his friend's place on the team and experiences personal growth working through them and learning to stand-up to Steve's racist views. Sports fans will not be disappointed in the amount of game time. The whole season is played out in print from the try-outs to the championship. Every game seems to be a nail-biter, coming down to the final basket, which doesn't seem to be realistic to me, but adds suspense to the story. Sports-loving reluctant readers are the target audience, but other readers will enjoy this book as well. I appreciate that there are no illustrations within the book, encouraging reluctant readers who have depended on the Wimpy Kid format to possibly reach a bit. Although this title is the third in a series, it stands alone. The first two titles feature Gus's friends Teddy and Jack and trace a football and baseball season. The four in this quartet will feature Cassie and a softball season and is projected to be released in spring, 2018.