Power Forward

Power Forward
Hena Khan
Salaam Reads/Simon & Schuster, 2018
138 pages
Grades 2-5
Sports/Family
Zayd Saleem, Chasing the Dream series #1

Zayd has major hoop dreams of making it to the NBA. Standing in his way are his lack of height and his mother's insistence that he play violin, which sometimes interferes with basketball. His goal is to make it onto the elusive gold team, but that will take hard work and practice. His friends invite him to the gym before school to workout with them, but that is also when the orchestra rehearses. What is a budding athlete to do? Zayd chooses to skip orchestra rehearsal by telling a well-crafted lie and finds himself getting closer to his gold team goal. Meanwhile his beloved uncle is meeting a girl to be a potential wife. Zayd doesn't want his family to change or to lose his favorite uncle. His traditional Pakistani family insists that he be involved in the proceedings, but he would rather be on the court. Eventually Zayd's lie comes out and the worst happens when basketball is taken away as a punishment. It looks as if Zayd will miss the basketball try-outs if he doesn't figure out a plan--and fast!

Part of the Salaam reads imprint by Simon & Schuster, Khan presents a new chapter book series about a Muslin family straddling Pakistani tradition within American culture. Zayd's bicultural family is part of who he is, but is not the point of the story. Power Forward is really about a boy who desperately wants to play basketball, takes the easy way out by lying as to not disappoint his mother, and then must figure out a way to solve his problems in the correct fashion. Zayd does figure it out and does the right thing in time in order to ensure a happy ending. Muslim readers will be happy to see their culture represented and other readers will learn a bit about their neighbors in a relaxed and relatable setting. The reading level of this book is somewhere between an introductory chapter book and full-out fiction. I would put it at the "Ramona" and "Fudge" level. Illustrations, contributed by Sally Wern Comport, compliment the story without overwhelming it and are refreshingly less prevalent than most offerings seen recently. Khan includes enough basketball action for sports fans with enough of a family story for non-fans, such as myself. Reluctant readers, boys especially, will enjoy this book and look forward to the next installment On Point, set for a late May release with the third, Bounce Back, due out in October.