Players & the Game Around the World

Gr 5 Up—These biographies offer admiring portraits of contemporary hoops stars. Kobe Bryant is the oldest, while most of the other players are in their 20s. The books limn childhoods and personal lives and highlight their college and pro careers. With simplified sentences and vocabulary, the writing is repetitive and unmemorable. Color photos, sidebars with ideas for further research, and appendixes are welcome but fail to expand the books' appeal. Players and the Game Around the World differs from the rest in that it traces basketball's history and spread worldwide, noting that in the early 20th century, black athletes were not allowed to play alongside white players. The book goes on to detail the sport's popularity in Europe, Asia, and Latin America and concludes with thumbnail sketches of international superstars including Yao Ming and Hakeem Olajuwon. Though there are no stand-outs here, Players and the Game Around the World is noteworthy for its coverage of integration within the sport and its attention to the international aspects of the game.