More Than Just a Game: The Black Origins of Basketball

by Madison Moore (Author) Lonnie Ollivierre (Illustrator)

Reading Level: 2nd − 3rd Grade

Today, the NBA is around 74% Black but, when basketball first started to catch on, it wasn't easy for Black people to play. They couldn't enter segregated YMCAs or attend privileged colleges. So Black Americans made their own spaces, playing in dance halls before the dancing started, and eventually forming teams called the Black Fives.

More than Just a Game celebrates the history of basketball from a Black perspective, revealing how it changed Black communities and how they made the sport into what it is today.

Select format:
Hardcover
$17.99

Kirkus

Starred Review
A brief but nonetheless impressive sports history that is too often overlooked. (player profiles, additional resources) (Informational picture book. 4-9)

School Library Journal

A strong choice for elementary and middle school libraries for its more complete and more nuanced look at the history of basketball.
Classification
Non-fiction
ISBN-13
9780807552711
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
Q
Publisher
Albert Whitman & Company
Publication date
September 15, 2021
Series
-
BISAC categories
JNF018010 - Juvenile Nonfiction | People & Places | United States - African-American
JNF025210 - Juvenile Nonfiction | History | United States/20th Century
JNF054020 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Sports & Recreation | Basketball
Library of Congress categories
History
Basketball
African American athletes
African American basketball players
Kirkus
Best Informational Picture Books of 2021

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