Pull

By Kevin Waltman
Paperback: $11.95

D-Bow is a Junior now. He can taste a State Championship, but he pulls his knee after a thunderous dunk.

Description

Junior year. Derrick Bowen has put in two good years getting ready for this season. He put in the work and earned his coach’s trust and his role as the starting point guard for Marion East. Marion has never won the Indiana state championship, but this year the team is Derrick’s. And Derrick is good. Opponents worry when Derrick–D-Bow when he’s pounding the rock–steps onto the court. Major colleges work feverishly to recruit him. Derrick is ready to run teams off the court.

If only he could get on the court and stay on it.

Old school coach Bolden suspends Derrick for the first game of the season after Derrick’s best friend Wes gets busted for carrying a joint while in Derrick’s car. Even after that, Marion High’s team just doesn’t quite click. They don’t want to follow Derrick’s lead as squad’s dominant player. Dissension and selfishness are threatening to tear the team apart. And then Derrick hears a sickening snap as he lands awkwardly after a thunderous dunk.

Can Derrick lead the team to victory from the bench?

About the Creators

Kevin Waltman

Kevin Waltman is an instructor at The University of Alabama. He lives in Coker with his wife Jessica, their daughter Calla, and their dog Henry. His first young adult novel, Nowhere Fast, was published by Scholastic in 2002, and his second, Learning the Game, was published by Scholastic in 2005.

Reviews

  • "Readers who have followed D-Bow through his first two years at Marion East will find themselves slipping effortlessly back into his life, his candid, present-tense narration comfortably familiar. . . . [Kevin] Waltman continues to keep it both real and fresh for D-Bow."

    - Kirkus Reviews
  • "Derrick's first-person narration is strong and distinctive, and the teen-speak and basketball vernacular make the numerous sporting sequences exciting to read. . . . A strong cast of secondary characters alternately support or sabotage Derrick as he tries to avoid the pitfalls of inner-city life and the mistakes he's seen peers and family members make."

    - Booklist

Paperback

  • ISBN 9781941026274
  • Price $11.95
  • Publication Date Feb 02, 2016
  • Trim Size 8.25 × 5.75 in
  • Weight 0.68125 lbs
  • Page Count 304
  • Hardcover

  • ISBN 9781941026267
  • Price $16.95
  • Publication Date Feb 02, 2016
  • Trim Size 8.25 × 5.75 in
  • Weight 1.0625 lbs
  • Page Count 304
  • Interests

  • Imprint Cinco Puntos Press
  • Audience Children
  • BISAC Category 1 JUV / People & Places / United States / African American
  • BISAC Category 2 JUV / Social Themes / General
  • BISAC Category 3 JUV / Boys & Men
  • Themes African / African American / Black, Fiction, Friendship, Realistic Fiction, Sports, Teen Interest, YA interest
  • Reading Levels

  • Age Range Ages 14 - 18
  • Grade Range Grades 9 - 12
  • Guided Reading Z+
  • ATOS Book Level 12
  • Interest Level Grades 6 - 12
  • Lexile Code HL
  • Lexile Level 680
  • This Book is Included in These Collections:

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