Dragon Hoops

TBA

Gene Luen Yang says he was not interested in sports when he was a child. He was interested in comic books, and he created comic stories after graduation. In 2013, Yang publishes the graphic novel Boxers & Saints. His family celebrates the book, but Yang quickly starts running out of ideas for the next graphic novel. Yang is inspired by the basketball team at Bishop O'Dowd High School from Oakland, where he is a teacher. Yang discovers a basketball coach named Lou Ritchie, and they begin to discuss the sport. Ritchie reveals his full name, Llewellyn Blackman Ritchie, that Yang discovers a yearbook when he was in high school. It flashbacks to Ritchie as a freshman in fall 1985 that at this time, the varsity men's basketball team made it to the California State Championship. He wanted to join the basketball team by doing training and exercise skills. At his junior year, he's grown tall and strong enough by, placing him as backup point guard. At the time, he, along with his team, is ready to start the game's championship. The Bishop O'Dowd Dragons are against Manual Arts Toilers for home of the trophy of California Interscholastic Federation. The team got quite tougher than usual than before that he's getting confident at it. By the time that leads seven seconds left at the final period, Dragons coach Mike Phelps stated that "get that ball inbounds! Don't let'em touch it! Then, whenever gets it, make something happen!" Ritchie is ready to throw the basketball in the hoop just in time when the game is over by gaining two points surpassed the Toilers' points. As the Dragons won the game, referee whistles that it had "No bucket! Offensive goaltending!" Which apparently, the hand touches the basketball on the hoop that causes the player to get no bucket. Phelps cusses that the Toilers won the game by revert to the current points of Dragons, which made a controversy up to the point. After Ritchie's graduation, he went to college to play a basketball team, first at UCLA, then at Clemson, before he had an injury by ended his career. He graduated with a degree in this history. In fall 2001, he came back to his high school. This time, he became as a coach. He began as an assistant to Phelps. Then in 2012, he was promoted to head coach. Throughout the years, O'Dowd Dragons has failed miserably by most of the team points they got so far from winning it.

Dragon Hoops received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly,[1] School Library Journal,[2] The Horn Book,[3] Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books,[4] and Booklist,[5] as well as positive reviews from Kirkus,[6] San Francisco Chronicle,[7] and The New York Times.[8][9]

Publishers Weekly complimented the book's writing: "Using a candid narrative and signature illustrations that effectively and dynamically bring the fast-paced games to life, Yang has crafted a triumphant, telescopic graphic memoir that explores the effects of legacy and the power of taking a single first step, no matter the outcome."[1] The Horn Book's Eric Carpenter drew attention to how "Yang skillfully juggles the stories of multiple players and coaches as well as his own journey from basketball novice to avid fan."[3]

Jesse Karp, writing for Booklist, applauded Yang's artwork: "Combining visual flair, like speeding backgrounds, with nearly diagrammatic movement, he creates pulse-pounding game sequences."[5] Karp continued, noting, "Most important, through recurring visual motifs that connect a champion basketball player to a self-questioning artist to a Russian immigrant with a new idea, he illuminates the risks that every one of us must take and has, once again, produced a work of resounding humanity."[5]

In varied reviews, the book was called a "standout showing,"[2] "[a] winner,"[6] and "emotional."[7]

The New York Times,[10] The Washington Post,[11] Amazon,[11] Forbes,[12] School Library Journal,[13] Booklist,[11] The Horn Book,[14] Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books,[15] and Publishers Weekly[16] included Dragon Hoops in "Best of" lists. School Library Journal included it several reading lists.[17][18][19]