By Kwame Alexander
A Newbery Medal novel-in-verse about twin brothers who rule the basketball court, and the season a loss they never see coming hits their family.
Josh Bell and his twin brother Jordan run the middle-school basketball court. They're fast, cocky, and used to winning, raised on the game by a father who used to play pro. Then the season starts pulling the brothers apart. Jordan gets a girlfriend, Josh feels shoved aside, and in one jealous moment he whips a pass hard enough to draw blood. All the while, their father is hiding how bad his heart has gotten. It's told in poems that move as fast as the game, and about halfway through it stops being only a basketball story.
It's the one I'd hand a sports-mad child who swears they hate reading. It's verse, so the pages are short and open and never look like homework, and it moves at a sprint. The basketball is real and electric, and it pulls a reluctant reader in long before the story turns serious. It won the Newbery Medal, and a lot of children name it as the first book that ever made them cry. One standalone, no series to commit to.