|
I have been fortunate to participate in the National Basketball Association’s Read to Achieve program as a Reading All-Star and my previous basketball book, STRONG TO THE HOOP, has been popular with players. When NBA players asked for a new book for Read to Achieve, Lee and Low, the publisher, asked me to write about international basketball. I thought this was an interesting idea as there are over ninety players in the league who were born outside the United States.
I tried three different stories before arriving at AROUND THE WORLD. I love the game Around the World and enjoyed working with the mix of hoops, geography, and languages. I think the comic book inspired art of Tom Lynch and Antonio Reonegro fits beautifully with the subject, and kids have been enthusiastic about the style and energy of the pictures.
My favorite aspect of this book was the research. I got to play basketball in different countries and those games were memorable. It’s amazing how the communication challenge of different languages lessens with the international language of basketball.
I’m looking forward to continuing my research by playing more basketball AROUND THE WORLD. |
