A review by scostner
Hoop Dreams by Lorna Schultz Nicholson

3.0

Hoop Dreams is part of the Podium Sports Academy series from Lorimer, one of their hi/lo books that have teen content on an easier reading level for struggling or reluctant readers. This installment in the series focuses on Allie, the girls basketball team captain at Podium. She has attended the school on scholarship since grade ten and is now a senior with a basketball scholarship offer from Duke University. Basketball is how Allie copes with problems - her parents' divorce, stress over schoolwork, dating woes - if anything gets her down, she just practices harder and thinks about the future. Then she receives an injury that hurts an already troublesome knee and it looks like her dreams could be over. What will she do without basketball, if it turns out that her playing days are over?

The story is full of sports details for the athletically minded, but also has plenty of situations from other areas of teen life. Disagreements and jealousies among friends, arguments with boyfriends, family problems, summer jobs, homework, unreliable cars and cell phones are some of the realistic issues that Allie deals with while still fitting in practice and ball games. This is a good read for young adults who enjoy sports or realistic fiction. I am not a big sports fan myself, but it was a quick and interesting story line.

I read an e-book provided by the publisher through NetGalley.