Here are 100 books that Shot Clock fans have personally recommended if you like
Shot Clock.
Shepherd is a community of 12,000+ authors and super readers sharing their favorite books with the world.
Despite playing precisely one year of competitive basketball myself, as a gangly sixth grader in the 1990s forced to play without her (desperately needed) glasses and capable of only granny-style free throws, I fell in love with the sport later in life as a superfan of my local college basketball team, the University of Cincinnati Bearcats. I’m forever interested in players as human beings, and the way forces from their off-court life affect the game and vice versa.
Body image issues affect so many of us, and it can feel particularly acute in the middle school years, when our bodies are undergoing so much change. Though it’s been decades, I palpably remember how strange my growth spurt felt from the inside and how it changed my confidence.
In Alyson Gerber’s excellent book, Sarah is used to excelling on the basketball court, but when the shots stop falling, she’s quick to blame her changing physique and takes matters into her own hands to rectify things by drastically altering her eating habits.
Gerber handles this material with empathy and compassion, never talking down to the reader or getting preachy. Whatever your gender (body image issues are hardly limited to girls), there’s so much to relate to in this story.
From beloved author Alyson Gerber comes another realistic contemporary novel perfect for fans of Judy Blume.
Sarah loves basketball more than anything. Crushing it on the court makes her feel like she matters. And it's the only thing that helps her ignore how much it hurts when her mom forgets to feed her. But lately Sarah can't even play basketball right. She's slower now and missing shots she should be able to make. Her body doesn't feel like it's her own anymore. She's worried that changing herself back to how she used to be is the only way she can…
Despite playing precisely one year of competitive basketball myself, as a gangly sixth grader in the 1990s forced to play without her (desperately needed) glasses and capable of only granny-style free throws, I fell in love with the sport later in life as a superfan of my local college basketball team, the University of Cincinnati Bearcats. I’m forever interested in players as human beings, and the way forces from their off-court life affect the game and vice versa.
It’s obvious from the first page that Barbara Carroll Roberts has spent hundreds (thousands?) of hours in stuffy gyms. Her know-how of the AAU circuit and the politics of competitive middle school basketball seep into the story in a way that will be recognized by current players.
I loved that aspect of the story, but even more, I loved the way this book honors the range of real-life issues affecting a player off the court, whether it’s the financial constraints due to being raised by a single parent or how differently a family tree project resonates when your dad is a sperm donor. Readers will find it impossible not to root for Nikki.
Nikki wants to be a basketball star... but between school stress, friend drama and babysitting woes, will she be able to make it in the big leagues?
Thirteen-year-old Nikki Doyle dreams of becoming a great basketball player like her WNBA idol, Mia McCall. Nikki has always been the best point guard in her county league and her dreams feel within reach when she's selected to play on an elite-level club team. But in a league with taller, stronger and faster girls, it turns out that Nikki is no longer the best point guard. In fact, she's no longer a point…
Despite playing precisely one year of competitive basketball myself, as a gangly sixth grader in the 1990s forced to play without her (desperately needed) glasses and capable of only granny-style free throws, I fell in love with the sport later in life as a superfan of my local college basketball team, the University of Cincinnati Bearcats. I’m forever interested in players as human beings, and the way forces from their off-court life affect the game and vice versa.
A graphic novel about girls’ basketball after the passing of Title IX? Sign me up!
This book takes readers into the early 1970s as Judy, Cindy, and Lisa join their school’s first-ever girls’ basketball team. Tavares is best known for his beautiful picture books, but here he crafts a completely winning story that’s as much about basketball as it is a slice of life in the seventies. Current middle schoolers will be blown away by the differences between then and now, both on and off the court.
I gobbled this book up in less than an hour, but I keep coming back to it again and again because there’s just that much to appreciate with the combination of the visual elements and the text.
1
author picked
Hoops
as one of their favorite books, and they share
why you should read it.
This book is for kids age
8,
9,
10, and
11.
What is this book about?
As seen on the Today show
A work of fiction inspired by a true story, Matt Tavares’s debut graphic novel dramatizes the historic struggle for gender equality in high school sports.
It is 1975 in Indiana, and the Wilkins Regional High School girls’ basketball team is in their rookie season. Despite being undefeated, they practice at night in the elementary school and play to empty bleachers. Unlike the boys’ team, the Lady Bears have no buses to deliver them to away games and no uniforms, much less a laundry service. They make their own uniforms out of T-shirts and electrical…
Despite playing precisely one year of competitive basketball myself, as a gangly sixth grader in the 1990s forced to play without her (desperately needed) glasses and capable of only granny-style free throws, I fell in love with the sport later in life as a superfan of my local college basketball team, the University of Cincinnati Bearcats. I’m forever interested in players as human beings, and the way forces from their off-court life affect the game and vice versa.
I’m mixing it up here a little with a non-fiction title that I think a lot of middle school fans of the game of basketball would learn a TON from. Maraniss, the award-winning and best-selling author of Strong Inside, brings an incredible amount of research and detail to life in this story of the first Olympic women’s basketball team.
My mind was truly blown reading about how much the earliest women’s basketball players had to overcome to compete, from the paternalist physicians who couldn’t have known less about a woman’s athletic capacity if they tried to practical, financial considerations and beyond.
These women are my heroes, and I’m grateful to Maraniss for honoring their legacies with this book.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Strong Inside comes the inspirational true story of the birth of women’s Olympic basketball at the 1976 Summer Games and the ragtag team that put US women’s basketball on the map. Perfect for fans of Steve Sheinkin and Daniel James Brown.
A League of Their Own meets Miracle in the inspirational true story of the first US Women’s Olympic Basketball team and their unlikely rise to the top.
Twenty years before women’s soccer became an Olympic sport and two decades before the formation of the WNBA, the ’76 US women’s basketball team…
I identify as agender and grew up in Oklahoma, one of the worst places to be trans or LGBTQ because of the onslaught of anti-LGBTQ legislation that’s flying through the Oklahoma state legislature. Writing Ugliest, a book about teen activists fighting these laws, reminded me how important standing up for what’s right is and what powerful activists teens can be when they get together. This list has other books celebrating the strength of teens protesting and pushing against societal wrongs. Although some terrible things happen in these books—just like in the real world—reading them reminds us that fighting back is worth it.
I love watching a struggling teen come into his own despite terrible obstacles, and that’s what happens in this book. Moss is a Black teen haunted by the police’s unjust (and unpunished) murder of his father, which gives him crushing anxiety and self-doubt.
This made me empathize with him, and when things started to go well with a boy he liked, I cheered him on. But things go haywire at his high school (now crawling with police), pushing him almost over the edge. But instead of falling apart, he discovers a well of confidence he never knew he had. I also loved the honest and raw truths in this book about the experience of being Black, white allyship and privilege, and the importance of community.
The trade paperback edition of the highly buzzed about YA debut from Mark Oshiro, Anger Is a Gift follows a boy from Oakland as he falls in love amidst the chaos of modern America.
*31st Annual Lammy Finalist for LGBTQ Children’s/Young Adult category* *2019 ALA Schneider Family Book Award Teen Winner* *Buzzfeed's 24 Best YA Books of 2018* *Vulture's 38 Best LGBTQ YA Novels* *Book Riot's Best Books 2018* *Hyable's Most Anticipated Queer YA Books of 2018* *The Mary Sue's 18 Books You Should Read in 2018*
Moss Jeffries is many things―considerate student, devoted son, loyal friend and affectionate boyfriend,…
Like many adults, I love a good YA story. YA books take us back to our younger days when we were stronger, faster, and likely better-looking, but also to the confusing transitional time of being a teenager. Mostly, I love reading and writing YA novels because despite being about hard topics–friendship, disease, toppling the patriarchy–they are hopeful. In this confusing, stressful world, we need a little optimism. With that in mind, I offer you five of my favorite YA books that I think adults will love, too.
Although I love a book that takes you traveling to the past or to foreign lands, sometimes I want to jump into the shoes of a contemporary character and understand their world. This book does just that.
Starr Carter is a black teenager who lives in a poor, predominantly black neighborhood but attends an elite, mostly white private school. Starr manages to code-switch between her two lives until her childhood friend is shot by the police.
If you like books about social justice and characters who stand up for what they believe, this is a fantastic read.
Now a major motion picture, starring Amandla Stenberg
No. 1 New York Times bestseller
Winner of the Waterstones Children's Book Prize * Goodreads Choice Awards Best of the Best * National Book Award Longlist * British Book Awards Children's Book of the Year * Teen Vogue Best YA Book of the Year
Sixteen-year-old Starr lives in two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she was born and raised and her posh high school in the suburbs. The uneasy balance between them is shattered when Starr is the only witness to the fatal shooting of her unarmed best friend, Khalil, by a…
I read broadly across many genres and know what it's like to get stuck in a rut and need to find something different to keep my interest. The books I've suggested all have a broad appeal and any one of them could break the dreaded slump. Even those that fall into a genre you don't normally read are likely to draw you into their own special magic.
We've all heard of the Arabian Nights, whether we've read the book or not. This one takes you into the exotic and magical world of a mock-Arabic land where Djinnis and other magical beings are accepted as real. Amani is a character you just have to love! She is thrown into an adventure that takes her far from her remote desert home and relies on her wits and special skills with forbidden weapons to stay one step ahead of capture by the sultan's men or worse, the magical forces that seem to surround her!
The first in the highly acclaimed trilogy packed with shooting contests, train robberies, festivals under the stars, powerful Djinni magic and an electrifying love story. WINNER of the 2016 Goodreads Choice Award for Best Debut Author.
"Tell me that and we'll go. Right now. Save ourselves and leave this place to burn. Tell me that's how you want your story to go and we'll write it straight across the sand."
Dustwalk is Amani's home. The desert sand is in her bones. But she wants to escape. More than a want. A need.
I have always loved children. I love tiny babies just discovering the world around them. I love elementary-age kids who are taking pride in developing new skills and learning how to deal with challenges. I love teens who are questioning and rethinking the things they thought they knew. I also love the science and practice of psychology (my profession for over thirty years) and, I love books. To date, I have written nine books. My audience ranges from preschool to high school and topics include strategies to understand and cope with problems as well as psychology as a topic of study.
When tragic events happen our first impulse may be to gloss over it when talking to young children. Sometimes, however, what they really need is straight talk. When a police shooting of a Black man occurs in the community, two children (one Black and one White) struggle to understand what happened. This beautifully crafted picture book explores questions children might have in the aftermath of such an event and how the adults around them address questions of racial injustice.
Emma and Josh heard that something happened in their town. A black man was shot by the police.
"Why did the police shoot that man?"
"Can police go to jail?"
Something Happened in Our Town follows two families - one white, one black - as they discuss a police shooting of a black man in their community. The story aims to answer children's questions about such traumatic events, and to help children identify and counter racial injustice in their own lives.
Includes an extensive Note to Parents and Caregivers with guidelines for discussing race and…
I grew up in Chicago and at a very young age worked in retail. While my mom was building her own brand, lumbar support called the “back machine”, I watched the process and got to shadow her to understand what the customers’ needs were. I went to the University of Wisconsin in Madison and triple majored in Design, Retail, and Business. I then moved to NYC and launched my brand BOY MEET GIRL® in 2001. When I couldn’t find a book on a woman building a brand who was also a mother I knew I had to write my book to show others how you can do it.
I have recommended We Are Not Like Them to friends and recently my 20-year-old niece for several reasons. The novel addresses important themes of race, friendship, and community, providing a thought-provoking and timely exploration of contemporary societal issues.
By following the story of two lifelong friends, one Black and one White, navigating a racially charged incident, the book prompts meaningful conversations about empathy, understanding, and bridging divides. I appreciate the book's powerful storytelling, engaging characters, and its ability to foster empathy and promote dialogue about race relations.
Overall, it's a compelling and relevant read with valuable lessons for personal growth and social awareness.
'Harrowing and heartening in equal measure, this book is a breathtaking tale of racial fissures, fury and friendship' David Lammy, MP and author of Tribes
'A powerful story about friendship, race, love, forgiveness, and justice - and the stunning ways they intersect...Empathetic, riveting, and authentic' Laura Dave, bestselling author of The Last Thing He Told Me
'A painfully amazing read teaching us that sometimes, when it comes to race, the real enemy is ignorance' Rhys Stephenson, actor and TV presenter
'Provides a starting point for conversations which are crucial, at times uncomfortable,…
I'm a professor of cognitive and forensic cognitive science. I have consulted on hundreds of criminal cases, most involving violent crime, and have published a body of research on the cognitive dynamics involved in eyewitness memory, officer-involved shootings, and training for IED detection in counterterrorism environments. The dynamics I've studied in the law-enforcement/forensic realm have proven to be important in the realm of firefighting and other first-response emergency services, as I also discuss in my book Thinking Under Pressure. This is an important field of study across the emergency and first response services, and will probably become more important in the future.
This is an excellent work in which Dr. Millersmoothly blends the principles of modern psychology with the street realities of modern law enforcement situations.
It is an excellent companionto my own workwhich focuses on cognitive factors in the criminal justice system, and also on my book, which deals with these factors in the realm of fire service and other first responder emergency operations.
Dr. Miller gives a realistic view of psychology in the dangerous realm of law enforcement.
Recent events have highlighted both professional and public interest in the use of force by police, especially those involving officerinvolved shootings. The Psychology of Police Deadly Force Encounters: Science, Practice, Policy is the first book to comprehensively review the scientific literature in neuropsychology, cognition, personality, and criminology as they relate to the mindset of an officer before, during, and after a deadly force incident. Chapter topics also illustrate practical applications of deadly force psychology to agency policy, training curricula, internal and legal investigation of cases, administrative and disciplinary measures, criminal prosecution, civil litigation, legal strategy, clinical services for officers and…
