100 books like Shot Clock

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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!

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.

When it comes to unforgettable protagonists fifteen-year-old Starr Carter definitely tops the list. Her father, Maverick, is also someone that I was left wanting to know more about and, luckily, Concrete Rose (Thomas’s follow-up to THUG), gives us the backstory to his life.

The Hate U Give details Starr’s journey as she struggles with deciding whether or not to testify in front of a grand jury after her best friend, Khalil, is killed by a police officer. The settings of the novel are critical to Starr’s inner conflict as she grapples with having to navigate between her home in Garden Heights, a tight-knit but underserved community where the lack of good schools and employment opportunities allows gangs and gun violence to flourish, and the wealthy neighbourhood where she attends private school.

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.

While researching Annie Oakley as a character in my novel, I was amazed by what an exceptional icon she was. This non-fiction book gives sumptuous detail about a singular woman and the life she led. Oakley met Frank at a shooting competition, where she beat him by only one shot. Rather than becoming defensive, he married her and became her agent. Clearly, she didn't need his help to do what she did better than anyone else in the world, but he helped showcase her skills for adoring crowds in a rough and tumble business. My protagonist Abigail was inspired by her, and frankly so am I.

A sharpshooter with high walls around her heart, Margaret lives alone in her family’s falling-apart mansion. Alone, that is, until charming alchemist Wes shows up and makes her an offer she can’t refuse: partner up in the dangerous hunt for the last living mythical creature, and bring her mother home. This delightful twist on the grumpy/sunshine trope will transport you to the mythical forest and candlelit manor with its lyrical writing. The vibes alone in this story cannot be beat. Add the promise of a hunt and a well-earned slow-burn romance, and this book will soothe your soul like a warm sweater on an autumn day.