True Legend

Gr 8 Up—Lupica scores another winner with this cautionary tale of Drew "True" Robinson, a high school junior basketball phenom who almost gets lost in the perks and fame that come his way. When Oakley Academy owner Seth Gilbert witnesses Drew's passing and shooting talents, he moves the teen and his mother from New York to California, enrolls him at Oakley, gives Drew's mother a job, and takes charge of Drew's life. The teen readily accepts the computer, chauffeur, and comforts that Gilbert provides. But his starstruck self-perception is shaken when he befriends a mysterious "playground legend," who ultimately explains his own fall from grace. Drew begins to see the consequences of his self-absorbed life: opting for unsuccessful, show-stopping shots instead of passing to an open teammate, flaunting his skills and alienating a girl he likes, letting others help with his schoolwork, and allowing a devoted friend and teammate take the blame when he wrecks the owner's Maserati. In an emotional confrontation with Mr. Gilbert, Drew announces that he will start thinking for himself, making decisions based on his own values of honesty, compassion, and fairness. Loaded with action-packed, suspenseful basketball sequences, crisp dialogue, sharply drawn characters, and keen insight into contemporary basketball culture in America, Drew's story illuminates the realities and choices facing gifted young athletes. Although Drew's talent is basketball, teens will discover in him a universal adolescent need for acceptance, friendship, independence, and self-respect.—Gerry Larson, formerly at Durham School of the Arts, NC