books you may love: The Hoop Con (Play The Game Book #1) by Amar Shah

Little D's school celebrates Grandparents & Special Friends Day every year in spring. Parents aren't allowed to attend the special events on this day, which include a special assembly and a lovely ritual in which the grandparents/special friends join the children in their classrooms for some fun learning, and then take the children out for lunch afterwards.

Even though D has never had a grandparent/special friend join him at school on these occasions, every year I've taken D out for lunch, sometimes along with one of his friends. Once D went out for lunch with a friend and his dad. Fun times!

This year, D and one of his close friends in the other Grade 4 class (also D, haha, but let's call him DL for the sake of distinction) didn't have any special friends coming over. That child's mum suggested we could turn up as Special Friends for each other's children.

DL's grandparents were in Canada last year and he missed their presence sorely on the occasion of Grandparents Day this year. So I thought it would be nice to take a little gift for him this year.

DL and D are both basketball enthusiasts. So I was looking for basketball-themed books for DL.

That's when I came across Amar Shah's trilogy, Play The Game, featuring an Indian-origin boy, Raam Patel, growing up in the US, fanatic about basketball, and looking to make it into his middle-school team the following year. The Hoop Con is the first book in the series.

In this one, we meet Raam (I suspect this is an anagram of the author's first name!) and his neighbour and best friend, Cake (Chirag), and their shared dreams of making it to the middle school basketball team. They encounter a pair of playground bullies, the Moores twins, often.

The greatest disaster is when Raam manages to get into the The Hoop Con, a week-long basketball camp were his favourite player, Aaron Hardaway Jr. of Orlando Magic, is set to make an appearance.

Only, Raam is humiliated on the court by another player, Payton, in front of Aaron, and runs away from the scene.

Raam spends the rest of the summer in California with his cousin who, along with her friends, restores his self-belief and confidence in himself and his game.

The book is full of references to basketball, of course, and to the life of Indian-origin families in North America — two themes close to my heart, and who knew they'd make such a powerful combination!

Reading this book reminded me of Tanuja Desai Hidier's Born Confused, the first ever YA book to become wildly popular on the theme of the American Born Confused Desi. You can see where that title came from.

While Hidier's exquisite way with words sets her book apart from many others on the same theme, The Hoop Con is written in simpler language but the story is relentlessly gripping and all the basketball references make it super relatable to any fan of the sport.

On one occasion, Raam's father forces him to go to a Spelling Bee contest practice at the local temple instead of permitting him to go to a basketball camp. Raam is unable to spell the word 'ubiquitous', a word the girl sitting next to him spells correctly. Raam huffs and is convinced she wouldn't be able to spell Giannis Antetokounmpo!

D and I have been following the regular season of NBA this year, and religiously following the play-offs now. These are the weeks of heartbreak, when the teams and players we love exit the series.

I was sad when Orlando Magic exited. They fought hard but in the end, the Detroit Pistons were the stronger team.

And of course, the Raptors' exit was heartbreaking too, given their comeback from 3—1 to take the series all the way into Game 7. But I also thought that having come that far was a mark of progress and something to be celebrated, a sentiment that was expressed by their coach, Darko Rajakovic, in the post-exit interview.

The Boston Celtics were my favourite team during the regular season, but somehow they couldn't sustain that excellent performance in the playoffs despite a 3—1 lead.

Which makes me wonder about that element of unknown that seems to show up in every game. For the most part, each of these players are more or less equally talented and eager to win. What, then, decides how a team performs in a game? What decides whether a shot goes in or not? What decides whether a block attempt turns out to be a brilliant one or results in a foul?

There are so many factors outside of the control of each individual player and team. Yet, whenever there's a loss, the media is quick to dismiss all the progress made by the team up until that moment of exit.

By that measure, only the team that wins the NBA championship can be said to have had a successful season.

What a terrible way to decide what matters and what doesn't!

No wonder with so much money riding on the outcomes of these games that we see less sportsmanlike conduct and more dirty play.

For instance, what was up with Mikal Bridges ramming into Joel Embiid's mid-section last night with the latter having recently returned from an appendectomy conducted four weeks ago?

Are we willing to gravely injure and maim to win? Are competitive sports a socially and financially acceptable form of war, where teams battle it out, almost on the verge of killing one another?

When I see some of the fights that break out, I can't help thinking that if it were any two ordinary people involved in such a brawl, they'd be thrown into jail in less than a heartbeat.

Luckily for me, The Hoop Con was a thoroughly delightful read that restored my faith in the simplicity and innocence of playing a sport to grow in skill and ability, for the physical exercise, and for the sheer joy of it.

I've already read the second book in the series and can't wait to write about it!