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Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang
First Second / Macmillan
Publication Date: March 17, 2020
ISBN: 978-1626720794
Award winning graphic novelist, Gene Luen Yang, tells the story of the varsity boys basketball team’s quest for a state championship at the high school he taught at before becoming a full-time author. Yang also grapples with his own literary future, as well as offers background about the history of basketball and how it relates to this team’s chances for victory.
Dragon Hoops is part memoir, part history of basketball, and part feel-good story about a team readers will root for. With many interesting selling points to this book, reluctant readers will either want to read this book to see what happens to the characters or learn more about the author or basketball in general. The artwork is clean, bright, and the lettering is easy to read making it an accessible book for reluctant readers. While it is over 400 pages, the mix of action, story, and facts give it a fast pace. The e-book formatted version of the story speeds the reader through the text, barely noting its length. However, it is presented page-by-page rather than panel-by-panel, resulting in print that can be difficult to read due to its size, unless the zoom function is enabled.
Fans of this read would also enjoy Yang’s other graphic novels and After the Shot Drops by Randy Ribay.
–Molly Dettmann and Jennifer Sutton
