#tbt: Ball Don't Lie by Matt de la Peña

Ball Don't Lie by Matt de la Peña. 288 p. Random House Children's Books, September, 2005. 9780385902588. (Own)

#tbt features Ball Don't Lie by Matt de la Peña. This was de la Peña's debut and was published in 2005. Ball Don't Lie is a gritty, intense story that takes place over twenty-four hours. Sticky is a seventeen-year-old basketball phenom; but he has had a tough life since being removed from his prostitute mother's home ten years earlier. He has moved from foster home to foster home, none being much better than the situation he was removed from. His real home, the only place he feels safe and comfortable is at the Lincoln Park basketball court where he can ball and trash talk the other players. Basketball is his thing and perhaps his ticket out. Can he manage his OCD and the demons from his past to earn himself a basketball scholarship? If you are a teen who loves basketball, you should not miss this book. Don't love basketball? Give it a try if you like intense, emotional reads.

Matt de la Peña went on to write three more YA novels set in urban settings, Mexican White Boy, We were Here, and I will Save You. He then wrote a book in the Infinity Ring series, a survival trilogy and a number of picture books, one of which, The Last Stop on Market Street, won the Newbery Medal!