Awards

• Junior Library Guild Selection

Overview

Stokes tells the story of the NBA’s first Black superstar, Maurice Stokes, who is not as well known as he should be in part because of a career-ending injury. Coauthors and basketball enthusiasts John Coy and Ty Chapman highlight what a standout Stokes was: he was 6’7” and as they write, “nobody had ever seen a guy his size score, defend, rebound, dribble, and pass so well.” In a 1958 game against the Minneapolis Lakers, Stokes, went down hard and hit his head, losing consciousness. At the time, there was no concussion protocol, and Stokes went back into the game. A few days later, he went into a coma and woke up unable to move his body from the neck down. Players did not have any sort of financial support in situations like this, and Stokes’s teammate Jack Twyman worked with other players and Milton Kutsher to put on a benefit game during the summer at Kutsher’s hotel in the Catskills. This game became an annual tradition, and Stokes was eventually able to travel and watch the game. Wilt Chamberlain said of Stokes, “He had something transcending as a person. . . . Everybody loved him.” Back matter includes some great historical photos as well as further information about Stokes, who was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2004, and about the NBA’s Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year Award. This picture book biography provides a fascinating look at basketball history, accompanied by Lonnie Ollivierre's action-packed illustrations.

Full Product Details

9781728492490

Table of Contents

Reviews

"""A poignant might have been, worth remembering and still as cogent as ever.""—Kirkus Reviews ""Telling a moving story, Chapman and Coy introduce Stokes' unusual combination of size, skills, quickness, and understanding of the game and then explain how differently Black players were treated on NBA teams in the 1950s. From action scenes to quiet moments, Ollivierre's art illustrates the narrative with empathy and style.""—Booklist ""Vivid writing pairs with vibrant illustrations to depict a tragic but fascinating look at an engaging and exciting player whose misfortune, sadly, changed the way that basketball is played forever.""—School Library Journal"

Author Information

Ty Chapman is the author of Sarah Rising (Beaming 2022); Looking for Happy (Beaming 2023); A Door Made for Me, written with Tyler Merritt (WorthyKids 2022); as well as multiple forthcoming children's books through various publishers, and a forthcoming poetry collection through Button Poetry. Ty was a finalist for Tin House's 2022 Fall Residency, Button Poetry's 2020 Chapbook Contest, and Frontier Magazine's New Voices Contest. He was recently named a Cave Canem fellow and holds an MFA in creative writing from Vermont College of Fine Arts. John Coy is the author of young adult novels, the 4 for 4 middle-grade series, and nonfiction and fiction picture books including Hoop Genius, Game Changer, Their Great Gift, Dads, If We Were Gone, and Where We Come From. He has received numerous awards for his work including a Marion Vannett Ridgway Award, a Charlotte Zolotow Honor, a Bank Street College Best Book of the Year, and the Burr/Warzalla Award for Distinguished Achievement in Children's Literature. John lives by the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. Lonnie Ollivierre was born in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, grew up in Brooklyn New York, and now lives in Georgia. He taught himself to paint with oil and acrylic, seeking to inspire and uplift others in his art. His illustrated work includes the picture book A-Train Allen by Lesley Younge which was the inaugural Own Voices, Own Stories Grand Prize Winner.

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