Personal Best.

Deborah Dowson is a Canaadian children’s librarian in North Wales,
Pennsylvania.

Mike’s brother Chad is driving Jay and Mike to basketball camp at Acadia University. Jay should be excited, but he is uncomfortable with Chad’s reckless style of driving. Things don’t improve much at camp, where Jay discovers that Chad’s coaching style is very negative and critical. Jay is one of the youngest and smallest players, and he often finds himself on the bench. At first he decides to work on his weakness, running. He goes to the track to train and his friend Martin helps coach him. Martin is encouraging and fair, a good friend and a great teammate. Even so, Jay is discouraged enough to give up attempting to improve. Before the end of camp, however, he starts to gain a little of his confidence back. Although Jay sees that Chad has some good points, his reckless behaviour causes an accident that requires Jay to be at his “personal best.”

Although the setting of this sports story is a basketball camp and contains detailed description of the camp and the instructions, drills, scrimmages, and games that occur, the focus is on Jay’s personal struggles. He is a sensitive and thoughtful character who finds himself in a very serious and challenging situation. The accident is foretold in the first chapter of the book, so a foreboding sense of disaster pervades the entire story. This is a sports story that takes the reader beyond the confines of the basketball court and relates serious life lessons. Recommended.