"Hoops" by John Ballard follows the story of a talented young basketball player, Adam, who is navigating the challenges of adolescence, family dynamics, and the pressures of competition. Set in a gritty urban environment, Adam dreams of making it to the professional leagues while facing various obstacles, including a troubled home life and the lure of street life. As he trains hard and participates in games, he learns valuable lessons about friendship, loyalty, and perseverance. The novel highlights the impact of sports on personal growth and the choices that define a young man's journey to maturity and self-discovery. [Generated by language model - please report any problems].

This book is part of a book series called Laurel-Leaf Books .

This book is aimed at children at US 7th grade+.

This book has been graded for interest at 12 years.

There are 224 pages in this book.

It is aimed at Young Adult readers. The term Young Adult (YA) is used for books which have the following characteristics: (1) aimed at ages 12-18 years, US grades 7-12, UK school years 8-15, (2) around 50-75k words long, (3) main character is aged 12-18 years, (4) topics include self-reflection, internal conflict vs external, analyzing life and its meaning, (5) point of view is often in the first person, and (6) swearing, violence, romance and sexuality are allowed.

This book was published in 2014 by Random House USA Inc .

Walter Dean Myers is an award-winning writer of fiction, non-fiction and poetry for young people. His many titles include the Newbery Honor Books Scorpions and Somewhere in the Darkness, and the Caldecott Honor Book Harlem in collaboration with his son Christopher, who also worked with him on Monster. Walter Dean Myers grew up in Harlem and now lives in Jersey City, New Jersey, with his family.