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Brief Garland
"I'm not going to coach a girls team—l'm a boys basketball coach," declared young Lee Driskill, outraged by his unwelcome assignment in a new school. "It's a different game girls don't play to win. They just want to wear shorts before a crowd."
But the fall term was starting and Lee and his wife had sold their home in Fairfield and moved to a new one in Middleton; it was too late to change jobs. And protests to the Middleton school board only made matters worse—they brought Lee into open conflict with the board's tyrannical president.
Combining fast-paced basketball action with a realistic and discerning view of the conflicts in the administration of a Midwestern high school, Harold Keith has written a multifaceted book that will appeal to readers on many levels. How the lives of the girls who play on Lee's teams are changed by their association with him and how they in turn change Lee's attitudes form a fascinating interaction.
When Lee finally sorts out his values and decides which are really important, he finds he can inspire the girls team to play to win. And he learns that he, too, must rise to courageous effort, when the odds against him look impossible.
As always, Harold Keith has probed beneath the surface of the lives and personalities of his characters, and created real people. All of the players on the teams, too, emerge as recognizable and sympathetic individuals in this fine novel by the award-winning author of Rifles for Watie and Komantcia.
But the fall term was starting and Lee and his wife had sold their home in Fairfield and moved to a new one in Middleton; it was too late to change jobs. And protests to the Middleton school board only made matters worse—they brought Lee into open conflict with the board's tyrannical president.
Combining fast-paced basketball action with a realistic and discerning view of the conflicts in the administration of a Midwestern high school, Harold Keith has written a multifaceted book that will appeal to readers on many levels. How the lives of the girls who play on Lee's teams are changed by their association with him and how they in turn change Lee's attitudes form a fascinating interaction.
When Lee finally sorts out his values and decides which are really important, he finds he can inspire the girls team to play to win. And he learns that he, too, must rise to courageous effort, when the odds against him look impossible.
As always, Harold Keith has probed beneath the surface of the lives and personalities of his characters, and created real people. All of the players on the teams, too, emerge as recognizable and sympathetic individuals in this fine novel by the award-winning author of Rifles for Watie and Komantcia.
307 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1971
About the author
Harold Keith
36 books21 followers Harold Keith lived his entire life in Oklahoma, a state that he greatly loved and which served as the setting for many of his books.
Perhaps his best known story, the historical novel "Rifles for Watie", was first released in 1957. It went on to win the 1958 John Newbery Medal and the 1964 Lewis Carroll Shelf Award.
In 1998, Harold Keith died of congestive heart failure, in Norman, Oklahoma.
Perhaps his best known story, the historical novel "Rifles for Watie", was first released in 1957. It went on to win the 1958 John Newbery Medal and the 1964 Lewis Carroll Shelf Award.
In 1998, Harold Keith died of congestive heart failure, in Norman, Oklahoma.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 11, 2019
I think I read this book in 4th or 5th grade. My sister in high school had read it and she told me how good it was. She was a very good high school basketball player in the mid 1970's in Iowa, when they still played six-on-six ball, so we could really relate to the book.
This is one of my favorite books and always will be. Keith develops the characters so well that you feel like you know these girls. And the six-on-six game, which was probably initially implemented because it was felt that girls didn't have the stamina to run the full court for an entire game, is itself an important character in the book. (I was so fired up when I heard they were going to make BG into a movie, but then they ruined it by having the girls play the modern five-on-five game. I hope someday this story will be retold in a film that is faithful to the book.)
Anyway, if you want to read a book about women's struggle to find a place in the world, read Brief Garland.
This is one of my favorite books and always will be. Keith develops the characters so well that you feel like you know these girls. And the six-on-six game, which was probably initially implemented because it was felt that girls didn't have the stamina to run the full court for an entire game, is itself an important character in the book. (I was so fired up when I heard they were going to make BG into a movie, but then they ruined it by having the girls play the modern five-on-five game. I hope someday this story will be retold in a film that is faithful to the book.)
Anyway, if you want to read a book about women's struggle to find a place in the world, read Brief Garland.
May 2, 2016
This is the first book I ever read. It was the book that began a life long love of reading.
January 12, 2011
If you like reading about girls' sports, read this book about a girls basketball team from the '60's. It's a true story about a coach who only wanted to coach boys but how he ended up taking this girls team to state and sticking with them for years. The title comes from a poem called "To an Athlete Dying Young" by A.E. Housman and reminds us that the years when you can play competitive sports is brief. This book was made into a movie starring Jeffrey Donovan called "Believe in Me." Good show. This book reminds me of a book called "In These Girls Heart is a Muscle" which I also recommend.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews