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Jump Ball: A Basketball Season in Poems
The Tower High Tigers basketball team is on top of the world and bringing the crowds to their feet in this collection of free prose poems that make up the absorbing story of a championship teams season. Meet Garrett James, the star of the team; Darnell Joyce, the lovable forward with no place to live; and the rest of the players, their families, coach, friends and girlfriends, teachers, and fans.
160 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
October 26, 2016
Jump Ball by Mel Glenn is a poetry book .I like some poems but i felt others had nothing to do with basketball.In this certain poem there was 1 main character by the name of Greg Hoskins,or coach he gets frustrated really fast,also during this poem he is excited but mainly furious.What makes Greg so mad is the refs making bad calls.All this madness takes place at a basketball game.Greg gets a technical for screaming at the refs.I believe what makes him so flustered was when the refs didn't make a call "Three second violation? Are you for real? You Workin' for them?" This poem was very believable for me because after a certain amount of screaming at the refs you will get a technical.I feel that this book is for patient people, someone who will give a book some time. It was really hard for me to understand one poem to another.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 19, 2019
An engrossing story told in free verse. In reading other reviewers’ thoughts, I’m surprised at the volume of people on here that haven’t seemed to grasp the concept that this is a story told from beginning to end in poetry form. It seems that a lot of reviewers have taken a look at this book and tried to read out of order, as individual poems? And that just doesn’t work. This book follows a basketball team and its star player over the course of a season and one tumultuous night. Each poem is told from the perspective of a teacher, coach, player, family member, outsider, like interviews, so that the story unfolds one petal at a time. The result is heartbreaking and profound. I’m so glad to have stumbled upon this little gem!
January 17, 2019
Imagine living in a ghost town, and the only thing keeping the town from falling apart is the boys high school basketball team.
Jump Ball by Mel Glenn is a poem about one full season of a boys high school basketball team. The Tower High Tigers is lead by Garrett James who is praised by the whole town. The whole team goes through adversity as they make their way through their season.
Their is so much love for the team and everyone associated with it. But each character finds their way into a pickle. Their isn’t really main characters, although it goes back in fourth with character’s on the team and people that are involved with them. The characters usually talk about what's currently going in their lives, mostly their problems.This book takes place in a town called Tower High.
The theme wasn’t really displayed throughout the book. But one theme that could be developed is don’t take things for granted. For instance one of the characters named E.Z. Pratt said, “When I came to this school, you said you would take care of me. You said not to worry ‘bout nothing’ ‘cept playing’ basketball. You promised me tutors. You promised me easy teacher who, with a wink and a smile, would let me slide. Then, all of a sudden, you changed the rules on me. You expected me to go to class, do work, pass tests. So, now, when I’ve failed my classes you tell me I can’t play no more. How come you’re jerkin’ me around? You wouldn’t do that IF I was Garrett James. You lied. You didn’t let me sink baskets. You just let me sink. Many, you sure took care of me,” (pg.86). He thought everything would go his way. But it didn’t. It went the complete opposite. Just because he was on the team meant he didn’t have to do anything. All he did was do as he pleased. Nothing else. Should have been doing his school work. Instead he avoided it entirely. Eventually failing out. If you like this book, you may also like Bad Boy by Walter Dean Myers because throughout the book Walter goes through adversity. Plus he is different to. He enjoys reading and writing poems. He also faces a lot of problems. Similar to Jump Ball. I rate this book 4 out of five stars because it was an interesting read, just it shouldn’t have ended the way it did.
Jump Ball by Mel Glenn is a poem about one full season of a boys high school basketball team. The Tower High Tigers is lead by Garrett James who is praised by the whole town. The whole team goes through adversity as they make their way through their season.
Their is so much love for the team and everyone associated with it. But each character finds their way into a pickle. Their isn’t really main characters, although it goes back in fourth with character’s on the team and people that are involved with them. The characters usually talk about what's currently going in their lives, mostly their problems.This book takes place in a town called Tower High.
The theme wasn’t really displayed throughout the book. But one theme that could be developed is don’t take things for granted. For instance one of the characters named E.Z. Pratt said, “When I came to this school, you said you would take care of me. You said not to worry ‘bout nothing’ ‘cept playing’ basketball. You promised me tutors. You promised me easy teacher who, with a wink and a smile, would let me slide. Then, all of a sudden, you changed the rules on me. You expected me to go to class, do work, pass tests. So, now, when I’ve failed my classes you tell me I can’t play no more. How come you’re jerkin’ me around? You wouldn’t do that IF I was Garrett James. You lied. You didn’t let me sink baskets. You just let me sink. Many, you sure took care of me,” (pg.86). He thought everything would go his way. But it didn’t. It went the complete opposite. Just because he was on the team meant he didn’t have to do anything. All he did was do as he pleased. Nothing else. Should have been doing his school work. Instead he avoided it entirely. Eventually failing out. If you like this book, you may also like Bad Boy by Walter Dean Myers because throughout the book Walter goes through adversity. Plus he is different to. He enjoys reading and writing poems. He also faces a lot of problems. Similar to Jump Ball. I rate this book 4 out of five stars because it was an interesting read, just it shouldn’t have ended the way it did.
November 17, 2022
This book is shelved in the poetry section in the library. That's because it was written in the 1990s and predates the current era of stories written in verse. It's similar to Kwame Alexander's book, The Crossover, which won the Newbery medal, and is shelved in fiction. Each poem does not stand alone, as is the case with a true book of poetry. This is a series of poems, which, when read from front to back, tells a story.
Each poem tells a different perspective of the game, school, and life in general. There's the basketball players, the coach, teachers, students, girlfriends, parents, siblings, all telling their story. The main point of the book is to describe life in an urban high school. Basketball is the thread woven into the lives of each perspective. There's teen pregnancy. Crime. Poor grades. Poverty. College recruiting. Dating. And tragedy, which is foreshadowed in some of the poems leading up to the end.
The poem style is varied throughout which would make it an interesting class study. I would only use it with high school students because of the topics and swearing (shit, used a handful of times). Over all clever, interesting, and believable.
Each poem tells a different perspective of the game, school, and life in general. There's the basketball players, the coach, teachers, students, girlfriends, parents, siblings, all telling their story. The main point of the book is to describe life in an urban high school. Basketball is the thread woven into the lives of each perspective. There's teen pregnancy. Crime. Poor grades. Poverty. College recruiting. Dating. And tragedy, which is foreshadowed in some of the poems leading up to the end.
The poem style is varied throughout which would make it an interesting class study. I would only use it with high school students because of the topics and swearing (shit, used a handful of times). Over all clever, interesting, and believable.
November 8, 2017
Jump Ball by Mel Glenn is a book in poetry form. I like some books that are written in poem style but I felt like others had nothing to do with basketball. In this certain poem there was 1 main character by the name of Greg Hoskins,or coach. He normally gets frustrated really fast, and also during this poem he gets excited but mainly furious. Greg gets mad at the refs for making some bad calls, all of this takes place at a basketball game that he is coaching. Coach Greg gets a technical for screaming at the refs about some of the bad calls they make. I believe what makes him so frustrated is when the refs didn't make a call about a player being in the lane for 3 seconds. "Three second violation? Are you for real? You workin' for them?" He said. This poem was very realistic because I've played some basketball and can relate to how they make you feel if they make bad calls but we have to remember that they are humans tool. I feel that this book is for people that can understand books that jump around/have multiple stories on every page but eventually go back to them. I gave this 4-5 stars because it was a hard read to follow but you can eventually grasp it if you really get into it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 25, 2017
This book had some of the heaviest foreshadowing I've ever read. You knew what was coming almost from the very beginning, not exactly maybe, but it was a good guarantee of no happy ending in sight.
My students love basketball; ball = life is something I've heard I time or twenty. This book, I figured, would be fluff, but fluff they'd enjoy. Sitting here now typing this I cannot believe just how wrong I was and just how much I underestimated this book.
Yes it is super sad, but it is well written and it has so much to say. I'm really curious to see what my kids think.
My students love basketball; ball = life is something I've heard I time or twenty. This book, I figured, would be fluff, but fluff they'd enjoy. Sitting here now typing this I cannot believe just how wrong I was and just how much I underestimated this book.
Yes it is super sad, but it is well written and it has so much to say. I'm really curious to see what my kids think.
October 2, 2018
I thought that this book was really relatable and I enjoyed Glenn's' writing style. At first I wasn't sure I would like poetry as a format but actually it was really intriguing and powerful. I was able to feel connected to the characters and really got into the story. I would suggest this book to anyone who likes realistic raw Young Adult literature.
September 24, 2022
Each page is a different poem that follows several characters connected to the basketball team. Don’t get too connected to anyone.
October 12, 2016
I thought this book was a really entertaining book but I rate this book a 4 out of 5 stars. The author did a great job at describing the games and telling about the the characters life. The book does bounce around a lot though.
Mel Glenn did a fantastic job of describing the basketball games and surroundings. He usually described the games using onomatopoeia. Some of the words he used consist of screech, bounce, and squeak. Mel also did a great job of telling how the clear ice glistened under the stars on the black pavement.
One thing that I ask why he did this is that he bounced around from one character to a character who off during something totally different and wasn't related. It wasn't too bad of bouncing around all over but sometimes I didn't even know what was going on. In the book a girl from Africa was talking about how America was different and then on the next page it talked about Garret trying to make it to the NBA.
The best thing I enjoyed about this book is how when the author introduced a new character he told what the character background was. I think this helped improved the story line because you knew what the characters have been through and why they make the choices they chose.
Even though the book scattered around a little I really liked because of how good the author described everything and how he told about the characters past. I would recommend this book to some of my friends who enjoy sports and who want a quick read.
Mel Glenn did a fantastic job of describing the basketball games and surroundings. He usually described the games using onomatopoeia. Some of the words he used consist of screech, bounce, and squeak. Mel also did a great job of telling how the clear ice glistened under the stars on the black pavement.
One thing that I ask why he did this is that he bounced around from one character to a character who off during something totally different and wasn't related. It wasn't too bad of bouncing around all over but sometimes I didn't even know what was going on. In the book a girl from Africa was talking about how America was different and then on the next page it talked about Garret trying to make it to the NBA.
The best thing I enjoyed about this book is how when the author introduced a new character he told what the character background was. I think this helped improved the story line because you knew what the characters have been through and why they make the choices they chose.
Even though the book scattered around a little I really liked because of how good the author described everything and how he told about the characters past. I would recommend this book to some of my friends who enjoy sports and who want a quick read.
September 17, 2013
the type of person that this book is for, is for basketball fans or just any type of sport fan in general. i would say this is mostly for a guy to read. but i love basketball and so i can kind of relate to it. but sometimes its confusing because like i said its writing in a guys point of view. so i didn't understand a lot of things that he was saying. i only understood the basketball terms. but it was OK, and i am sure many other people will like it when they read this book. the other reason i think this book is interesting for me and other people to read is that it is all written in so sort of poem form. and so it is so cool to read like that, and for me personally, its a fast and easy book to read when its written like that. because i don't like to read books with a lot of writing on this page. i am sure other people are like me too. so this book will be great to read for people that like to read short, easy, and interesting books.i do have to say that this book was very confusing, because it was talking about basketball at some points, then all the sudden it would be talking about something else. so there really wasn't a big idea of this story. but the things that i kept reading in the book that did show up more then once, was about this kid named Garret James that wants to go Pro in the NBA one day and is trying to show people his skill on the basketball court. but he is having some trouble of his journey to get there...
May 30, 2011
Wow. This is an amazing book. I picked it up looking for poems to suggest to students for "Poem in Your Pocket Day". I found some great ones, and I was sucked right into the story of a high school basketball team. Through a series of poems different members of the school community are introduced. Some only have one or two poems in the book, but we learn so much about them in those few lines. The star of the team is Garret James, who really seems to be going places. But early on the reader learns that there was a horrible accident on the snowy roads while the team traveled to a game. The reader becomes involved with each of the characters through the poems, and this leads to genuine concern about the outcome of the accident. All the excitement, heartbreak, pride, hard work, discipline and disappointment of one season wrapped up in a short, sweet package.
October 28, 2013
1. Genre: Poetry
2. Awards: None
3. Grade Level: 5th-6th
4. This book is a wonderful book to use for my students who enjoy sports as it talks about a basketball team's season through poems, it does more than just talk about the season however. It also talks about the players lives off the court, the coaches, their girlfriends and other things many of my students would also do. This book can be used in the classroom by showing the students the many different forms of poetry that there are and how poetry can span a wide variety of topics. A follow-up activity I can use is to have each of my students write a poem about their own favorite sport and then they would draw a picture of them playing that sport.
December 8, 2011
Jump Ball: A Basketball Season in Poems
by
was, quite frankly a confusing waste of my time. It's a novel in verse (supposedly), which I like, but in this case the author goes way out on a limb and the limb breaks. Every single poem is told from a different member of the Tower High School Tigers team, a community member, a fan, a parent, a student--I don't know, I think even the garbage man has a line or two. There is no story here, just poems about playing basketball or knowing someone who plays basketball. So if you want to read random B-Ball poems check it out--otherwise, read a great basketball book, like Slam by Walter Dean Myers, Cruise Control by Terry Trueman or Night Hoops.
by
was, quite frankly a confusing waste of my time. It's a novel in verse (supposedly), which I like, but in this case the author goes way out on a limb and the limb breaks. Every single poem is told from a different member of the Tower High School Tigers team, a community member, a fan, a parent, a student--I don't know, I think even the garbage man has a line or two. There is no story here, just poems about playing basketball or knowing someone who plays basketball. So if you want to read random B-Ball poems check it out--otherwise, read a great basketball book, like Slam by Walter Dean Myers, Cruise Control by Terry Trueman or Night Hoops.
August 31, 2007
Wow! I had no interest in reading this title even though I am a Mel Glenn fan. Duty called. With an upcoming author event, I decided to read it. I was pleasantly surprised. The story line was gripping, the varied subplots were fascinating, the foreshadowing well done, and the climax very emotional. This is a fantastic story, quick read, and one that inspires discussion. Don't judge the book by its title; it's much more than basketball. The author did have at least one current NBA player as a student, BTW. Interesting side story.
April 1, 2010
Read this book in my L.A class. It was good but with all the yacking going on pretty hard to understand. Alot of my friends claimed that they were either about to cry or crying but it wasn't that bad. The saddest part though was Roman died and Vanessa lived and they were starting to get together but that never happened. Vanessa had been working on him and loving him while he was playing basketball and she was their team manager, watching from the sideline.
August 9, 2016
Tower High School’s basketball team, the Tigers, are on their way to the state championships with star player Garrett James in the lead. Listen in on their thoughts, conversations, practices and games through the season – players, the coach, families, girlfriends and wanna-be girlfriends, spectators and teachers as the team rockets through their season. This is a phenomenal, moving read, with great characters and a devastating ending.
June 3, 2010
This book is about tower highs basketball season in poem form. I was pleasantly surprised. The story kept me interested with its twist and turns. THis book is not just about basketball it actually has conflicts. Mel Glen has done a fantastic job in writing this story. SO don't judge a book by it's cover.
December 7, 2010
this boook is about this boy that was messing up in school he wanted to play basketball but he could be he couldnt play untill he get them up. my favorite section is when gets hes grades up and play ball. I felt happy when i read this book i was yay its about basketball. What i learn from this book is dont fail your classes because you wont be able to play ball.
Currently reading
November 30, 2012If I was able to change anything about this book it would be the fact that some of the poems in it do not connect very well. Overall the book has been very appealing for me and I look forward to finishing this book. I feel like the poems are all good but a few of them are puzzling as to why they are even in the book. I really like the book so far though.
April 7, 2016
Jump Ball is about a basketball season in poems. I think that this book is decent but i feel like some of the poems in the story are not needed. It was like the author was just adding people just to add more pages. I also don't really find the book very interesting but that is probably because I'm not very fond of poetry. But if you like sports and poetry, then I think this book would be for you.
April 22, 2014
Read this again. This is another novel in verse for National Poetry Month. The boys especially will like this story of a basketball team's season told through the voices of different people at the school.
November 5, 2014
This book is a book full of poems about basketball. I didn't like this book because allot of the poems did not make seance or where irreverent to basketball. There where a few poems that where good and where relevant to basketball.
May 20, 2017
Outstanding! Very suspenseful novel in verse from a master of the genre. Don't let the title fool you-- it's not just about basketball. I think this is my favorite of all his books.
February 21, 2009
Good book for getting reluctant readers to read poems. A basketball season told from many points of view, all written in verses.
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January 31, 2010im reading jump ball for my L.A. class book report of the month
December 21, 2011
This is a great hook to change kids' minds about poetry. Many of them dont even feel like poems. Told from a variety of voices, which all are unique and real and relatable.
April 23, 2013
the ending is kinda anticlimatic, just saying.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 1, 2015
I think this book was good because it was very funny
March 4, 2016
This book was decent, I don't like poetry and that's probably why I didn't like it. I did like how it had different people almost every page. Other than that I wouldn't recommend to any of my friends
May 19, 2016
I am reading jump ball and the reason I gave it a low review was it would just changed topics from one to another and at some points it didn't make sense.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews