Game by Walter Dean Myers

Just go buy two copies for your library now.

This story of a Harlem boy who wants to do well enough at basketball to go to college and maybe even play professionally will never make it back to the shelves. It is fast paced, has lots of descriptions of games and how people play basketball, and is interspersed at good intervals with other situations facing the characters, including a brother who is facing jail time for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. When Myers is good, he is very, very good, and he is certainly on the top of his game with this one.

This is an example of a great, appealing cover that should age well. For fascinating insights on other young adult covers, check out:
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Also read Steinbeck's The Red Pony, which was fine and reads a bit like Marguerite Henry (even has Wesley Dennis illustrations), except for that scene where the boy beats a buzzard to death with his bare hands. Apparently, this was Steinbeck's idea of literature for the younger set.