Slam By Walter Dean Myers Essay, Research Paper
This past semester I read the book Slam by Walter Dean Myers. The setting is in a run down part of town in a big city that was un-ginven. The story line is that Slam the main character is going to a new school that is a white school where he once went to a predominately was black and so is he. He is a senior going into a new school because of his grades; he also came from a school where he was one of the best basketball players. His friend was the best player for his old school. He also has a girl that he likes and the start going out. His dad does not work well not all the time his grandma is dying. The main characters are Slam, Goldy.
One of the big parts in this book in when he makes the team. When tryouts came he was not look on that well mainly because he was black and he had an atitude. He played the coach one on one and he slammed on him and blocked him. But he did make the team. Then he lost the camera that he borrowed from the media center for a project. In his first game he didn’t start and didn’t play in the first half. He got really mad a Goldy calmed him down. They were tied at half time and at the end they beat them by 11. And that is how many points that Slam had in the game after the first half. He went out with his friend Ice and two other girls and he made out with one of them. The other girl told his girlfriend that they were kissing and she got all mad and the sort of broke up. Then he played one of the best teams in the league and this white guy tore him up so that got his confidence down. After that his friend Ducky was standing up for Slam because two of the other kids on the team didn’t like Slam and the ended up getting in a fight. They never got along because Nick the guy that he fought was talking about how he was getting scouted and that Slam wasn’t. Slam knew that he was better that him that he was not getting the chances that Nick was. Then he played his friend Ice’s team. It was close and Ice was out playing him the whole time until he got in foul trouble. The Slam took over. It came down to the last possession and Slam took the ball and scored. He won the game. Then he got all of the respect that he wanted and everyone in the school knew of him, and that is what he wanted the whole time. Then he came to his English class and he didn’t one of his project and the teacher got mad and said some racial things and Slam got mad a acted out of control and hit him. Then he ran out to a local restaurant. Then that night he went to his friend’s party. This whole time Slam was suspicious that Ice was selling drugs because he was in all of these fancy cars and had all of these nice closes when his family was poor. Plus Ice always told Slam the he was borrowing the stuff. Well at the party Ice disappeared and Slam wen to find him. He found him selling drugs. Slam confronted him that what he was doing was bad and Ice got all defensive and the started to fight. Slam got most of the hits in. But the became friends.
The climax is that he hit the game winning shot in the big game against his old school and ended up getting all of the fame of being the best player and getting all of the scouts to come to see him play and not Nick.
I liked this book. I thought that it was well written. I also liked it because I like sports and Walter Dean Myers is my favorite author. On a scale of one to ten I give this book an 8.5. I give it an 8.5 because I think that it could have had a lot more potential in the fact of where he lived and the situation. I think that I could have been a little more dramatic.