Skip to main content

Module 1 - Book Review 3 - DRAGON HOOPS Written by: Walter Dean Myers

 

Module 1 – Book Review 3 

Review of Gene Luen Yang’s DRAGON HOOPS 

*This review was written for a course through Sam Houston State University. 

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Yang, G.L. (2020) DRAGON HOOPS. First Second. ISBN: 978-1626720794 

2. PLOT SUMMARY 

In Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang, the story follows a high school teacher and comic book writer in a nonfiction graphic novel. This memoir is about Yang and his search for a new story to write about, and he lands on the boys’ varsity basketball team at Bishop O’Dowd High School. Although he has never found interest in sports, his interest falls on this team and their remarkably successful season as they push toward attempting to win the California State Championship. In his quest for the story, he interviews the players and coaches about their own personal struggles and backgrounds to discover their motivations and goals. Yang’s story combines the team’s journey through the basketball season with his own thoughts about storytelling, teaching, and family. His narrative makes it clear that his story is as much about the process of telling the story as it is about narrating the team’s journey through their basketball season. The story includes commentary on things such as race, pressure, and teamwork alongside the program’s legacy. Like any journey, there are ups and downs seen through ideas and experiences about success, failure, and what really matters. The real-life stories told by Yang give a perspective that can sometimes only be told through experience to bring true meaning to the story. 
3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS  

In Dragon Hoops, Gene Luen Yang uses the format of a graphic memoir in order to combine visual and textual storytelling. It is a fun way to layer and blend the narrative with his own personal reflection, sports journalism, and even historical context. The first notable literary device is the metanarrative because Yang actually includes himself as a character and uses the story to also document his personal journey of finding information and creating the story. This method supports the idea of considering perspective and the choices an author makes when writing the story. Another literary device used in Dragon Hoops is the use of a frame narrative. The basketball season is the frame to the individual stories throughout, relevant historical information, and the author’s personal journey, creating the narrative. This leads to the use of another literary device, episodic structure. Identifying themes like identity, teamwork, and perseverance through episodic structure helps the story unfold in specific sections, or episodes, with a focus on different players, games, or moments. Each episode can stand alone, but they are like threads in a part of a tapestry. Because this is a graphic text, the story relies on visual symbolism, including panel size and layout. Pacing is also important as Yang alternates between action and reflective scenes to create tension and really push full emotional impact. Yang’s literary and visual techniques come together to reinforce his themes of storytelling, resilience, and the importance of finding meaning in real-life experiences. 

I love sports, and in my career in education, I have been a coach and theatre director. Two roles in education that can often seem to be as different as oil and water. This book reminds me of that and how there is a common thread through even those on opposite ends of the spectrum. This is going to be a favorite for my high school student-athletes, and many others. 

4. REVIEW EXCERPT(S) 

Booklist starred (February 15, 2020 (Vol. 116, No. 12)) 

Grades 8-12. Yang teaches at California’s Bishop O’Dowd High School, home to the Dragons, a basketball team with a hallowed and, as it turns out, complicated history. Yang traces the team’s high-stakes season through the players but also delves into the history of basketball itself, touching on the sociopolitical forces that shaped it and—to no surprise for Yang’s readers—the way race figures into both. Most important, through recurring visual motifs that connect a champion basketball player to a self-questioning artist to a Russian immigrant with a new idea, he illuminates the risks that every one of us must take and has, once again, produced a work of resounding humanity. 

Horn Book Magazine (May/June, 2020) 

"I'm just not a sports kind of guy," begins Yang in this comics-format offering that brilliantly combines journalism, memoir, and sports history. Yang, who taught math at Bishop O'Dowd High School in Oakland, California, during the events of the book, provides readers with an inside look at the school's elite basketball team's season as it attempted to win the California State Championship in 2015. Weaving the details of that team's efforts with a primer on the history of basketball, Yang skillfully juggles the stories of multiple players and coaches as well as his own journey from basketball novice to avid fan. 

Kirkus Reviews (January 15, 2020) 

The Dragons, Bishop O’Dowd High School’s basketball team, have a promising lineup of players united by the same goal. Yang seamlessly blends a portrait of the Dragons with the international history of basketball while also tying in his own career arc as a graphic novelist as he tries to balance family, teaching, and comics. The full-color illustrations are varied in layout, effectively conveying intense emotion and heart-stopping action on the court.  

School Library Journal Xpress (January 24, 2020) 

Gr 8 Up-A year after publishing his well-received Boxers and Saints, graphic novelist and math teacher Yang was beset by writer's block. But his curiosity was piqued by the Dragons, his school's men's varsity basketball team. The frenetic action of basketball provides ideal fodder for graphic storytelling, and Yang's visual trademarks-blade-sharp linework and squeaky-clean paneling-are in full force. As Yang taps into subjects as varied as assimilation and discrimination in America, internecine violence in India, and China's century-long quest for athletic recognition, readers learn how this low-cost, indoor game leveled racial, gender, and international boundaries to attain global prominence.  

5. CONNECTIONS  

Related Books - Other books about the themes of sports, identity, perseverance, and social context 

  • Lupica, Mike. HEAT. ISBN: 978-0142407578 

  • Reynolds, Jason. LONG WAY DOWN. ISBN: 978-1481438261 

  • Albertalli, Becky & Adam Silvera. WHAT IF IT’S US. ISBN: 978-1-71370-559-8 

Enrichment Activities -     

  • Basketball statistics storytelling: Have students track one player’s season stats and then create a visual timeline or even a comic strip that links those numbers and trends to any high-stakes or emotional moments in their games. 

  • Oral history project: Have students interview a coach, player, or community member about the impact of sports on their life; put together the responses into a class wide graphic organizer 

6. AWARDS 

  • ALA Notable Children’s Books, 2021 

  • Michael L. Printz Honor, 2021 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Module 2 Traditional Literature - THE LION AND THE MOUSE - Written by Jerry Pinkney

  Module 2 – Book Review 3   Review of J erry Pinkney ’s THE LION AND THE MOUSE   *This review was written for a course through Sam Houston State University.     1. BIBLIOGRAPHY   Pinkney , J erry . ( 2009 ). T he Lion and the Mouse . Little Brown and Company . ISBN: 978 0316013567     2 . SUMMARY   Pinkney’s illustrated retelling of Aesop’s fable “The Lion and the Mouse” does an incredible job of telling the story of a mighty lion and his unlikely friendship with a mouse. The tale happens when the mouse accidentally wakes the lion, who is quite angry and is captured. However, the lion lets the mouse go, who is grateful and promises to help the lion when he needs it in the future. The lion eventually needs help when he finds himself trapped in a poacher’s net. The mouse comes to help by gnawing through the ropes of the net to free the lion. The lion sees that even the smallest of animals can help and recognizes the importance of kindness ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Module 6 Fiction, Fantasy, YA: When Stars are Scattered - Written by Victoria Jamieson

  Module 6 – Book Re view 3   Review of Victoria Jamieson’s When Stars are Scattered   *This review was written for a course through Sam Houston State University.   1. BIBLIOGRAPHY   Jamieson, Victoria (2 0 20 ). WHEN STARS ARE SCATTERED . Dial Books for Young Readers . ISBN: 978-1-72548-313-2   2. PLOT SUMMARY   Victoria Jamieson's graphic novel "When Stars Are Scattered" is a story about two brothers named Omar and Hassan. The brothers live in a refugee camp in Kenya they moved to after fleeing their home in war-torn Somalia. Jamieson writes about their struggles as refugees and how they dream of a better life while living in the camp. They face constant uncertainty and focus on their desire for education. As the older brother, Omar takes on caring for his younger brother and must face the circumstances of survival and the hope of a better future for both. Jamieson manages to use her storytelling along with illustrations in the graphic novel to ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Module 6 Fiction, Fantasy, YA: Echo - Written by Pam Munoz Ryan

  Module 6 – Book Re view 1   Review of Pam Munoz Ryan’s Echo   *This review was written for a course through Sam Houston State University.   1. BIBLIOGRAPHY   Ryan, P. M. (2 01 5 ). ECHO . Scholastic Pres s . ISBN: 978-0-439-87402-1   2. PLOT SUMMARY   In "Echo” written by Pam Munoz Ryan, a story connects three main characters through the space of time in the years from the Nazi Germany, through the Great Depression in America, and finally California in the 1940s. Each time period is connected by a magical and mysterious harmonica and the interactions of three different main characters, Friedrich, Mike, and Ivy, respectively. First, the harmonica finds its way into the hands of Friedrick who struggles with his love for music in Nazi Germany and has a magical encounter with the harmonica on his journey to escape the oppressive regime to find freedom. For him, the harmonica symbolizes hope and resilience. Next the harmonica connects with Mike who is ...
Post a Comment
Read more