"Brooks's fine first novel has a baskeball theme and plenty of action, but sport is merely the vehicle for delivering a serious story of friendship and madness." ' SLJ.

"Brilliant sportswriting and a trenchant examination of the friendship between narrator Jerome Foxworthy [an African-American seventh-grader] and Bix, a white boy in trouble." ' BL.

1985 Newbery Honor Book

Notable Children's Books of 1984 (ALA)

1985 Best Books for Young Adults (ALA)

1985 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Fiction

Best Books of 1984 (SLJ)

100 Favorite Paperbacks 1989 (IRA/CBC)

"Best of the 80's" Young Adult Novels (English Journal)