Hoop Kings 2: New Royalty

by Charles R. Smith Jr.

Overview

With this high-energy collection of poems and dynamic photos celebrating twelve pro ballers, Charles R. Smith Jr. scores another slam dunk.

What’s your game? Can you fly like Blake Griffin? Are you a lightning-fast force of nature like Russell Westbrook? Or are you a chameleon on the court, racking up nicknames like Steph Curry? From James Harden with his shimmy-shake-spin to “Lord of the Leap, Sir Alley of the Oop” Lebron James, here are a dozen profiles honoring the superb talents and skills of some of the best players in NBA basketball. With bold, graphic photographs and fun, accessible poems infused with his indomitable wordplay, Charles R. Smith Jr. captures the agility and finesse that each of these professionals brings to the game. Poem notes about each featured player offer further inspiration at the end.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781536210354
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	09/08/2021
Series:	Sports Royalty
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	8.44(w) x 12.13(h) x 0.38(d)
Age Range:	8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Charles R. Smith Jr. is the author of Hoop Queens and its companion, Hoop Kings, as well as Pick-Up Game, Chameleon, and Twelve Rounds to Glory, a Coretta Scott King Author Award Honor Book. He is also the recipient of a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for his photographs accompanying Langston Hughes’s poem in My People. Charles Smith Jr. lives in New York.

Editorial Reviews

2021-07-14
All-star–caliber poems inspired by all-star NBA players.

With varied rhyme schemes, rhythmic structures, and forms wrapped around high-energy art, Smith’s newest addition to his b-ball–celebrating poetry collections is a solid refresher on some of the who’s who of today’s NBA. The poems are thoughtful and cleverly representative of the on-court production of 12 outstanding players from Anthony Davis to Russell Westbrook. In Philadelphia 76ers big man Joel Embiid, Smith sees sizable power, which he uses an acrostic poem to translate into large text and a bold, clear statement of Embiid’s dominance: “Juggernaut / Of / Extreme / Length.” To celebrate Kevin Durant’s smooth athleticism, Smith pivots to jazz rhythms: “KD B-ball / he ball / all the time. / KD do it all / with the ball / all the time.” Striking black-and-white photos from a variety of sources are touched up with fluorescent scribbles, adding energy. As with any field with as many die-hard fans as professional basketball, there is certainly room for debate about insulting omissions and questionable inclusions, but with concluding notes provided in the endmatter, readers get transparent and instructional insight into both poetics and athleticism.

A singular basketball obsessive’s voice in richly creative verse. (Picture book/poetry. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews

All-star–caliber poems inspired by all-star NBA players. With varied rhyme schemes, rhythmic structures, and forms wrapped around high-energy art, Smith’s newest addition to his b-ball–celebrating poetry collections is a solid refresher on some of the who’s who of today’s NBA. . . thoughtful and cleverly representative of the on-court production of 12 outstanding players from Anthony Davis to Russell Westbrook.
—Kirkus Reviews

This poet’s still got game.
—Booklist

From the Publisher