Friday, August 2, 2013

Hoop Genius by John Coy - ADVISABLE


Coy, John  Hoop Genius: How a Desperate Teacher and a Rowdy Gym Class Invented Basketball Illustrated by Joe Morse  Carolrhoda Books, 2013  PICTURE BOOK  $16.95 Content: G.
James Naismith started to teach a rowdy out of control gym class in 1891.  In his attempts to get the boys under control he tried all different kinds of sports, but the boys always played them too rough, so eventually Mr. Naismith came up with the idea of basketball.  The boys liked it so much they wanted to play it all the time.  When they went home for Christmas break the taught all of their friends, and eventually the game of basketball spread. 
This is a simply history of the game of basketball.  The illustrations are perfect and the inside cover has the original rules of basketball printed.  The back cover has a short biography about James Naismith.  This is an interesting book that helps the reader appreciate where basketball came from and how it has developed into the sport that it is today.  This would be fun to use in a physical education class for the unit on basketball. 
EL, MS-ADVISABLE.  Reviewer, C. Peterson.

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