Maddie's Book Review of "Slam":
I thought that the book Slam, by Walter Dean Myers, was good but needed something more. It gave very in depth descriptions of the basketball games that were played throughout the book, but I thought it lacked the ability to describe Slam's personal life and social, mental, and physical obstacles that he has to learn to over come throughout the book. I would rate the book a two out of five stars because I thought it needed to more growing theme throughout the book, rather then just descriptions of the different basketball games Slam played. The author would write Slam's conflicts within the text, but would then lack how they helped him grow as a person and what lessons he learned throughout this process of discovering new things in his life. I would have also liked to learn more about how Slam changed as a person and how he was overcoming his obstacles, that resulted in him becoming and growing to develop a different Slam then was described at the beginning of the book.
Andrew's Book Review of "Slam":
I thought that Slam was a fairly decent book but at some points very boring and uninteresting. It would move constantly from an intense basketball game to another boring talk with Mtisha that would bring out so much uneeded drama. Also, in all the basketball scenes in the book, every single play is described by every single movement and action and at some points it would be interesting, but mainly just way too many words about a single play. The book did do well at showing how much Greg struggles with school and also how the enviornment is around him. It clearly shows that he does not live in the best of places. If I was asked to read the book again I would because even though it is boring at some points, it can also be pretty interesting. I thought that the book could have been a lot better if all the games were against better teams and there were more excitement. Also, there could have been more parts in the book that mainly focused on him in school.
William's Book Review of "Slam":
I think that Slam is a good book if you like to read about very detailed basketball games but other than basketball games the book does not get very deep or interesting. All the characters were not described very well but we did here a little bit about thier lives on the streets and how it is tough to live in the ghetto with all of the bad influences around him. There was really no theme that occured throught the book and it was mainly about a few peoples lives. During the basketball games it was not very exciting it seemed like the game would go on for many pages but nothing very interesting happened in the games even though that was what most of the book was about. The book would explain a small lesson but would not show the lesson through any of the characteres. The author could improve this book by having a big lesson that the character learns in the book and a theme that relates to the book.