HOUSE OF SPORTS

Those who have never known the tense pressure of shooting a free throw in front of a home crowd may at least have felt the knot in their stomach when facing an expectant audience while giving a speech. Or the sorrows of losing a pet or of watching an older relative deteriorate and shrink into oblivion. In her first effort for an older audience, Russo (Come Back, Hannah, 2001, etc.) demonstrates that she is capable of conveying these complex emotions like the most experienced of writers. Jim wants life to be simple: he just wants to make the traveling basketball team, play, and win. Nana, who survived the Holocaust, wants him to open himself to the wondrous complexity of life, as found in opera, family, and writing. Guided by the other members of his family who are drawn by Russo with charming, funny, and realistic quirks, Jim begrudgingly comes to appreciate the times spent with Nana, albeit, perhaps, too late. Along the way, Jim is confronted at every turn with decisions to make—important decisions for a 12-year-old boy. Russo is believably, completely, in his head, as Jim uses the psychic strength he gains through sports to transcend to the broader life he must experience. Facing life, Jim and the others in his circle are drawn together in the small moments that make up the everyday triumph of humanity. One would need Jim’s courage to overcome the cover illustration, neither evocative nor inviting, but if a middle reader joins Russo on this journey, he might just find that life is like basketball: there’s more than one way to run the offense. (Fiction. 10-14)