Review Detail

Basketball Town

Kids Fiction 565

Dropping Dimes and the Three-Point Line

September 06, 2023 (Updated: June 04, 2026)

Overall rating

4.3

Plot

4.0

Characters

4.0

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

5.0

Young Maxwell loves basketball so much that he even dreams about it, and when his dreams take him to Basketball Town, he's thrilled. Everywhere he looks, there are places to play, people hooping, and fresh high tops and gear! Because he hasn't practiced as much as the residents, his skills are not as good as theirs, but the mayor of Basketball Town (who looks a lot like his father) tells him that he needs to work on his game if he wants to play in the Championship. This is a blow, but Maxwell goes to Skillsville and learns what he needs to better his game, and enters the Daily Dunk Off. While Maxwell earns the titles of "King Dunkman the First", the mayor tells him he still isn't ready for the Championship, so he practices some more. He is able to play in the Championship, and his teammates from real life are there. His hard work pays off, and his team does well against a very good team. When he wakes up, Maxwell is ready to do some real work on his basketball skills.

Good Points

Rothman's fantasy basketball world is vividly illustrated by Darnell Johnson's bright pictures, and young readers will love seeing all of the action and fashion on the pages. The digitally created images have a tiny bit of a feel of the 1970s Harlem Globe Trotters cartoons, at least to my eyes!

The inclusion of a glossary of basketball terms at the end of the story is a big help to adult readers who might not know as much about the sport as their second grader does.

The message of reinforcing skills through hard work and repetition is a good one, and a world revolving around basketball is one that many young readers would like to inhabit. I review a lot of sports books for middle grade readers, but have never considered that sports books might be attractive even to early elementary school readers! Basketball Town will be a slam dunk with readers who enjoyed Dahl and Lugo's Goodnight, Basketball, Wheeler and Gott's Dino-Basketball, Barber and Ligasan's Allie's Basketball Dream and Herzog and Bowle's Little Basketball.