Off the Rim

By: Fred Bowen

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Synopsis: Chris Skallerup yearns to be more than a bench warmer on the Oak View Middle School basketball team. To improve his game, he turns to one of his best friends, the high-scoring star of the middle school girls' team, Greta Gretzky Pemberton. But, it's Greta's mom-who was a high school basketball star without ever making a basket-who teaches him that defense is just as important as offense to a team's success on the court. With the help of Greta and her mom, Chris begins to change his defensive strategy and successfully learns to keep his opponents from scoring. To his surprise, Chris becomes a valuable player on the school team while hardly scoring at all.In the sports history epilogue, readers learn about the development of women's basketball, and the six-on-six game in which three of the team's players were only allowed to play offense in half of the court, while three played defense in the other half, emphasizing the importance of teamwork.