Walter Dean Myers 
Slam! 

An ALA Best Book: "A Harlem teenager learns to apply the will he has to win at hoops to other parts of his life in this vivid, fluent story." -Kirkus Reviews Winner of the Coretta Scott King Award Seventeen-year-old Greg "Slam" Harris can do it all on the basketball court. He’s seen ballplayers come and go, and he knows he could be one of the lucky ones. Maybe he’ll make it to the top. Or maybe he’ll stumble along the way. Slam’s grades aren’t that hot. And when his teachers jam his troubles in his face, he blows up. Slam never doubted himself on the court-until he found himself going one-on-one with his own future, and he didn’t have the ball . . . From New York Times-bestselling author Walter Dean Myers, a National Book Award finalist in Young People’s Literature, this is an "admirably realistic coming of age novel" about the challenges of moving toward adulthood-and out of your comfort zone (Booklist, starred review).