The Outside Shot

The Outside Shot is a sequel to the book Hoops. This book is about a star African American basketball player named Lonnie. He attended a Midwestern college known for their basketball program on a full scholarship. In the past, Lonnie had one bad habit which involved gambling and fixing basketball games. This continued in college with many of his new found friends.

The man setting up all these games was called the Fat Man. For some reason, the Fat Man would always put more pressure on Lonnie rather then the other players when placing bets on games.

During the middle of the first semester Lonnie had became interested in an African American girl named Sherry. In all, Sherry had turned out to be a great supporter of Lonnie especially when a dear friend of his died suddenly of a heart attack.

During the play of a game the coach noticed that Lonnie was not playing with much effort. Eventually Lonnie had confessed to his coach he had fixed the game. His coach was furious and had suspended him for the next two games.

Lonnie is a six foot five inch African American who is a superb basketball player. He is a very caring, kind and gentle person when he's not on the basketball court. When he is playing basketball he is as rough and tough as any other player. I like that Lonnie is not a show off in basketball and cares about winning the game.

If I was Lonnie, I would have never gave in to peer pressure as easy as he did.

I also would not participate in the actions of fixing games for money. I think if Lonnie was to concentrate on only playing basketball with some hard work and determination he will make it to the NBA.

Sherry who is Lonnie's girlfriend is a very special person. Lonnie had met her in the first week of college and was interested in her immediately. She is on the track team and does very well. She has a very strong hope to someday be a track star and run in the Olympics. Whenever Lonnie had been going through tough times she would always be there to support him.

My thoughts on the book would be that this is one of the best books I have ever read and highly recommend it. I liked it alot because Walter Dean Myers is one of my favorite authors and I have not been disappointed with any of his books so far. His books have alot of suspense and action in them and I love those genres. They usually include peer pressure the teaches a good lesson. His books that I enjoy reading the most are sports related.

The reading strategy I use most often is visualizing. It enables me to get into the book immediately and as a result more enjoyable. When using visualization it seemed as though I was watching the movie of The Outside Shot. In reality I was reading the book.

Another reading strategy I use alot is summarizing. Summarizing helped me to determine which information was important to remember. Also it enabled me to focus on the most relevant facts which assisted me in summarizing the book.

The author of The Outside Shot is Walter Dean Myers. Some of the other books he had wrote include Monster, Scorpions, Slam, and Hoops, the previous book to the Outside shot. I love how Walter Dean Myers writes his books. They always include the elements of a good book which makes reading for me so enjoyable. I love it when authors put alot of detail in their books and Walter Dean Myers never disappoints me in that category.