Ball Don't Lie

by Matt de la Pena

Paperback, 2007

Status

Available

Call number

813.6

Genres

Young Adult

Children's Books

Fiction

Collection

Your library

Publication

Ember (2007), Paperback, 288 pages

Description

Seventeen-year-old Sticky lives for basketball and plays at school and at the Lincoln Rec Center in Los Angeles but he is unaware of the many dangers--including his own past--that threaten his dream of playing professionally.

User reviews

LibraryThing member PatrickHackeling13

Ball Don't Lie by Matt De La Pena is the story of a misfit, Sticky (17), and his ambition of someday making it out of his troublesome life filled with drug dealers, drug abusers, pimps, prostitutes, and hustlers and to make it to the NBA. Son to no father and a deceased mother, foster child to too

many parents to count, nobody can get through to Sticky. But that's the way he wants it. Basketball is the only thing he needs in his life to take him out of the streets and onto the polished NBA courts. That is until a serious of events make basketball take a back seat and he has to take a closer look at what life really is.

Matt De La Pena creates a character that "sticks" into the readers forever. Ball Don't Lie incorporates themes of loneliness, determination, despair, and love. Together these themes develop a masterpiece.

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7 more

LibraryThing member megmcg624

Sticky's been in and out of foster homes and is plagued by a compulsion disorder. His basketball skills have interested college scouts and his girlfriend Anh-thu loves him. Things are beginning to come together, but Sticky's not used to life going well.

The author of Ball Don't Lie went to college

on a basketball scholarship himself, so scenes of pickup games are engaging and accurate. His descriptions of LA city streets (both affluent and seedy) are incredibly evocative. This is a particularly good recommendation for boys age middle school and up, but the emotionally charged content makes it an interesting story even for readers with limited understanding of basketball.

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LibraryThing member shannonseglin

at white boy can ball….He don't play like no regular white boy. Sticky, 17, has spent his life being abused by pimps living with his prostitute mother, bouncing from one foster home to another, and living on the street between failed placements. But he's developed incredible hoop skills that have

given him considerable social standing among his mostly black peers. And he gets a girlfriend named Anh-thu, who loves him and wants to help him reach his dreams. Sticky sees basketball as his way out of his dead-end life and is determined to make the right moves in the game to attain his goal. But he doesn't quite know how to make the right moves in his life, until a bad decision leads him to confront dark secrets.

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LibraryThing member edspicer

If there is a sports book that can crack the award circles this year, Ball Don’t Lie is the one. Matt de la Pena has written a lyrical book about a cast off teen, Sticky, who doesn’t seem to fit anywhere. He’s a white basketball player in a mostly black neighborhood. He’s a foster kid alone

on the street. Abused. Busted (petty vandalism). Sticky’s got game (and that’s about it). Sticky’s voice is a masterpiece. We hear a troubled, insecure soul trying to dribble away huge problems— problems that may well land him in jail or worse.

Sticky does what he does every day. He stands on the free-throw line with his ball. Simple as that. It doesn’t matter who says what to him, if a ball caroms out his way, or nothing: He’s not moving. He puts his rock between his knees, and goes to tuck his shirt in. Pulls his shirt back out and retucks. Pulls it out and retucks. Ball between his knees, watching everybody shoot warm-up jumpers. Pulls out and retucks. Pulls out and retucks….He’s seventeen and white; these guys are men. (p.5)

Sticky spits on his right hand, watching. Lifts his right foot up and wipes the dust off his sole. Spits and wipes. Spits and wipes. He’s watching Dallas handle Crazy Ray, but he’s thinking about that smooth-looking gold bracelet. Figuring out the different ways he can go about snatching it. Trying to picture Anh-thu’s face when he drops it on her tonight. Never thought he’d actually be excited to get a girl a gift. But Anh-thu’s different. Anh-thu’s his lady.
He spits again and wipes his right sole. Spits and wipes. Does the same thing again and again and then starts in on the left. Spits and wipes.
Spits and wipes.
Spits and wipes. (p. 14)

As Sticky ties and reties and ties his laces, we find ourselves slowly and steadily and loudly clapping ,cheering, and standing up for this unlikely hero—as loud and long as his pals at Lincoln Rec. This book reads like hip-hop, but it will win over even the most non-hip readers.

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LibraryThing member 1ls04gro

the boy live tn a foster home and played basketball.

LibraryThing member ewyatt

Sticky has had a tough life. He's bounced around from foster home to foster home. The chapters bounce around in time between Sticky's recent past and his earlier life. There are very few happy memories in Sticky's life. His mom, who was living in Sticky in poverty, spent time as a prostitute and

had her pimp stay with them. Sticky loves basketball. He spends a lot of time developing his game and Lincoln Rec. It is a world that he doesn't seem to belong to as a young white kid, but it is the only family that he feels he has.
Sticky has a girlfriend, Anh-thu, who has a pregnancy scare. He gets in trouble with the law on several occasions and gets most of his possessions through shoplifting. The ending tied things up so neatly, when potential disaster lurked around every corner. This book showed a gritty side of life with Sticky facing obstacles at every turn.

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LibraryThing member edspicer

I would recommend this book to a friend, because it is a great book and you will want to read it all the time, it's inspiring and touching.
5Q, 4P; Cover Art: Awesome!
This book is best suited for highschoolers and adults.
It was selected due to a love for basketball, which is what the book is

about.
Grade (of reviewer): 9th
(BA-AHS-NC)

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LibraryThing member Salsabrarian

Read by Dion Graham. Sticky has been a foster kid for most of his young life, cycling in and out of homes, living day to day. He’s learned how to survive the system and keep his emotions in check. The one constant in his life is basketball. He lives for the game and he can play. He earned his

chops playing with the black men at the rec center who trash-talk and mentor him in turn, providing an informal family for Sticky. His girlfriend Anh-thu is loyal and loving. With his skills, there’s a chance Sticky can play college ball but can he overcome the barriers he’s had to deal with all his life? Graham hits nothing but net with this performance. The motley crew of ballers at the rec center are warmly portrayed, a family of tough love. Sticky is focused and resilient, readers will cheer for him. The gym comes alive: you can almost hear the squeak of sneakers on hardwood.

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