Skip to content

The Outside Shot
Stock Photo: Cover May Be Different

The Outside Shot Paperback / softback - 1986

by Walter Dean Myers

  • New
  • Paperback

Recruited by a small midwestern college to play basketball, a Harlem boy has many new experiences, including working with a child who needs physical therapy and dealing with corruption in college sports.

Description

Paperback / softback. New. New Book; Fast Shipping from UK; Not signed; Not First Edition; When Lonnie Jackson leaves Harlem for a basketball scholarship to a midwestern college, he know he must keep his head straight and his record clean. That's the only way he'll have a chance of making it to the pros someday. But his stree
New
NZ$14.26
NZ$16.80 Shipping to USA
Standard delivery: 7 to 12 days
More Shipping Options
Ships from Ria Christie Collections (Greater London, United Kingdom)

About Ria Christie Collections Greater London, United Kingdom

Biblio member since 2014
Seller rating: This seller has earned a 5 of 5 Stars rating from Biblio customers.

Hello We are professional online booksellers. We sell mostly new books and textbooks and we do our best to provide a competitive price. We are based in Greater London, UK. We pride ourselves by providing a good customer service throughout, shipping the items quickly and replying to customer queries promptly. Ria Christie Collections

Terms of Sale:

30 day return guarantee, with full refund including original shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.

Browse books from Ria Christie Collections

Details

  • Title The Outside Shot
  • Author Walter Dean Myers
  • Binding Paperback / softback
  • Edition Reprint
  • Condition New
  • Pages 192
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Laurel Leaf Library, USA
  • Date 1986-12-01
  • Bookseller's Inventory # ria9780440967842_inp
  • ISBN 9780440967842 / 0440967848
  • Weight 0.21 lbs (0.10 kg)
  • Dimensions 6.86 x 4.24 x 0.53 in (17.42 x 10.77 x 1.35 cm)
  • Ages 12 to UP years
  • Grade levels 7 - UP
  • Reading level 770
  • Themes
    • Ethnic Orientation: African American
  • Library of Congress subjects African Americans, Basketball
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 84004271
  • Dewey Decimal Code FIC

Summary

When Lonnie Jackson leaves Harlem for a basketball scholarship to a midwestern college, he know he must keep his head straight and his record clean. That's the only way he'll have a chance of making it to the pros someday.But his street smarts haven't prepared him for the pressures of tough classes, high-stakes college ball, and the temptation to fix games for local gamblers. Everyone plays by a whole new set of rules -- including Sherry, who's determined to be a track star. Her independence attracts Lonnie, but their on-again, off-again relationship is driving him crazy.Lonnie has one year to learn how to make it as a "college man." It's his outside shot at a bright future. Does he have what it takes?From the Paperback edition.

From the publisher

Born in Marinsburg, West Virginia in 1937, Walter Dean Myers is one of the premier authors of books for children. His mother died very early in his life–an event that propelled him into experiences that later influenced him to write. It was difficult for Myers' father to raise eight children alone, and eventually, a nearby couple, Herbert and Florence Dean, took in three-year old Walter and moved to Harlem, New York. "Harlem became my home and the place where my first impressions of the world were set," says Myers.
 
As a child, Myers went to school in his neighborhood and attended bible school almost every day of the week. Myers had a speech impediment which made communicating difficult for him, and often found himself in fights, defending himself against kids who taunted him. After a while, one of this teachers suggested to his class that they could write something to read aloud. Young Myers began writing poetry to give voice to his thoughts and feelings, and at age sixteen, won a prize in an essay contest and a set of encyclopedias for a long narrative poem. Later, his father bought him a used typewriter, which he used to churn out a seemingly endless stream of stories.
 
Along with the many things he was discovering about himself, Myers was also learning how to survive. One day he had the courage to break up a fight between three gang members and a kid who had just moved into the neighborhood. He became a marked man–and felt his life was in danger.
 
For example, once, he was sitting in the tree in Morningside Park, across from the building he lived in, reading O'Neill's Mourning Becomes Electra, when some gang members spotted him and surrounded the tree. Myers jumped to the ground, flashed a stiletto in order to fend them off, and made a mad dash for his building. He escaped, but he never forgot the incident. Later he enlisted in the army, got married, had a child, went through a turbulent creative struggle, got divorced, got married again–and during all of this, kept writing, whether his work pleased him or not.
 
But Walter Dean Myers' life is not the story of a tormented, embittered artist. Rather it is the story of a gifted, complex person committed to sharing that gift with young readers. Myers' stories and novels paint a powerful picture of the pressures of growing up on big city streets. Yet, he emphasizes close relationships, trust, and personal growth.
 
It seems that one of Myers' greatest struggles was to understand what type of writer he wanted to be. As the years passed and his books became more and more popular, Walter Dean Myers came to believe that his work filled a void for African American youths who yearned for positive reading experiences and role models. He frequently writes about children who share similar economic and ethnic situations with his own childhood. "But my situation as a parent did not mirror that of my childhood," he says. "While my parents were quite poor, my children are thoroughly entrenched in the middle class experience. To them African prints go well with designer jeans, pizzas go down easier to a reggae beat, and shopping malls are an unmistakable part of their culture."
 
It is clear that Myers' understanding of both the world he was raised in and the world of his children allows him to bring an authority to his work that resonates with his young readers. It is one of many attributes that has made him one of the most important children's and young adult authors writing today. Among his many honors are two Newbery Honor books for Scorpions and Somewhere in the Darkness. He is also a two-time recipient of the Coretta Scott King Award for Now Is Your Time! and Fallen Angels. In addition, Myers has received the Margaret A. Edwards Award for his contribution to young adult literature.
 
Myers' novel, Darnell Rock Reporting, is a warm and humorous story about thirteen-year-old Darnell Rock–a boy who works on his school newspaper. The book is sure to appeal to reluctant readers. Myers' recent picture book, How Mr. Monkey Saw the Whole World, is a cautionary fable about a watchful monkey who sees that a greedy buzzard gets his comeuppance.
 
Myer’s recent work, 145th Street: Short Stories (A Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book) captures the heartbeat of one memorable block in Harlem, New York. These powerful, often gripping stories range from humor and celebration to terror and grief.
 
Walter Dean Myers, the father of three grown children, lives with his wife in Jersey City, New Jersey.
 
 
 


From the Trade Paperback edition.

From the jacket flap

When Lonnie Jackson leaves Harlem for a basketball scholarship to a midwestern college, he know he must keep his head straight and his record clean. That's the only way he'll have a chance of making it to the pros someday.


But his street smarts haven't prepared him for the pressures of tough classes, high-stakes college ball, and the temptation to fix games for local gamblers. Everyone plays by a whole new set of rules -- including Sherry, who's determined to be a track star. Her independence attracts Lonnie, but their on-again, off-again relationship is driving him crazy.


Lonnie has one year to learn how to make it as a "college man." It's his outside shot at a bright future. Does he have what it takes?

About the author

1937-2014
Walter Dean Myers's fiction and nonfiction books have reached millions of young people. A prolific author of more than one hundred titles, he received every major award in the field of children's literature. He wrote two Newbery Honor Books, eleven Coretta Scott King Award winners, three National Book Award finalists, and the winner of the first Michael L. Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature. He also received the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults and was the first recipient of the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement. He was a 2010 United States nominee for the Hans Christian Andersen Award and was nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Award numerous times. From 2012 to 2013, he served as the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature with the platform "Reading is not optional." In his most-beloved books, Walter explored the themes of taking responsibility for your life and that everyone always gets a second chance.