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Slade, Suzanne

Swish!: The Slam-Dunking, Alley-Ooping, High-Flying Harlem Globetrotters

40 pp. | Little | November, 2020 | Trade ISBN 978-0-316-48167-0 $17.99
(2) K-3 Illustrated by Don Tate. Slade and Tate provide an overview of the development and rise to fame of the Harlem Globetrotters, with origins on Chicago's South Side in the 1920s and still thrilling viewers with their skills today. Because the players were Black, the team had to play exclusively on the road, facing racism and violence ("hometown fans didn't like out-of-town hotshots skunking their team") as they "barnstormed their way across America." Their popularity soared when they began incorporating ball-handling tricks into their play--but professional basketball remained all white. In 1948 the team challenged the powerhouse Minnesota Lakers to a game--and won; two years later, Chuck Cooper (a Globetrotters recruit) became the first Black player to be drafted into the NBA. Known as "America's Ambassadors of Goodwill," the Globetrotters' impact extends beyond the world of sports. Slade's peppy main text is short on dates and details, as the team's history is somewhat apocryphal; the useful back matter, including "More on the Trotters," an artist's note, a timeline, select sources, and archival photos, provides additional information. Tate's illustrations, done digitally in his usual big-hearted-caricature style (Whoosh!, rev. 7/16, and others), are an ideal match for the subject, with the players' tallness and thinness perfectly exaggerated, and the forever-motion of that big orange ball and its handlers spinning, twirling, and dunking on every scene.
Reviewer: Elissa Gershowitz | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2020

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