Book Talk on Slam!

Slam! by Walter Dean Myers 

Summary: “Slam!” is a young adult novel by Walter Dean Myers. The story revolves around the seventeen-year-old Greg “Slam” Harris efforts on playing basketball, while maintaining his academics and his personal life. Therefore, Slam lives in Harlem, New York and goes to a prestigious magnet school in the South Bronx called Latimer. The school is mainly white students with a couple minorities. In which, the high-school has a failing basketball program, which Slam is seen as this black hope to help them succeed and win a State Title. However, the real reason why Slam is attending Latimer is because he is part of a policy that enables schools to become more diverse. From there the story jumps ahead over the course of several months, Slam helps lead the Latimer Panthers to victory, including one over his former school’s team called Carver. At his old high-school Carver, Slam has a lifelong friendship with his friend Ice. But their friendship disintegrates as Ice turns to drug dealing to get ahead in life to make money for his family. Also, Slam’s love life heats up when he begins seeing Mtisha, who goes to Carver. Their relationship begins to heat up, as Mtisha tutors Slam in math. At the same time, Slam’s grandmother gets sick and goes into the hospital, which causes Slam a lot of stress and pressure on his shoulders to make his Grandmother proud. His grandmother will recover eventually from her sickness. Yet, Slam’s other like his father, who is unemployed, turns to the bottle to coup with not bringing money into the family. However, the person who holds everything together in Slam’s life and family is his mother. She works a bunch of jobs to help support her family. Lastly, his friend Ducky and Nick help Slam realize that it’s better to work as a team, then playing a lone wolf type of game. From there, this helps Slam understand the true value of teamwork and helps Latimer beat Carver and his best friend Ice during the state title game. Yet, it is the team’s assistant coach named Goldstein that becomes a grandfatherly mentor to Slam, telling Slam that life is a game as well- it can be won, or it can be lost. The choice is ultimately up to Slam. In the end, Slam takes Goldstein’s advice and looks ahead to the future.

Rationale: The reason why I choose this text, is because I enjoyed reading this book during my 8^th grade year. That year we learned about Walter Dean Myers, as we read the book “Monster,” which I grew to like his writing styles and the setting of New York. Myer’s gave detail of New York that made you always feel like you’re next to the main character. However, the text would be appropriate for students 8^th grade and up. I believe that 8^th grader will be able to understand the morals of the story and certain themes that are hard to understand at certain text. The text in the book isn’t small print, but rather medium print with over 260 pages. This text could be challenging to understand for a 6^th grader or even an elementary student, from the use of slang and the idea of drug dealing. But also, most young students don’t like to read 200 book pages as they believe those type of books are too long or hard to understand in their mindset.

Teaching Ideas: In this book there are plenty of examples of similes and metaphors in the way that Slam talks about his life and the challenges he faces, but also the deep and abiding love of basketball that he has. For example, how he introduces himself to the reader and how he described his love of his favorite sport:
            “I’m six four, and I got the moves, the eye and the heart. You can take my game to the                              bank and wait around for the interest” (1).

This quote would be an example of an implied metaphor, as the speaker is comparing his skill and talent in basketball to a financial investment. Slam believes that he is secure and safe as a basketball player that you can do nothing more but wait for his success on the court.  

Another, teaching idea would be the setting of Slam! In which, all the settings come from Myers’s own upbringing in Harlem, New York. There is a lot of quotes that help illustrate the setting and the nature of Harlem from the family’s neighborhood that is alive with family-run businesses, like Bill’s bicycle shop and the Wedgies joint, but also the threats and dangers of drive-by shootings, which Myer’s includes in the story to show the dangers of walking in Harlem.  

Lastly, another teaching idea would be about the themes of the story, and the importance of teamwork. Although basketball is a team game, Slam is a bit of a lone wolf, playing for himself more than for others. Also, the coaches begin to think Slam is bit of a showboat, and someone who’s not prepared to give his all for the team. However, with all the other problems going on in Slam’s life, he somehow needs to reconcile his heightened sense of individuality, both as a young man and as an athlete, with the needs of basketball team. At first, it’s hard for Slam to do because his ego holds him back from developing good relationships with his teammates. It’s only until the end he realizes the importance of teamwork and working together to help one another out.  

Challenges: Some of the challenges would be the slang that is used during interactions, which comes off hard to understand the meaning behind the text. I feel that the students wouldn’t understand these slangs that correctly or even their parent could be upset with the idea that their child his reading slang, which they could copy those same sayings that comes off as illiterate. Another idea would be the drug dealing. Slam’s best friend Ice begins to start drug dealing to make money, which could cause some students to believe that its morally okay even though it’s not. In which, I believe that parents wouldn’t be too happy with their kids getting ideas about drug dealing, or even the administrators wouldn’t be to be thrilled with the idea of these students learning about drug dealing and spotting people doing drugs by their looks and demeanor. Also, I feel that students would be uncomfortable with the idea of dealing with race, as Slam is an African American and the example of race is often brought up in the book.