Greg Harris is the protagonist in the novel slam. He is an African American athlete, and is the star of his high school basketball team. Although on the educational side of his life he is not too hot. The problem Greg faces in the story is doing well in school, and maintaining a good relationship with his girlfriend Keisha. In the first few chapters Greg try’s out for his high school basketball team and he swept the coach off his feet. But there is another star player his name is Ducky. He is prejudice against Greg, and he will do whatever it takes to keep his starting position.
As I finished the novel slam, I enjoyed how the conflicts were real everyday problems. I also liked how interesting the plot was. There are many reasons why I enjoyed this book. For example I liked how the author put real everyday characters in his novel. Therefore it made the book more exciting to read, and it made you want to continue to read more.
Although there were many things that I liked, there were things that I also disliked. For example I did not understand why the author ended the book where he did. If I was the author I would have made the book a little longer by writing more about Greg after he got recruited to a D1 college. I also did not like the lack of characters in this novel. There were only four to five main characters in this novel. This motive made me lose interest of the book during the first few chapters.
I would recommend this book to people who enjoy reading realistic fiction books. I would give this book as a gift because; it is a high quality written novel. Also because this book has a message. The message is ‘it doesn’t matter if you win or lose its how you play your life’. This quote was written by Walter Dean Myers meaning that education comes before sports. Overall I did take pleasure in reading this work of fiction and I look forward to reading more books in the Walter Dean Myers series.