Movies, Shows, & Books: BLOG TOUR: HOOPER by Geoff Herbach

Thursday, April 26, 2018

BLOG TOUR: HOOPER by Geoff Herbach

Welcome to the Official Blog Tour for Hooper by Geoff Herbach. Today, on our tour stop, we have an exclusive excerpt to share! Follow the tour, HERE, to check out all the blog tour festivities. We also have a tour-wide giveaway to share as well. So... Check it out and grab your copy now!!!

Genre:

Young Adult

Contemporary

Sports

Publish Date:

February 20, 2018

Publisher:

Katherine Tegen Books

Synopsis:

From Geoff Herbach, the critically acclaimed author of the Stupid Fast series, comes a compelling new YA novel about basketball, prejudice, privilege, and family, perfect for fans of Jordan Sonnenblick, Andrew Smith, and Matt de la Peña.

For Adam Reed, basketball is a passport. Adam’s basketball skills have taken him from an orphanage in Poland to a loving adoptive mother in Minnesota. When he’s tapped to play on a select AAU team along with some of the best players in the state, it just confirms that basketball is his ticket to the good life: to new friendships, to the girl of his dreams, to a better future.

But life is more complicated off the court. When an incident with the police threatens to break apart the bonds Adam’s finally formed after a lifetime of struggle, he must make an impossible choice between his new family and the sport that’s given him everything.

*Excerpt*

This is where I first found happiness in America. I am a hooper.

I leap high, grab the rebound over all the Wauzeka boys. I drop the rock to the point guard, Caleb Olson, then jog down the court.

Shoes squeak. The pep band drummer drums. Cheerleaders cheer. The air smells like popcorn and nachos and the heat of all these people, a packed gym full of Northrup Polar Bear fans.

This is February. Sophomore year.

I jog underneath the hoop. The defender tries to push me out. I am already too big. He is six foot one, maybe. I am six foot six and all bony arms and legs. I back him down just for fun. Caleb Olson, a senior, takes his time coming down the court. He is so good with the ball in his hand. He is such a fine shooter, too.

We are far ahead. No need to rush things.

I swing outside the paint to the left wing.

The drum drums. The crowd cheers.

Our offense runs through me and Caleb and no one else.

Caleb moves into the frontcourt. The Wauzeka defense sets. I cut again underneath the basket then explode from the post to the top of the key, where I set a pick on Caleb’s defender.

Caleb drives.

I roll.

Caleb lobs the ball high at the rim.

I leap. I catch. I throw it down.

It’s like water breaking through a dam.

The crowd goes crazy, even a kid at the end of our opponent’s bench. He looks like me when I was a little boy, or like my little brother would look if I had one. Blond hair spiked up. Long arms. Long legs. So skinny. He wears a red T-shirt with a big yellow corncob on it. “Fear the Cob” is written in big letters.

That boy is so happy to see me dunk the basketball, and I do not fear the Cob.

Wauzeka, known as “The Cobbers,” won the Minnesota Valley Conference three years in a row, but this victory claims the crown for us.

Northrup Polar Bears reign supreme. We are the champions.

Me and Caleb high-five.

But I don’t like him.

~~~~~

Praise for HOOPER

“Lessons on small-town politics and what it means to be a good friend abound in this well-plotted work.” ―Booklist

“Herbach’s ability to expand the narrative from solid game play to confronting racial injustice is remarkable. No one here is perfect, and their failures make readers cringe yet root for success. Hoops and so much more.” ―Kirkus Reviews

“There’s much to love in this sports tale. Fast-paced play-by-plays vividly depict the speed and beauty of the game. Adam’s backstory is heartrending and with immigrant mistrust and nonviolent protests in the national spotlight, this is a timely and realistic teen drama and swish—nothin’ but net.” ―School Library Journal

“This sports/school/domestic drama checks all the boxes. What could be another boilerplate basketball novel benefits from a tight cast of well developed secondary characters who surpass their expected stereotypes.” ―Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

“Fresh, funny, thoughtful, subversive, and totally absorbing. Book of the year!” ―Robert Lipsyte, Margaret A. Edwards award-winning author of The Contender

“Funny, gut-wrenching, and spilling over with heart, Hooper is an uplifting breath of joy, and gives us all cause to be hopeful. I loved it!” ―Andrew Smith, Michael L. Printz Honor and New York Times Bestselling author of Winger and Grasshopper Jungle

“Hooper is a slam dunk! A sports novel with incredible action and tons of heart. I challenge you not to fall in love with these terrific, flawed characters, and just try to put this one down once you start. Impossible.” ―Bill Konigsberg, Award-Winning Author of Honestly Ben

“Raw, funny, and deeply honest, Geoff Herbach gifts us a story about the messiness of life and the importance of talking about it—ultimately showing us how to not only trudge through it, but to soar.” ―Gae Polisner, author of In Sight of Stars and The Memory of Things

“Author Geoff Herbach has a remarkable ability to create characters who make us laugh and think, sometimes within the same sentence. Read Hooper and let your self be changed.” ―John Coy, author of Gap Life

~~~~~

**About the Author**

Photo Credit: Katherine Warde

Geoff Herbach is the author of the award winning Stupid Fast YA series as well as Fat Boy vs the Cheerleaders. His books have been given the 2011 Cybils Award for best YA novel, the Minnesota Book Award, selected for the Junior Library Guild, listed among the year’s best by the American Library Association, the American Booksellers Association and many state library associations. In the past, he wrote the literary novel, The Miracle Letters of T. Rimberg, produced radio comedy shows and toured rock clubs telling weird stories. Geoff teaches creative writing at Minnesota State, Mankato. He lives in a log cabin with a tall wife.

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