Hoop Crazy

Much like others much more famous than I, I also believe that the Chip Hilton series reminds us all of the basic values of life. I would certainly recommend the series to all young people, even at the risk of them being put off by Clair Bee's "hokeyness". There are great lessons contained wthin each story as Chip and his friends work very hard to navigate through their teen years.

For those readers new to the Chip Hilton series, this is a good book in the series as it has basketball and a good off-the-court story. I feel the earlier books in the Hilton series are the best. I had many of original Hilton books as a kid and absolutely loved them. I re-read them through the years and am truly disappointed my son never got into them the way my brothers and I did. Of course, I was thrilled when the stories were re-released so I could read the volumes I never read. The stories are still great, but I am greatly annoyed by the small changes the authors chose to make, in attempt to modernize them, when they re-released the books. I have found these small changes often lead to confusion in the stories, particular in this book. For example, in "Touchdown Pass" Speed Morris is referred to as being black, which he was not in the original version. No big deal. That is, until this story which dealt with racism very well as the team took a young black player to a hostile town for the first time. The fact that Speed was now black changed the significance of the event, which the author apparently realized and scrambled to make sense out of it. Oh, well, my brother (another Hilton fanatic) told me to lighten up and just enjoy the books!

I loved this book. Chip Hilton is a good series for girls and boys. I can't wait to read the rest of them. I am going to get Championship Ball today.