Jump, Johnny, Jump!

This book about Jumping Johnny Wilson who was the first player to score 30 points in the final game of the famous Indiana high school basketball tournament, is a delight to read. Wilson led his team to the state title and then helped Indiana beat Kentucky in an All-Star game. The story details the life of a great athlete from Anderson, Indiana who went on to play for the Harlem Globetrotters. Life for African-American people in the 1940s and 1950s was not easy at times and this book makes that fact rather evident. If you like stories about how well known Americans overcame hurdles and made something of themselves then Jump, Johnny Jump is for you. Norman Jones- author of Growing Up in Indiana: The Culture & Hoosier Hysteria Revisited