Basket Ball: The Story of the All-American Game
by Kadir Nelson; illus. by the author
Intermediate, Middle School    Little, Brown    112 pp.
1/26    9780316209403    $21.99

Nelson (We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball, rev. 5/08, among many others) brings his sports fandom and verve—and always impressive oil paintings—to the history of basketball. Organized into four “quarters,” plus pregame, halftime, overtime, and postgame sections, the text is wide-ranging and enthusiastic; the (fictional) narrator speaks “from the firsthand experiences of a former basketball player who’s witnessed the game evolve from its humble beginnings…into a flashy athletic spectacle on the world stage.” Beginning with Dr. James Naismith in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1891, Nelson describes the new sport’s rules, equipment, popularity, and challenges, providing primary-source quotes and historical context around issues such as racial and financial inequities, skill-building, showmanship, and teamwork. Moving through the twentieth century, he arrives at perhaps the liveliest chapter: “Third Quarter: The Revolutionaries,” which provides snapshots of fourteen of the most influential (and playfully contestable/debatable) male players. Women are largely relegated to the engaging “Overtime” section, with Nelson’s author’s note acknowledging a greater story to be told. Every spread of this dazzlingly illustrated work includes dynamic imagery—over sixty original paintings. All are helpfully captioned, though many of the subjects are iconic and will need no identification for fans. A timeline, a glossary, notes and sources, and an index are appended.

From the January/February 2026 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.