Stokes tells the story of the NBA’s first Black superstar, Maurice Stokes, who is not as well known as he should be in part because of a career-ending injury.
Coauthors and basketball enthusiasts John Coy and Ty Chapman highlight what a standout Stokes was: he was 6’7” and as they write, “nobody had ever seen a guy his size score, defend, rebound, dribble, and pass so well.”
In a 1958 game against the Minneapolis Lakers, Stokes, went down hard and hit his head, losing consciousness. At the time, there was no concussion protocol, and Stokes went back into the game. A few days later, he went into a coma and woke up unable to move his body from the neck down. Players did not have any sort of financial support in situations like this, and Stokes’s teammate Jack Twyman worked with other players and Milton Kutsher to put on a benefit game during the summer at Kutsher’s hotel in the Catskills. This game became an annual tradition, and Stokes was eventually able to travel and watch the game. Wilt Chamberlain said of Stokes, “He had something transcending as a person. . . . Everybody loved him.”
Back matter includes some great historical photos as well as further information about Stokes, who was posthumously inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2004, and about the NBA’s Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year Award.
This picture book biography provides a fascinating look at basketball history, accompanied by Lonnie Ollivierre's action-packed illustrations.
Ty Chapman is an award-winning author and poet based in Minnesota. He is the author of many children's books and the poetry collection, Tartarus. Additionally, he co-edited the poetry anthology, Witness, with his friend and collaborator, Ari Tison. He has published poems through The Academy of American Poets, Water~Stone, and more.
Ty has received fellowships from The McKnight Foundation, Cave Canem, The Center for Arts + Social Justice, and The Loft Literary Center. He holds an MFA in writing for children and young adults through Vermont College of Fine Arts.
John Coy is the author of young adult novels, the 4 for 4 middle-grade series, and nonfiction and fiction picture books including
Hoop Genius,
Game Changer,Their Great Gift, Dads, If We Were Gone, and
Where We Come From. He has received numerous awards for his work including a Marion Vannett Ridgway Award, a Charlotte Zolotow Honor, a Bank Street College Best Book of the Year, and the Burr/Warzalla Award for Distinguished Achievement in Children's Literature. John lives by the Mississippi River in Minneapolis.
Lonnie Ollivierre was born in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, grew up in Brooklyn New York, and now lives in Georgia. He taught himself to paint with oil and acrylic, seeking to inspire and uplift others in his art. His illustrated work includes the picture book
A-Train Allen by Lesley Younge which was the inaugural Own Voices, Own Stories Grand Prize Winner.
