AUGUST 2018 - AudioFile
JB Adkins and Ramon de Ocampo share the narration of this dual-perspective story of two friends who are headed in very different directions. Bunny is a basketball star who left his local school’s team for his shot at a brighter future. Nasir is unmoored without Bunny, drifting into the orbit of his troubled cousin, Wallace. When Wallace starts gambling on the outcome of Bunny’s games, a collision seems inevitable. Adkins and de Ocampo make a great team for a story told in snappy alternating chapters. As Bunny, Adkins projects confidence that masks concern about the choices he’s making, while as Nasir, de Ocampo sounds wary and jittery by turns, never quite on solid ground. Together, the narrators create suspense that will draw the listener into the action. N.M. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
★ 01/15/2018
Told in alternating first-person narratives, this layered and emotionally rich story gracefully captures its protagonists’ external pressures and inner conflicts. Aware of his parents’ financial struggles, high school sophomore and basketball star Bunny accepts a full scholarship to St. Sebastian’s, a private school, hoping to increase his chances of getting a full ride to college. His best friend Nasir views this choice as a defection and cuts ties with Bunny. Ribay (An Infinite Number of Parallel Universes) conveys both boys’ isolation: Bunny struggles as one of the few black students in his school (“Most days I don’t feel like anything more than their mascot”), and Nasir wrestles with rejection and frustration, particularly as he compares Bunny’s good fortune with the dire circumstances facing his cousin Wallace: “He’s got the world looking out for him. I’m the only one in Wallace’s corner.” As the boys take tentative steps to salvage their friendship, they navigate high-stakes choices and consider the value of loyalty, integrity, and sacrifice in a story driven by fast-paced drama on and off the court. Ages 14–up. Agent: Kaylee Davis, Dee Mura Literary. (Mar.)
From the Publisher
"Ribay’s depictions of Bunny’s and Nasir’s lives are beautifully—if not tragically—drawn...[Ribay] painstakingly shows the state of (sometimes violent) desperation for many young men of the inner city, buoyed only by the distant chance of a better life through stardom. Despite its downbeat aspects, the story nevertheless manages to infuse humanity into the boys’ lives by showcasing the importance of family, the value of friendship, and the importance of courage in the face of difficult situations." — Booklist "A well-executed book featuring complex, diverse characters we rarely meet—a real winner for its heartbeat, compassion, and integrity."Kirkus, STARRED review "Without a doubt, Ribay’s compelling book belongs on the shelf alongside contemporary heavy-hitters like Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give, Brendan Kiely and Jason Reynolds’s All-American Boys, and Nic Stone’s Dear Martin."School Library Journal, STARRED review "As the boys take tentative steps to salvage their friendship, they navigate high-stakes choices and consider the value of loyalty, integrity, and sacrifice in a story driven by fast-paced drama on and off the court."-Publishers Weekly, STARRED review "Readers will race through the intrigue and volatile basketball action to the explosive conclusion."Horn Book Magazine —
School Library Journal
★ 01/01/2018
Gr 8 Up—A dually narrated story of two teen boys, Bunny and Nasir, struggling with a dying friendship shapes Ribay's latest. Nasir feels abandoned after Bunny leaves their school to attend an upscale private school to play basketball and is dating Keyona, a girl he had always been interested in. The season is going well and the team, led by Bunny, is on its way to winning a state title. But Nasir's friend Wallace is digging himself deeper into debt and physical trouble, placing bets on high school games and against Bunny's specifically. Nasir then becomes complicit in sabotaging Bunny's chances with explosive and life-altering consequences. Not only is the book well-paced with short chapters switching perspectives, the secondary characters are rich in detail, and Bunny and Nasir are fully realized protagonists with families, friendship, school, and sports. Drama propels the story forward while its emotional appeal builds empathy for both boys' circumstances. Seamlessly, tension exacerbates the weighty choices that come with their responsibilities. And while the climax is predictable, it feels inevitable. The trajectory of each boy's future is in the hands of the third teen, Wallace. Without a doubt, Ribay's compelling book belongs on the shelf alongside contemporary heavy-hitters like Angie Thomas's The Hate U Give, Brendan Kiely and Jason Reynolds's All-American Boys, and Nic Stone's Dear Martin. VERDICT A must-have for YA shelves.—Alicia Abdul, Albany High School, NY
AUGUST 2018 - AudioFile
JB Adkins and Ramon de Ocampo share the narration of this dual-perspective story of two friends who are headed in very different directions. Bunny is a basketball star who left his local school’s team for his shot at a brighter future. Nasir is unmoored without Bunny, drifting into the orbit of his troubled cousin, Wallace. When Wallace starts gambling on the outcome of Bunny’s games, a collision seems inevitable. Adkins and de Ocampo make a great team for a story told in snappy alternating chapters. As Bunny, Adkins projects confidence that masks concern about the choices he’s making, while as Nasir, de Ocampo sounds wary and jittery by turns, never quite on solid ground. Together, the narrators create suspense that will draw the listener into the action. N.M. © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Review
★ 2017-12-21
Basketball provides the backdrop for a friendship pushed to its limits in this tale told from the alternating perspectives of two teen boys growing up in a tough inner-city neighborhood reminiscent of Camden, New Jersey. Biracial Nasir and African-American Bunny had been best of friends until last summer, when Bunny, Whitman High's star basketball player, is recruited away to private, suburban St. Sebastian's and its high-powered basketball program. The once-prideful reputation that he garnered winning for the home team, à la real-life Camden legend Dajuan Wagner, turns to insult, rage, and anger as his former classmates question whether Bunny is preparing to leave them and the neighborhood behind for good. After losing Bunny, Nasir begins to build a relationship with his perennially troubled black cousin Wallace, a wayward child who needs much more support than the world has afforded him and who lashes out frequently in numerous exhausting ways. Meanwhile, the lightning-smart Keyona, Bunny's girlfriend and biggest remaining Whitman fan, hopes to rekindle the friendship between Bunny and Nasir. By and large avoiding upfront race talk, Ribay makes his point by drawing characters of color full of complexity and contradiction. A genuine touch of Filipino flavor—Nasir's mom grew up in the Philippines—demonstrates that one can step beyond reductive black/white-only portrayals of inner-city neighborhood life.A well-executed book featuring complex, diverse characters we rarely meet—a real winner for its heartbeat, compassion, and integrity. (Fiction. 14-18)