There's so much to like in this action-filled novel in verse about twin eight grade brothers with tremendous basketball talent. If Goodreads allowed me to give a 4.5, that would be my score for this book since it succeeds on so many levels and makes me want to fill my review with sports lingo, calling it a slam-dunk, a buzzer beater, a victory, a championship. Filled with basketball lingo and playing the game as hard as it can be played, the book is certainly sports-centered, but it is so much more than that. It's a story of family, of love, of disappointment, and affairs of the heart. Because it succeeds on so many levels, its characters become individuals for whom it is easy to care. It's easy to understand how Josh Bell feels jealous of his twin, Jordan, and his romance with Sweet Tea. The bonds between brothers, especially twins, are often strong, and these two have shared everything, including their basketball dreams, nurtured by their father, who played basketball a couple of decades ago. As JD seems to move further away from Josh, Josh seethes over his absence and explodes during a game. But even with his mistakes and inability to accept some of the things that occur, Josh has a facility for vocabulary and stringing together rhymes with rhythm and beats that make the book compelling for word lovers as well as for basketball fans. Once I finished the book, divided into four quarters and an overtime, I found myself reflecting as to whether basketball is like life or life is like basketball. No matter the answer, it's clear to me that this book should have high appeal for the most reluctant of readers and is a marvelous read aloud title for middle graders. Books that mix descriptions of physical prowess and the fragility of the human heart call to me, and this one surely crosses over into my own heart by reminding me of those that I have lost.