Review of "The Turnover," by Mike Lupica

 Review of

The Turnover, by Mike Lupica, ISBN 9781534421585

Five out of five stars

Love proves stronger than anger

 Lucas Winston is in middle school and a superb basketball player. His team is called the Claremont Wolves and last season they won the championship. Lucas’ grandfather, called Gramps, coached the team last season, and will do so again this season. Lucas and his teammates are growing in confidence, for they know their skill levels and Gramps knows basketball. Lucas’ father died when he was young, so his Gramps has been his father equivalent. They both love basketball and talk about it and watch it all the time.  

 One odd thing that Lucas notices is that Gramps never talks about his life as a boy or a young man. All he will say is that he played basketball for a college that doesn’t exist anymore. Whenever Lucas mentions anything that is even a veiled reference to Gramps’ past, the subject is changed, dismissed or joked into another subject.

 The team starts strong, but Lucas’ curiosity is aroused, and he goes into the attic and starts exploring family artifacts. He finds a picture of two men and then a letter that his father wrote to his father (Gramps). It hints at a dark past and when Lucas finds out the deep secret of Gramps’ past, he is so angry that he refuses to speak to Gramps again. The quality of his action on the basketball court suffers, although they still manage to win. It is a dark time, but both Gramps and Lucas take steps to set all in order so they are once again best friends, and the Wolves once again match their namesake on the basketball court.

  While this is a book about the love of basketball and the attempt to win a championship, it is more about making mistakes early in life and eventually having to face them no matter how hard you try to bury them. It is also about learning about the mistakes others have made and eventually letting the good overpower the bad. While it is rarely easy, it is also not a rare thing in life. Lucas is initially devastated to learn the dark secret in Gramps’ life, but the two of them take their own path to once again intersect and be a team again.

 Like the best books of adolescent sports fiction, this one is about the cocoon that life wraps around the goals we hope to achieve. All older adults have things they are not proud of and regret, some greater than others. In this case, it is a great one and Lucas and Gramps must first work through it separately so that they can once again work together. That process is very well worked through, so it is a great life lesson.

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