Hoop Genius
How a Desperate Teacher and a Rowdy Gym Class Invented Basketball

This book is a very short story about why basketball was invented. It would make a good book to carry with me for those times when I am subbing and have some extra time for a read-aloud. There are two things about the book, though, that leave me a bit unsatisfied. First of all, the rules that Naismit......more

Ah, basketball! The popular sport that consumes the imaginations of many for months at a time, even to the point that the whole month of March is dedicated to the removal of teams as they march toward the national championship is the focus of this delightful picture book. But it wasn't always so! Mo......more

Love this book! It may be just because I love basketball, but I enjoy incorporating a true story in a fun way. The illustrations made the information given by this book come to life.......more

Hoop Genius: How a Desperate Teacher and a Rowdy Gym Class Invented Basketball is a children's picture book written by John Coy and illustrated by Joe Morse. This picture-book basketball history spotlights how James Naismith came to invent the game now played around the world. As an aside, today's G......more

Morse's illustrations are mesmerizing. I looked and relooked at the wildly exagerrated figure drawings of the gym class. The crowded compositions ensure overlapping of huge hands, lanky arms and too-long necks, and mustachioed heads. The feeling of chaos told about in the text is told much further a......more