Sunday Money

Gr 8 Up–Claire Joyce would love to play basketball all day, but life is not that easy. Between her mother’s drinking, her brothers’ drug abuse, and an absent father, life is about keeping everyone happy. There is also no athletic future for a girl who plays basketball in 1971. When Title IX is passed, Claire gets to dream about a future of playing college basketball. Is she good enough? In this novel told over the course of seven years, readers will become invested in Claire and her family. Although the book’s focus is more on the problems within the family rather than basketball, the family dynamic jumps off the page. Alcohol and drugs are a fixture within the household, and Claire makes a choice to not partake, but others in her family struggle to make the same choice. With Claire’s life being broken up into quarters, readers will feel like they are getting the chance to watch her grow up.