Ten-year-old James thinks he’s too small to participate in a four-on-four basketball game with his older brother and his friends so he’s pleasantly surprised when they do ask him, due to a last-minute injury of one of their teammates. James is assigned to guard Marcus, the biggest, toughest kid on the court. It’s no easy task but he sticks to it and manages to rise to the occasion, with lots of encouragement from a fellow teammate named Zo. A distinctive stream-of-consciousness narrative is accompanied by brown-tone scratchboard and photo collages of African-American kids in an urban setting. (Ages 6-10)

When James is finally allowed to play basketball on the main court with the older boys, he has to prove he can hold his own. It's Skins against Shirts, and James is guarding Marcus, the biggest Shirt of them all. Marcus is all muscle, but James has skill and determination on his side. In the end, there's much more than the game point riding on James's last shot. John Coy's energetic prose captures the intensity and emotion of the competition, while Leslie Jean-Bart's photo collages convey the gritty pace of the game.