THE BOYS OF DUNBAR by Alejandro Danois is the true story of one of the greatest high school basketball teams ever, the 1981-82 Dunbar Poets from Baltimore, Maryland. Danois walks the reader through the season, highlighting most of the players, the coaches and important figures in the community, as well as many of the games.
Growing up watching these players blossom into greatness, I really enjoyed this book. I watched Muggsy Bogues at Wake Forest and David Wingate and Reggie Williams at Georgetown as a kid, and growing up in Winston-Salem right by Wake Forest, I really liked Bogues and thought he was amazing to be so talented and only 5'3". It gave me hope that no matter what height, or weight, or skin color I had, I could do whatever I wanted. Danois wrote a lot about Bogues in this book, really digging deep into Bogues' psyche and how he reacted to other's perception of him and how he became a one-of-a-kind player. Danois did a masterful job of taking all of the information and stories he collected to recreate not only the games and players themselves, but to really give the reader a feeling of being a part of this amazing season with the Dunbar Poets. Danois also spends time discussing Coach Bob Wade and his balance between drill sergeant and nurturing father figure.
Any basketball fan would enjoy THE BOYS OF DUNBAR and Danois' style of writing about the 1981-1982 Dunbar basketball team and all of the related components is quite engaging and uplifting.
Thank you to Simon & Schuster, Alejandro Danois, and Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review! ( )