Double Team

STAT: Standing Tall and Talented #2

by Amar'e Stoudemire, Tim Jessell (Illustrator)

STAT: Standing Tall and Talented-- A slam-dunk new fiction series from NBA superstar Amar'e Stoudemire!

Eleven-year-old Amar'e Stoudemire has finally realized that out of all his hobbies, basketball is his true passion. Amar'e starts competing in tournaments with his two best friends, Deuce and Mike, and they are winning. While they play great together as a team, the real reason for their success is Amar'e's incredible abilities. He's carrying them. After a few big wins, Amar'e starts getting attention from some of the older, more elite players in Lake Wales. They all want him to join their squads. Amar'e wants to elevate his game and the only way to do that is to move on but his friends feel like he's leaving them behind. Without Amar'e they're barely contenders plus he never seems to have time for them anymore.

Based on the life of All-Star NBA sensation, Amar'e Stoudemire, who overcame many obstacles to become one of the most popular figures in sports today.

Genres: Sports, Basketball

149 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2012

About the author

Amar'e Carsares Stoudemire is an American professional basketball for the New York Knicks. He plays as a power forward and center.

Stoudemire is deeply involved in philanthropic work including organizations like Boys and Girls Club of the Greater Phoenix area, the Each 1, Teach 1 Foundation, an organization founded by Stoudemire, which is devoted to supplying clean drinking water in Sierra Leone.

2011, Stoudemire was approached by Scholastic Press to write a series of chapter books geared towards elementary school aged children entitled, State: Standing Tall and Talented. The first book in the series, STAT: Home Court, was described by Stoudemire to be biographical, was published in August 2012.

Reviews

[Katt Hansen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The more I read these books the more I like them. Amar'e is believable and the struggles he goes through in this book are very real. What I appreciated is the fact that future goals are addressed in such a way. Kids really don't understand the choices that are involved in aiming for a career in sports at a young age, just what kind of dedication and sacrifice is needed.

Overall, I'd recommend this series to anyone who loves basketball, or who enjoys a good sports story in general. Very readable and a pleasure to read!

[Tyngsborough Middle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thanks to Jennifer at @ARCycling I won this book a few Sunday's ago. It's not listed as an autobiography, but rather says "Based on the life of All-Star NBA sensation Amar'e Stoudemire..." I think this book would have a good deal of appeal to children who like basketball, but it's also a good story about making tough decisions and how to navigate friendships. I like any book that has boys navigating the tricky waters of growing up and navigating through maturity!

[Annie W. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an inspiring book! It showed you to just have fun and don't worry about winning or losing. The writing was powerful! The strengths of this book were that it showed you how to be a good friend and it showed you a good thing to remember in sports. I cannot think of a weakness for this book! It was just too good. I would recommend this book to a classmate that enjoys sports. I plan on reading book 3 or 5 next.

[Isaac]

This book is about amare stoudemire and how he grew up and became a great player in basketball.Amare was a power forward who was originally on the suns and then he was traded to the knicks. We follow a young amare as he goes through tournaments with his 2 friends Deuce and mike.As they are winning they notice it is mostly because of amare and as he wins more he gets more attention.He is asked to join a elite squad which leads to him havig to leave his friends to chase bigger and better things.

[Zachary Garland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eleven-year old kid named Amar'e starts competing in tournaments with his best friends, Deuce and Mike, and they are winning. After a few wins, Amar'e starts getting attention from some of the more elite players in Lake Wales. Amar’e is better then his friends at basketball but he doesn’t want to hurt their feelings by telling them about what happened because they didn’t get attention from the Elite players. Amar’e has to make a big decision.
Amar’e wants to elevate his game, but the only way to do that is to move on, but his friends feel like he is leaving them behind when he tells them. Without Amar'e they are barely contenders, and he never seems to have time for them anymore. They started getting not as close with amare but then they talked and agreed that amare should do what he wants to do. Amar’e played a game with the elite players and after that he went to his friends to play with them. Amar’e has learned that he can multitask with his friends and the really good players. He made the right decision because he didn’t hurt his friends and he got to play with the hardcore players.
Amar’e Stoudamire the main character currently plays in the nba and is one of the only jewish players. Without his choice to play with the elite players he wouldn’t be where he is now. “One of the hardest parts of life is deciding whether to walk away or try harder.”

[Jahmeir Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

first the book was good. Double Team was about this kid Amar'e likes to play basketball and he has been participating in a lot of tournaments with his friend. when he does good in one of them he picks up attention from this legend overtime tanner. he gets invited to a invitational tournament he trys to elevate his game without have his friends feel like he is leaving them behind. i have the book a 5 star rating because i really liked the book and it was interesting to me. people who like sports books basketball books are people that like the basketball player Amar'e Stoudemire would want to read this.

[Kayla · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though this books are easy to read, they are still good!

[Matthew Macdonald · Rating 4 out of 5]

STAT by Amar'e Stoudemitre is about a boy who extremely good at basketball and gets and indentation to play in an exclusive tournament. But his friends have a tournament on the same day and he doesn't know what to do.
Stat by Amar'e Stoudemitre takes place in modern time and in Florida.
I recommend this book to any one who likes sports and funny books. It's fun to read and you want to know what will happen next. I highly suggest this book.

[Ernesto · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amar'e has been competing in tournaments with his two friends Mike,and Deuce. While the play good as a team,the real reason why they keep winning is because of Amar'e. But Amar'e gets invited to a real tournament where he will get to play with great players. It turns out that both tournaments are on the same day and Amar'e doesn't know what to do. I recommend this book to people who like basketball

[Davon.c · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book is about amare's life and how his friends had been there for him all ways any in any way possible but in the most part it would be that they are here to help him with his basketball. He had said that friends are a lot to have but in some times they are good to have. That's just like saying friends are like having a pet chicken or asking me to choice between stuff like candy or friends.

[Kate Hildreth · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is another great book. I really like the family dynamic and the major character Amare. He is a really good kid. These are short but have a very good story line. You have to read book number one.

[Ratforcekids]

This is a basketball story based on the life of All-Star NBA sensation Amar'e Stoudemire. This is the second book in the series. The first book is titled Home Court.