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The Playbook: 52 Rules to Aim, Shoot, and Score in This Game Called Life
You gotta know the rules to play the game. Ball is life. Take it to the hoop. Soar. What can we imagine for our lives? What if we were the star players, moving and grooving through the game of life? What if we had our own rules of the game to help us get what we want, what we aspire to, what will enrich our lives?
Illustrated with photographs by Thai Neave, The Playbook is intended to provide inspiration on the court of life. Each rule contains wisdom from inspiring athletes and role models such as Nelson Mandela, Serena Williams, LeBron James, Carli Lloyd, Steph Curry and Michelle Obama. Kwame Alexander also provides his own poetic and uplifting words, as he shares stories of overcoming obstacles and winning games in this motivational and inspirational book just right for graduates of any age and anyone needing a little encouragement.
Illustrated with photographs by Thai Neave, The Playbook is intended to provide inspiration on the court of life. Each rule contains wisdom from inspiring athletes and role models such as Nelson Mandela, Serena Williams, LeBron James, Carli Lloyd, Steph Curry and Michelle Obama. Kwame Alexander also provides his own poetic and uplifting words, as he shares stories of overcoming obstacles and winning games in this motivational and inspirational book just right for graduates of any age and anyone needing a little encouragement.
176 pages, Hardcover
First published February 14, 2017
385 people are currently reading
2881 people want to read
About the author
Kwame Alexander
82 books3,144 followersKwame Alexander is a poet, educator, and New York Times Bestselling author of 21 books, including The Crossover, which received the 2015 John Newbery Medal for the Most Distinguished Contribution to American literature for Children, the Coretta Scott King Author Award Honor, The NCTE Charlotte Huck Honor, the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, and the Passaic Poetry Prize. Kwame writes for children of all ages. His other works include Surf's Up, a picture book; Booked, a middle grade novel; and He Said She Said, a YA novel.
Kwame believes that poetry can change the world, and he uses it to inspire and empower young people through his PAGE TO STAGE Writing and Publishing Program released by Scholastic. A regular speaker at colleges and conferences in the U.S., he also travels the world planting seeds of literary love (Singapore, Brazil, Italy, France, Shanghai, etc.). Recently, Alexander led a delegation of 20 writers and activists to Ghana, where they delivered books, built a library, and provided literacy professional development to 300 teachers, as a part of LEAP for Ghana, an International literacy program he co-founded.
Kwame believes that poetry can change the world, and he uses it to inspire and empower young people through his PAGE TO STAGE Writing and Publishing Program released by Scholastic. A regular speaker at colleges and conferences in the U.S., he also travels the world planting seeds of literary love (Singapore, Brazil, Italy, France, Shanghai, etc.). Recently, Alexander led a delegation of 20 writers and activists to Ghana, where they delivered books, built a library, and provided literacy professional development to 300 teachers, as a part of LEAP for Ghana, an International literacy program he co-founded.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 524 reviews
February 9, 2021
A basketball fans delight. This short book is chocked full of advice.
Using basketball as a metaphor for life, the great ideas flow. Additionally, K. Alexander puts quotes from the greatest in sports throughout the book as a distinctive reference.
Well written. Both thoughtful and brief. A all around good book for all but especially athletes.
I highly recommend.
Using basketball as a metaphor for life, the great ideas flow. Additionally, K. Alexander puts quotes from the greatest in sports throughout the book as a distinctive reference.
Well written. Both thoughtful and brief. A all around good book for all but especially athletes.
I highly recommend.
November 27, 2016
Reading this book I could picture all of the middle school students I wanted to hand it to, ones that would devour it in their rooms in one night, ones that would sneak-read it during class, ones that would jot down a few of the quotes that really struck them, ones that needed a lift or a push or some reassurance. It will grab the attention of sports fans, but non-sports fans will be enamored with it, too. Will also make an excellent gift for coaches and grads.
April 24, 2017
Rules for life. #3WordBookReview
Kwame Alexander mixes personal stories, the stories of athletes, and inspirational quotes to outline 52 rules for a successful life.
This will be great for reluctant readers: each double spread page contains a rule and an appropriate quote, and it is highly visual with illustrations, photographs and dynamic text. I will definitely be buying more copies for my school library!
Kwame Alexander mixes personal stories, the stories of athletes, and inspirational quotes to outline 52 rules for a successful life.
This will be great for reluctant readers: each double spread page contains a rule and an appropriate quote, and it is highly visual with illustrations, photographs and dynamic text. I will definitely be buying more copies for my school library!
December 12, 2018
This. Book. Was. AMAZING!! It was definitely a quick read but it had a fabulous message. It has small memoirs inside that walk about different pro athletes that have gone through some difficult lives. It gives you uplifting quotes. I recommend this to only people that enjoy sports though because I fell otherwise you'd get tired with it or wouldn't understand some of it and get as great of a feeling and message out of it as people that like sports would.
March 13, 2019
I really enjoyed this book. It showed great lessons and really inspired me. It had different parts of the book and the part that really spoke to me was about Lebron James. It talked about how he struggled as a kid and didn't have a father. The fact that he didn't have a male mentor, it fueled him to work harder and never give up. Also, my favorite quote from this book was " You miss 100% of your shots you don't take." -Wayne Gretzky. This is a great book and I highly recommend it.
November 9, 2017
This book is packed full of inspiration. I loved it!
February 22, 2020
Summary: If you're looking for a bit of inspiration but not too much heavy deep reading, this should do the trick.
Alexander keeps the stories short and to the point. If you just can't do a tomb, but you want a bit more meet to get you in the right frame of mind for being inspired for the day. If you read while having coffee, consider just doing a chapter out of this a day. It is choked full of great quotes from amazing athletes.
P.2 Basketball was invented in 1891. I did not know that.
p. 17 - Wilma Rudolph. Track star with a paralyzed leg. She is a real life Forest Gump who with paralized leg went on to get 3 gold medals in the olympics. Wow!! IDNK.
p. 30 - I just like this quote: "Hard work beats talent when talent forgets to work hard."
p. 38 - I like this quote too: "When you stop playing your game, you've already lost."
p. 42 & this one: "There may be people who have more talent than you, but there's no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do." - Derek Jeter
p. 46 - Winning is great but learning to lose is central. You got to figure out how to pick yourself up from a loss in order to be great.
p. 54 - "Motivation can come from inspiration and encouragement, but it can also come from opposition and discouragement."
p. 93 -This story is all about pivoting. If you got heart, then it's just about finding the place where you can succeed in life.
p. 108 - There is no single formula for winning, but you must have a game plan.
p. 167 - Know the rules, master the rules, say to the possibility of sometimes making up your own rules.
Alexander keeps the stories short and to the point. If you just can't do a tomb, but you want a bit more meet to get you in the right frame of mind for being inspired for the day. If you read while having coffee, consider just doing a chapter out of this a day. It is choked full of great quotes from amazing athletes.
P.2 Basketball was invented in 1891. I did not know that.
p. 17 - Wilma Rudolph. Track star with a paralyzed leg. She is a real life Forest Gump who with paralized leg went on to get 3 gold medals in the olympics. Wow!! IDNK.
p. 30 - I just like this quote: "Hard work beats talent when talent forgets to work hard."
p. 38 - I like this quote too: "When you stop playing your game, you've already lost."
p. 42 & this one: "There may be people who have more talent than you, but there's no excuse for anyone to work harder than you do." - Derek Jeter
p. 46 - Winning is great but learning to lose is central. You got to figure out how to pick yourself up from a loss in order to be great.
p. 54 - "Motivation can come from inspiration and encouragement, but it can also come from opposition and discouragement."
p. 93 -This story is all about pivoting. If you got heart, then it's just about finding the place where you can succeed in life.
p. 108 - There is no single formula for winning, but you must have a game plan.
p. 167 - Know the rules, master the rules, say to the possibility of sometimes making up your own rules.
February 8, 2017
AMAZING! It's a really quick read for readers that need to feel inspired and/or motivated, either academically, socially, or even athletically. Kwame does a great job at retelling people's stories so young readers can understand and learn from it. The rules and quotes from well known athletes and artists are great reminders at what life is really about.
November 20, 2016
Loved it, and I'm not into sports, at all. However, it is so relevant to life, and especially overcoming failure.
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April 2, 2019It was amazing.
December 4, 2018
I really liked this book because it had a lot of good quotes and lessons about basketball and any sport in general. I have read Kwame Alexander books before and I love his basketball books. I recommend this book to whoever wants to read a basketball book with good lessons.
June 5, 2017
Good message and I can picture students who will enjoy the sports connections. (I think Brody might like this one too.)
January 13, 2018
Motivational. Inspirational. Uplifting.
October 7, 2019
I thought it was a relly great book and it taught me a lot of incouraging quotes. I would recomend this to people that are down on theselves for doig somthing wrong,expecally in basketball.
February 7, 2017
While reading this book, I really enjoyed reading all the different rules and saying's that can be related to sports, and life. I also enjoyed reading some of the stories from the author, Kwame Alexander's life, and other athletes such as Lebron and the Williams sisters. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Kwame Alexander's books and sports.
September 5, 2018
Filled with great poems and quotes and fabulous photographs and drawings. An inspirational and thoroughly enjoyable read.
July 17, 2019
I can relate with the character because we're both trash at basketball and never get passed to by teammates. But the book itself was really deep, and inspiring. Would definitely recommend to basketball maniacs (won't say who).
October 23, 2019
Pretty good but not exactly what I expected
September 6, 2021
Kwame Alexander's The Playbook is a neat little book that offers teenagers rules for sports and for life. Most of them boil down to working hard and dealing with frustration. There are lots of famous passages from successful athletes. The inside cover is rippled to feel more like a basketball. My advice to a kid reading The Playbook would be to read it all at once and then to read a little bit of it everyday.
September 8, 2021
“Mistakes r a Fact of Life, It is the Response 2 the Error that Counts” Nikki Giovanni
January 8, 2022
I really like how the book gave quotes from famous athletes and people like the First Lady, it is like motivational speeches to think about when your playing a sport.
March 11, 2017
Read Harder 2017: Sports Book
I really enjoyed this book. I am not - and will never be - an athlete, but this book made me want to work harder and be more goal oriented. It also made me want to read Alexander's other books. If you have a young athlete - or just young reader - in your life who needs some encouragement, give them this book.
I really enjoyed this book. I am not - and will never be - an athlete, but this book made me want to work harder and be more goal oriented. It also made me want to read Alexander's other books. If you have a young athlete - or just young reader - in your life who needs some encouragement, give them this book.
January 21, 2024
This whole series is excellent - and this book was an added treasure! January was a perfect time to read this book, as I'm still chipping away at those daily action steps for my new year goals. The importance of practice, dedication, hard work, grit - all life lessons that sports can help teach us.
October 20, 2017
A Book that Is Truly Inspiring
The Playbook: 52 Rules to Aim, Shoot, and Score in This Game Called Life, written by Kwame Alexander is truly inspiring. With its amazing quotes, tremendous craft, and unique writing style, this book is for anyone who needs something inspirational.
This book is about the life of Kwame Alexander, and what he did throughout his life to become the best person he could be. He wanted to become a star in basketball, but then he realized basketball wasn’t for him. He tried football, but football wasn’t for him. He wanted to excel at a sport that all of his friends thought were cool, but he did not enjoy the sports he was playing. His mom suggested tennis as a sport. Kwame didn’t like the idea of playing tennis because he said none of the kids at his school thought it was cool. He decided to try the sport out anyway and noticed that he actually loved the sport. He progressed each year, and each year he got better and better. He was determined to become the best on his team and win a state championship. He became the best on his team and he made it to the state playoffs. The question is, will he win a state championship through all of his hard work, you will have to read the book to find out.
This book doesn’t really have a conflict throughout the book, but it does have a unique writing style suitable for some readers. This book is a memoir and is very fast-paced and is a quick read, but you might have to read it slowly to understand the full meaning behind the cover. This book is divided into 5 sections, first quarter, second quarter, halftime, third quarter, and fourth quarter. In each section, Kwame writes about a time or event in his life about himself or about another athlete. He wrote about how he or the athletes he was talking about persevered and accomplished their dreams through hard work, inspiration, and dedication. Between each section he included rules and inspiring quotes from famous athletes and other famous people who also persevered and became inspirations to people around the world because of their determination to become great. His rules he wrote simply were rules how to live your life like your life was a game of basketball. This book would be for anyone who loves any type of sport, a short and fantastic read, unique writing styles, and for anyone who is looking for some inspiration in their life. This book had an emotional and inspirational tone and mood throughout the whole story, even though no characters were really defined in the story and is very compelling too.
This book doesn’t really have a plot, which gives Kwame Alexander his very unique writing style. There was a plot in the story though, if you really read deep into the story. In each section of the book, Kwame talks about an athlete who had a rough start, but then came back and defined the odds. All of the stories and their plots Kwame told came together as one big story. This plot doesn’t really have any twists because this book is mostly sort of like a memoir, so if you don’t like big plot twists or drama, then this book isn’t for you too.
In conclusion, this book was amazing and this really brings out a good life lesson that anyone, no matter your skin, disability, or even your doubts can hold you back from accomplishing whatever your dreams want to become. Kwame Alexander explains this in a short, face-paced book with a unique writing style that is truly inspirational to those who read it.
The Playbook: 52 Rules to Aim, Shoot, and Score in This Game Called Life, written by Kwame Alexander is truly inspiring. With its amazing quotes, tremendous craft, and unique writing style, this book is for anyone who needs something inspirational.
This book is about the life of Kwame Alexander, and what he did throughout his life to become the best person he could be. He wanted to become a star in basketball, but then he realized basketball wasn’t for him. He tried football, but football wasn’t for him. He wanted to excel at a sport that all of his friends thought were cool, but he did not enjoy the sports he was playing. His mom suggested tennis as a sport. Kwame didn’t like the idea of playing tennis because he said none of the kids at his school thought it was cool. He decided to try the sport out anyway and noticed that he actually loved the sport. He progressed each year, and each year he got better and better. He was determined to become the best on his team and win a state championship. He became the best on his team and he made it to the state playoffs. The question is, will he win a state championship through all of his hard work, you will have to read the book to find out.
This book doesn’t really have a conflict throughout the book, but it does have a unique writing style suitable for some readers. This book is a memoir and is very fast-paced and is a quick read, but you might have to read it slowly to understand the full meaning behind the cover. This book is divided into 5 sections, first quarter, second quarter, halftime, third quarter, and fourth quarter. In each section, Kwame writes about a time or event in his life about himself or about another athlete. He wrote about how he or the athletes he was talking about persevered and accomplished their dreams through hard work, inspiration, and dedication. Between each section he included rules and inspiring quotes from famous athletes and other famous people who also persevered and became inspirations to people around the world because of their determination to become great. His rules he wrote simply were rules how to live your life like your life was a game of basketball. This book would be for anyone who loves any type of sport, a short and fantastic read, unique writing styles, and for anyone who is looking for some inspiration in their life. This book had an emotional and inspirational tone and mood throughout the whole story, even though no characters were really defined in the story and is very compelling too.
This book doesn’t really have a plot, which gives Kwame Alexander his very unique writing style. There was a plot in the story though, if you really read deep into the story. In each section of the book, Kwame talks about an athlete who had a rough start, but then came back and defined the odds. All of the stories and their plots Kwame told came together as one big story. This plot doesn’t really have any twists because this book is mostly sort of like a memoir, so if you don’t like big plot twists or drama, then this book isn’t for you too.
In conclusion, this book was amazing and this really brings out a good life lesson that anyone, no matter your skin, disability, or even your doubts can hold you back from accomplishing whatever your dreams want to become. Kwame Alexander explains this in a short, face-paced book with a unique writing style that is truly inspirational to those who read it.
February 1, 2019
The Playbook, published in 2017, by the author Alexander Kwambe is about famous sport players that were not very good at their sport but then focussed on improving they persevered through and became very good and famous.Examples of the people in the book are Lebron James, Venus and Serena,Pele And the author himself. Lebron played basketball he grew up in poverty without his dad and only his mom. He used his gone dad as motivation, he got noticed by a football coach and his mom let him move in with the coach. He led his high school team to wins. Later he made it to the NBA, and won championship.Another famous sports player featured in Playbook is venus and serena williams.There dad pushed them to be good at tennis at a young age causing them to start learning quicker than others, they advanced alot because they started at such a young age. Pele another one featured in this book was a soccer player who skipped school because he loved soccer so much.He was very poor and worked and saved enough for a soccer ball. Later he got noticed, got to major league soccer and led his team to the championship victory!The author explained also himselfs story of getting good at tennis, and Wilma a track athlete who went to the olympics.The main conflict of the sports players is facing difficulties and not being really good at the sport they love.I would recommend this book to fourth graders and above because it is short pretty simple words used and no graphic or violent content, just stuff about sports.
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March 28, 2018I thought this book was really good, and I like the style of writing its written in. The main idea of this book is to tell you rules of life.
This book tells you many rules to basketball but they also are rules to life. He compares life to basketball and how some of the rules are the same. There are lots of quotes from athletes that are known all over and loved by many people.
I thought this book was good and the meaning of the book was good it wasn’t very hard to read and it didn’t take long but after you read it you can take away a lot of good facts and information about lots of things. It has stories of famous athletes that had a rough start but ended up to be very successful.
This book left a great impression on me and I took a lot of things away from this that I didn’t already know and I think it will also help me in basketball too. I would give this book five out of five stars.
This book tells you many rules to basketball but they also are rules to life. He compares life to basketball and how some of the rules are the same. There are lots of quotes from athletes that are known all over and loved by many people.
I thought this book was good and the meaning of the book was good it wasn’t very hard to read and it didn’t take long but after you read it you can take away a lot of good facts and information about lots of things. It has stories of famous athletes that had a rough start but ended up to be very successful.
This book left a great impression on me and I took a lot of things away from this that I didn’t already know and I think it will also help me in basketball too. I would give this book five out of five stars.
March 10, 2020
The Playbook was an amazing and such an inspiring book and personally one of my favorites. The author focused more on inspiration and perseverance with quotes from famous people on almost every page along with 52 "rules" or inspirational ways to get better or to keep going. Split up into 4 "quarters" like a basketball game plus overtime, there was a personal story about five different famous people who overcame big issues to be where they are at today.
I loved this book so much and believe everyone should definitely read this for sure. It has helped me overcome obstacles and just push through and work harder to become the person you want to be sports wise or even as a person in general. I rate it 10/10 and would definitely read it again.
I loved this book so much and believe everyone should definitely read this for sure. It has helped me overcome obstacles and just push through and work harder to become the person you want to be sports wise or even as a person in general. I rate it 10/10 and would definitely read it again.
April 5, 2017
"The Playbook: 52 Rules to Aim, Sho-" yea yea yea let's skip to the book. THIS BOOK IS AWESOME! I really LOOOOOOOVE the way the author organized this book is just... interesting, in it's own cool and mysterious sort of way. It's a pretty short book although it has lots of pages. But the way he would write a mini-story about a professional athlete such as LeBron James, and after that puts 13 rules to help you step up your game in whatever it is. I would recommend this book to everyone that needs confidence to do anything because this book applies to everything.
April 25, 2017
I liked this book a lot, it was divided into quarters, like a sports game. It had a whole bunch of quotes and life lessons by many different athletes. Since I am not into sports, I liked how some of the quotes weren't from athletes, but they blended in to all the other quotes. This showed that life lessons are the same, no matter what you are doing. You still need practice, a will to learn what you are doing, and passion. I would recommend this book to anyone looking for some mind blowing lessons, and in need of a bit of inspiration.
February 16, 2017
This is a book that gives you rules for life that tend to have a sports flavor to them. The book is divided into quarters and each quarter starts with a few pages from the author on his life. All of the rules have a quote from a famous athlete that also makes for interesting reading. If you have a child that is athletic, then this might be a good book for them.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 524 reviews