Good If It Goes

by Gary Provost, Gail Provost

Twelve-year-old David, juggling the demands of Shrimp League basketball and preparations for his upcoming Bar Mitzvah, strives to please Kelly, his dream-girl classmate, as well as his ailing grandfather and traditional parents. David is more interested in basketball than the bar mitzvah, and when his mother wants to have it early due to his grandfather's failing health, David begins to wonder if anything is important. A wonderful coming of age story, and winner of the 1985 National Jewish Book Award for Children's Literature.

130 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 10, 2016

Reviews

[Nora · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this '80s middle grade novel was going to be about basketball with a little bit of bar mitzvah, but there wasn't that much basketball. A well-written story and quite poignant, because it turns out that the main character's grandfather is dying of a heart condition. The family decides to hold the boy's bar mitzvah four months early so the grandfather can attend, and so the boy has to learn a whole new haftorah portion and do a lot of last-minute preparing and cramming. The stressfulness and the sadness really came across.