Walter Dean Myers uses a sense of adventure genre for this book. Periodically throughout the book when reading about a game you feel as though your playing yourself. This is evident when the book says "My fingers touched Ice’s fingers in midair as the ball floated over him. The next thing I knew I was on the floor and Nick was on top of me screaming and pounding me with his fists. We had won" (247)! Overall, his portray of adventure is done well.

     Aside from the adventure genre, Walter Dean Myers uses first person as the style of writing in this book. This enables the reader to feel what Slam feels and also to have the same emotions with him. "Look, I love you" (122) enables the reader to connect with Slam’s emotions with his girlfriend. I liked this style of writing because as I read through the book, I kept a connection with Slam. Slam’s voice throughout the book kept it interesting because he was tied in with his emotions making it easier for me to connect.

      In Slam!, the story took place in the "hood" of Harlem, New York. "Like, you live there and you got the roaches and you got the crack and toy got the streets that don’t get cleaned up and you got people giving up on life and that’s what it’s all about" (262) shows that his town was rougher than other areas. Also, the time period wasn’t mentioned in the book. This setting helped to understand the "roughness" Slam had in his own town. His life contrasts with mine in many ways. While his life is rougher, mine is not. This impacts the mood because it shows how his life was more rough than mine is.

      In Slam!, Slam is the main character along with his basketball team. Other characters include: Mtisha, Ice, and Slam’s family. Slam is a 17 year old boy who loves basketball and as a result, his teammates have the most impact because of all their encouragement. For example, Ducky said "I’m quitting the team" (139) and Slam helped to change his mind. Overall, Walter Dean Myers makes them all seem like real people with issues as the world has today making them believable people.

      In the book, Slam has a pretty bad life but loves art and basketball. Due to low grades, he has to make a choice between quitting art or basketball and he chose quitting art. "Once in a while, I thought about trying to tell somebody about Ice, that had been my friend, and that he was dealing" (262) showed another problem with Slam and his friend Ice. Throughout the story, Slam’s basketball team progressed toward the first seat for the city wide tournament by winning games until Slam’s team played Ice’s team. Not to leave you hanging, but you must read the book to find out the end.

      Walter Dean Myer has incorporated his life in Slam! in many ways. When he was young, he moved to Harlem, New York which was the setting for Slam! Also, Myer’s foster parents were good to him as well as Slam’s mom was to him. Myers also learned about basketball in Harlem which was the whole point to Slam! Overall, Myers life was similar to Slam’s in the book.

      My opinion about Slam! is very good. This book was full of adventure and emotion which helped me as the reader to connect with Slam. As a high school student involved in basketball, I would recommend it to any of my teammates as well as anyone interested in basketball. This book will help you to keep self-determination which in the end will give you success. To sum it up, Slam! was a book that was worth reading.