Sweet Turnaround J

By P.V. Beck

"It was going to be the best year of my life. This year we'd go to State and win it all. That's all I thought about. In March, I was going to be cutting down the net and holding a trophy in the air." Sixteen-year-old All-State, Janey Holmes is devastated, her dream shattered. Her old school suddenly closes over the summer and she finds herself at a new school, on a basketball team that hasn't won a game in over three years. As the Riverside Ravens climb from a hopeless start to challenge the best teams in the District, Janey learns what happens when her passion for the game and loyalty to her team is threatened by her explosive temper and the free-fall desires of first love.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1934452238
• ISBN13: 9781934452233
• Release Date: June 2009
• Publisher: Bedazzled Ink Pub Co
• Length: 225 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.8" x 6.0"

Customer Reviews

Basketball and Real Life Entwined

"Sweet Turnaround J" is a beautifully written story of high school women's basketball. Peggy Beck knows her stuff, both culturally and on the court. We follow the progress of the team and their personal interaction through the words of Janey, the main character. Her own identity crisis makes for gripping reading. It's an exciting book that calls out for a sequel. In the spirit of "Hoosiers", I'd love to see it on the big screen......... Maralyn H. (Washington)O Rugged Land of Gold

Great read!

I just finished reading Sweet Turnaround J and loved it! I'm not a jock, never knew anything about basketball but do love a good lesbian-read. P.V. Beck is a wonderful storyteller and brought me back to the wonderful sexual tension one feels when first coming out. Clearly, the book is a must for basketball lovers of any age. For me, I was hooked by witnessing the nuances of adolescents moving from awkward, self protected, individuals to a unified force that could rise to championship status. I loved following each of the player's story off the court and how the dynamics of a sport can transcend the typical drama, isoloation, self loathing, and cliquiness experienced by so many HS girls. I loved watching their growth that was inspired by a Coach who understood the potential of each player. I think a copy should be given to every brave young woman involved with any sport who has yet to discover her own queer self and 2 copies for anyone who already has!

Basketball Passion

Janey Holmes' passion for the game should be enough to draw every basketball aficionado - young or old - to this book. Janey is smart, witty and talented and needs all of these attributes as she maneuvers the peaks and valleys of adolescence and discoveries of first love. The real life drama of this group of girls struggling to come together and Beck's descriptions of plays and games are a treat. On top of that, P.V. Beck brings her extensive knowledge of basketball, and a fluid writing style to this story of the team that manages to beat the odds. This is a young adult novel that I will purchase for all the young girls and boys in my life who are facing similar struggles along the way to becoming adults. And, by the way, I'd highly recommend it to my own group of friends as well. We all need occasional reminders of what is possible.

She shoots! She scores!

For any woman who has ever played high school basketball, ever had her first heart-aching crush during those years, and ever struggled with family issues, the issues of her teammates, school problems, and team-gelling problems, this book is for you. And if you're a teen who plays high school sports and has to deal with everything that comes with that, including personal problems, internal and external dramas, then this book is for you, as well. Full disclosure: I played high school basketball back in the day. I'm also a basketball fan, so when I read books that deal with basketball, I can tell if an author knows her stuff or not and PV Beck Knows. Her. Stuff. Full disclosure two: I am also a Bedazzled Ink author, though on a completely different imprint. But because I am a basketball fan and because I have a sympathy of sorts for high school players, I read "Sweet Turnaround J" because I'm always looking for YA titles that feature young women for my friends with female teens and tweens in the house, and I'll definitely be recommending this one. But I gotta tell you. I think guys would like it, too. Just sayin'. Now, for the mechanics: Beck writes a tight, well-paced narrative with snappy, true-to-life dialogue, fully realized characters, and the angst that comes with the pressures of being an underdog team in an overdog world. Janey Holmes is ready for fall, and she's psyched to go to State with her team at her high school, University Lab. However, after spending a summer in California with her dad, she returns to find out her high school was closed in the interim and she's being funneled to the new magnet school, Riverside. Which means she won't be playing ball with the teammates she grew up with and that she'll have to find her groove with a whole bunch of new people. Her new teammates come from a variety of ethnic and class backgrounds, and initially, the team struggles to find common ground and a sense of purpose. Using basketball as the common language, Beck skillfully maneuvers her readers through the minefields of identity, family drama, and the fouls high school can deal out, like refs do in a big game. From the first meetings of players to the games they play together, Beck pulls the reader right into the practices, right into the locker room and right into the games. This reader felt like she was in the bleachers watching the games unfold, and then when Coach Berro called a time out, I was right there in the huddle as she adjusted plays and players. Beck also brings to life a diverse group of characters, flaws and all. Janey struggles with the deteriorating relationship of her parents, finding relief of a sort in basketball, though she has to face some of her bad habits head-on in order to be a more effective player. Alejo (Alex to her team mates) comes from a poor Latino family, and has her own struggles trying to complete assignments without a computer. Other players have their own personal issues that they bring to the court, a

Women's Basketball Fan Will Love This Book!!

I love women's basketball and love books about women's basketball. Sweet Turnaround J is in the spirit of In These Girls-Hope is a Muscle, The Same River Twice, and Counting Coup. But it's more than just a book following All-State Janey Holmes' sophomore year at a new high school on a basketball team that hasn't won a game in three years. Beck paints a world that mixes a girl's obsession with basketball during those difficult middle teenage years with a fascinating and almost mystical weave of Latino, African American, and Native American cultures brought together in a group of girls who, just maybe, can learn to work together as a team--a winning team. The author P.V. Beck is a former basketball coach, and her descriptions of the practices and the games carry a vividness and excitement that kept me glued to the pages. The interplay between the girls on the team is spot on--sometimes goofy, sometimes confrontational, sometimes poignant, but always entertaining. You really grow to love these girls and root for them as the season progresses. Beck calls upon her academic interest in myth to give Sweet Turnaround J a subtle but deeper literary level. This creates a strong foundation for the recurring themes of Native American myth and a few literary tropes that form an overarching structure to the book. The writing style is fluid and her descriptions and language have a beauty that transcends yet enhances basketball as a real game and as a metaphor for the various life's issues and growing up the team goes through in a season. The last game in the book is one of the best I've ever read. It's epic in a really, really good way. It made me giddy with delight, like I feel when I'm at a live game -- filled with gripping excitement and drama. Its twists and turns are realistic -- I've seen games as crazy as this one, where it comes down to little more than who wants the victory more. Sweet Turnaround J is a must for women's basketball fans. I wish there were more books like it.