collected
About 5 h 45 min · at 30 minutes a day, about 12 days
Estimated from the page count of this edition. Dense books can take longer than the estimate.
Seventeen-year-old Greg “Slam” Harris dreams of the NBA, but transferring from Harlem to a South Bronx magnet school exposes the limits of his confidence off the basketball court. His grades are slipping, he argues with teachers, and his coach wants a team player. His girlfriend, Mtisha, is planning for college while Greg struggles to imagine life beyond basketball; at home, his father’s unemployment and drinking add to the pressure.
Greg tells this YA coming-of-age novel in a quick, conversational voice full of street slang and basketball jargon. Closely described games interrupt the school and family troubles, so the action can get technical even as his uncertainty about the future remains easy to follow.
Collected’s assessment, not reader ratings. Complexity runs from 1 (least demanding) to 5 (most demanding).
Established
Not really. Greg’s first-person narration is quick and conversational, and the story follows a linear path. Street slang and basketball jargon can take more attention, especially during closely described games, but his uncertainty about the future is easy to follow.
No. Basketball is central to Greg’s ambitions, but school, relationships, and family put pressure on his plans. Slipping grades, a coach who wants a team player, and a girlfriend preparing for college force him to think about life beyond the court.
Greg’s father’s unemployment and drinking add pressure at home, alongside Greg’s school and relationship struggles. Substance use, sexual content, language, and violence are mild; the tone is earnest, hopeful, and reflective.
288 pages in the Scholastic Paperbacks 2008 paperback edition.
Scholastic Paperbacks · 2008 · Paperback. ISBN 9780545055741.
About 5 hours 45 minutes at 50 pages an hour, based on the 288-page Scholastic Paperbacks edition. Dense books can take longer.
Walter Dean Myers was a prolific American writer best known for young adult literature, though his work also included picture books, nonfiction, biography, and historical fiction. Raised in Harlem, he drew on personal experience to write about Black young people with an immediacy he had first recognized in James Baldwin. His novels typically use direct, dialogue-driven prose to place adolescents inside demanding institutions and public events. Monster, assembled from diary entries and screenplay scenes, turns a murder trial into a study of self-perception, judgment, and uncertain testimony. Fallen Angels and Sunrise Over Fallujah examine war from the limited viewpoint of young soldiers, emphasizing confusion and moral strain over heroic certainty. Elsewhere, Slam! connects athletic ambition to school, pride, and responsibility, while The Glory Field follows a Black family across generations of American history. Across these forms, Myers combines accessible storytelling with close attention to how young people understand themselves when their choices are constrained by history, authority, and circumstance.
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