H.O. R. S. E.
Written and Illustrated by Christopher Myers

Publisher’s Summary:
One day at the basketball court, two kids, a familiar challenge H.O.R.S.E.? But this isn’t your grandmother’s game of hoops. Not when a layup from the other side of the court, standing on one foot, with your eyes closed is just the warm-up.

Around the neighborhood, around the world, off Saturn’s rings . . . the pair goes back and forth. The game is as much about skill as it is about imagination.

A slam dunk from award-winning author and illustrator Christopher Myers, H.O.R.S.E. is a celebration of the sport of basketball, the art of trash-talking, and the idea that what’s possible is bounded only by what you can dream.

Primary Source Pairing:
Up in the air, around the rim, will the basketball go in? In this fun book showing an out-of-this-world competition between friends on the basketball court, readers can follow along with the action in Myers’ imaginative illustrations. For this primary source pairing, invite students to study an image of basketball payer Wilt Chamberlain in 1959. To learn more about Wilt Chamberlain, visit his Wikipedia page.

Alternatively, invite students to do a close read and a slow look at the sports page of The Washington Herald on December 26, 1915. This newspaper page reports on more than basketball and is an interesting look at how sports news was reported over 100 years ago. Use the Primary Source Analysis Tool for Newspapers as a guide to the analysis. Fill the analysis tool out online here by clicking on Newspapers in the drop-down menu and using the question mark talk bubbles a guide for analysis.

Questions for Discussion:

• Describe what you see.
• What do you notice first?
• What’s happening in the image?
• What people and objects are shown?
• What other details can you see?
• If this picture were taken today, how would it be the same?
• How would it be different?

Credits:
Book Cover and Summary: Follett
Washington Herald Newspaper: Library of Congress
Wilt Chamberlain, full-length portrait, wearing uniform of Harlem Globetrotter’s basketball team: Library of Congress
Wilt Chamberlain Wikipedia Page