Saturday, December 12, 2009
7:33 AM
Basketball Girl of the Year
I found this book when I was in jr. high, which was the time during which I was obsessed with basketball. I played on both a Girl's Club team and my school team. I ate, slept, and breathed basketball at that time. I fell in love with this book because in my mind, so many things about the main character's life mirrored my own life. She was a tomboy who would fight anyone who tried to put her in a dress or do anything overly girly with her long, unruly hair. She had a tough exterior and was known for speaking her mind and having the ability to defend the things in which she believed articulately and fiercely. She and her coach had a love/hate relationship and the same was true of her relationship with her absentee father. She was an ace on the basketball court but sometimes got benched for her stubborn, independent attitude. She was hard to get close to but those who took the time to really get to know her discovered that she had a very tender, sentimental heart that longed to be loved and understood. To real friends, she was impeccably loyal. To those who maliciously hurt her, she was unswaveringly unforgiving and defiant. On and on and on I could go, listing the similarities between this character and the teenage girl I was at that time. So naturally, I instantly fell in love with this book and I read it over and over again that summer, and for many years to come.
Eventually, during the course of many moves in and out of dormitories, etc. I lost the book and was heartbroken because I wasn't able to find another in any local library. A few years ago, Prince Kit secretly searched for, and found an original copy of the book on ebay and gave it to me as a wonderful, beautiful surprise gift. It sets on the table next to me bed at all times and I wouldn't trade it, or the amazing man who gave it to me, for all the money in the world.
By the way, the one special guy who managed to penetrate Pat's (the main character) heart? The guy she fell head over heels in love with and agreed to marry?
His name was also Kit.