Thank you to Abe Streep and Celadon Books for the Advance Readers Copy of Brothers On Three in exchange for my review.
Journalist Abe Streep spent three years with the Arlee Warriors, a high school basketball team from the Flathead Indian Reservation in Montana, focusing basically on the stories of Will Mesteth Jr. and Phillip Malatare, two-star players who brought the team to a thrilling win of the state championship.
When I was growing up in inner-city New York in the 1960s there was not much opportunity for girls to play organized sports as there is now, and I was thrilled when my church began to sponsor separate boys and girls basketball teams. Playing basketball not only gave me physical strength but also taught me resilience and being on a team gave me a feeling of belonging. That experience made this story about Will and Phil and the rest of the Arlee Warriors shine in a special way for me. Although our circumstances were different I could understand their self-determination to make their lives better and to overcome the adversity of depression and cluster suicide that was occurring within their community.
One did not have to play basketball or even understand the game to enjoy reading, Brothers On Three, however, because in essence, it is a coming-of-age story of hard work and pride, along with the interesting view of survival on a reservation in the contemporary American West. I appreciated the team's strength in overcoming their adversities and the overall true value of family and community in their lives.
The on-sale date for this book is September 7th, 2021
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