Game Changer
John McLendon and the Secret Game
Age 7+
Picture Books
The exciting true story of the Civil Rights era and of the dawn of modern basketball, the world's second most popular sport.
In 1944, the Duke University basketball team played a game with the North Carolina College of Negroes. The game had to be played in secret, but it was a glimpse of the future of basketball and America. Years before Jackie Robinson integrated baseball, visionary basketball coach and future hall-of-tamer John Mclendon orchestrated a game that proved the sport could bring people of all races together.
Creators
John Coy is an award-winning author, who worked as a dishwasher, mattress maker, group home worker, and tour guide before taking up writing. He's active in sports and is a member of the NBA Reading All-Star Team as part of the Read to Achieve program. John has traveled to all fifty states, as well as to many countries internationally. His work includes Night Driving, a Marion Vannett Ridgway Memorial Award winner and a Horn Book Fanfare title; Strong to the Hoop, an American Library Association Notable Book; Two Old Potatoes and Me, a Charlotte Zolotow Honor Book, a Nickelodeon Jr.'s Best Books of the Year, and a featured book on Reading Rainbow; and Vroomaloom Zoom, a book of excellence on the Children's Literature Choice List. His newest picture book Around the World is about international basketball, and his YA novels include Crackback set in the high stakes world of high school football and Box Out about boys' basketball, girls' basketball, and taking a stand. John lives in Minneapolis and visits schools nationally and internationally. Visit him online at www.johncoy.com.
Randy Du Burke has been a professional illustrator for over 20 years. He has done comic book art, animation, editorial illustration, book covers and childrens' books. Some of his former clients include D.C. comics, Marvel comics, MacMillan, Scholastic, and the New York Times. He was awarded the 2003 Coretta Scott King-John Steptoe Award for New Talent for his book The Moon Ring, which he wrote and illustrated. He lives in Switzerland with his wife, Olivia, and their two children. View his artwork online at http://www.randyduburke.com/.
