STUDENT WRITER DANNY FATOKI RECOMMENDS RIDING THE PINE
Riding the Pine by Valerie Pankratz Froese is a short novel with themes such as friendship, the burden of doing the right thing, and being able to accept mistakes. These themes are all throughout the book, using basketball as the outlet and the cause.
The book centers around two fourteen-year-old boys who are very similar yet in opposite situations. The first, Jake, is a new student at his school, struggling to find his place. Even though he’s on the basketball team, he doesn’t really feel like a part of it. He thinks he’s good enough but is constantly overlooked by the coach. Jon, on the other hand, is the star of the team; everyone loves him, especially Coach. Everyone sees Jon as a good guy and an even better athlete, but Jake has a different opinion about him and thinks he is a ball-hogging selfish player who only thinks about himself.
After finally being fed up with Jon’s playstyle, Jake decides to do something. He hatches a plan to expose Jon for who he really is, and at the same time steal Jon’s spot as the star of the team. But as Jake’s plan begins to unfold, he starts having feelings of guilt, sympathy, and maybe even friendship for Jon. The inner struggle in Jake about right or wrong, doing what’s good or what’s best for him takes a toll, and he has to figure out what he needs to do.
In my opinion, this book is an absolute slam dunk and really resonates with me, not just as a reader, but also as an athlete who sympathizes with the situation Jake is in. I like how the book showed how you should never judge a book by its cover. Jake didn’t really know who Jon was until he was forced to learn. After learning who he really was, his intentions wavered. One complaint I would have about the book is the length, because I wish it had been longer.
This book would be a delightful read for anyone really, but especially people who feel overlooked or undervalued in their lives. This book could really help them understand their situation. I also think young athletes would like this book because most would connect to feeling overlooked or not appreciated for their hard work. Personally, I related to this book because I am a young athlete, and I think a lot of others would love this book. Overall, this book was a short, sweet read that anyone could read and find interesting.
Danny Fatoki was born in Lagos, Nigeria, where he lived for the first seven years of his life before moving to Canada with his parents and two older sisters, Desire and Precious. As a child in a new country, Danny was more reserved than most, so some of his favourite pastimes included reading children’s books such as Captain Underpants, Dog Man, and Big Nate, which he still reads to this day. Growing up, Danny was a very active kid who tried many different sports and activities. First it was soccer, then hockey, followed by chess and video games, before he finally discovered basketball and stuck with it.