Tre Brun is entering his sophomore year of high school on the Red Lake Ojibwe reservation in Minnesota. Tre has been training hard all summer in hope of making his school’s varsity basketball team. His long-term dreams are big: Division 1 college ball and then the NBA. But Tre is playing for more than just himself: His older brother, Jaxon, was a star player on the team before dying in a car accident earlier in the year. Tre doesn’t feel pressure to be Jaxon, but as he continues to grieve along with his parents, he wants to honor his brother with his play. Basketball is a constant in this story that follows Tre from late summer through the subsequent school year as he and his Native teammates become a force to be reckoned with and work their way to the state championship. But basketball is not Tre’s only interest in this multidimensional story; he loves comics and video games, too, and his relationships with his family members, teammates, and friends, including a new girl at school with whom he connects and would like to be more than friends, are essential and engaging parts of the narrative. The sports action is riveting, and following this underdog team on their journey is immensely satisfying. But the characters and relationships shine in quieter moments, while the games themselves underscore how important the team’s efforts are to their Red Lake community. (Age 12 and older)