Children's Literature Comprehensive Database

What do Henry Kissinger, Whoopi Goldberg, Bob Hope and Pope John Paul II have in common? All are honorary members of the Harlem Globetrotters. That's just one of the fun facts that readers will learn from this well-written team biography. Anyone who has ever seen the Globetrotters play knows how hilarious their antics can be. But their unique style was born by accident. The team, originally known as the Savoy Big Five, once was winning by a score of 112 to 5. With that much of a lead, the team started clowning around on the court--and the crowd went wild. Team owner Abe Saperstein told them to keep it up, and a sidesplitting tradition was born. The book is entertaining, easy to read and, early on, offers up a couple of facts that today's kids might find hard to believe--that the game of basketball was once segregated, just as baseball used to be, and that the National Basketball Association remained segregated until the 1950s. Part of the "High Five Reading" series.