Let's Play Basketball!

Let's Play Basketball! by Charles R. Smith Jr., illus. by Terry Widener, stars a talking basketball that makes a poetic plea to its young owner for some game time. Smith's text bounces and soars like the ball narrator: ""I'll turn and skip and leap and rise/ as I bounce off the sun and swish through clouds so high."" Widener's acrylics create a cheery, full-bleed cartoon backdrop for the ballin' boy. (Aug.) .