Counting Coup

Cover

Title: Counting Coup: A True Story of Basketball and Honor on the Little Big Horn

Author:Larry Colton

Summary:  Sharon LaForge moves on the basketball court with fluidity and grace driven by an intuitive understanding of the game.  She is a gifted athlete and will lead her school team to a state championship, but no college recruiter will ever show an interest in her.  No offer of scholarship will ever be sent to Sharon because, as most people on her reservation believe, schools don’t like to take a chance that their athletic investment may not adjust to life off the reservation. 

Author Larry Colton went to Crow Agency searching for an answer as to why young Native American athletes, who dominate the basketball court in high school, leave school without a single college offer. What he found was Sharon LaForge.  In telling Sharon’s story, Colton tells the story of her fellow teammates, her family, her Indian community, and his own experiences with the people inside that community. 

Who will like this book?:  Fans of sports books and those interested in Native American life on a reservation.  Don’t be confused though, this isn’t a dry anthropological study of culture, but rather a very personal look into a young woman’s life, the choices she makes, and her community. 

If you like this, try this: In These Girls, Hope is Muscleby Madeleine Blias and Friday Night Lights: a Town, a Team, and a Dreamby H.G. Bissinger

Recommended by:Jen, Fairfield Woods Teen Librarian