The title of my book is called Strong Inside by Andrew Marahiss. The book is a biography about a basketball player named Perry Wallace, who is facing a lot of racism and segregation. He is black in the 60s and in a still segregated college in Nashville, Tennessee. He is grown enough to understand segregation.  People put signs on his door saying mean things, they talked trash in basketball games, the fans threw food at him, and he was not allowed to be part of a fraternity group because he was black.  People treated him differently and it influenced him a lot.  He became more quiet, knew to avoid people and stay away from segregationists. Perry Wallace had to be a lot more cautious.

Perry Wallace is quiet, mature, and perseverant. He is quiet because he grew up in the South and he learned to be shy and stay away from all of the terrible things that were happening there.  Instead of speaking up and standing up to the bullies he stayed away from all of them and didn’t do anything and let the racist slurs roll off his back.  Wallace is mature because he always knows what to do.  He drove away when there was a riot, like someone who is mature would, instead of getting into it. Another instance is when he was the first black player on the Vanderbilt team. He could handle all the pressure; that’s what’s mature about him.  Perry Wallace is mature because when people hang bad signs on his door, he doesn’t go berserk about it.  He is perseverant because he doesn’t give up when all of the racist segregation happens.  He didn’t give up when in a Mississippi game all the fans were talking trash and throwing things at him and not giving him a chance. He still played a great game. Perry Wallace has great characteristics because he is all of these things.

One of the most interesting parts is when the author talks about Perry Wallace maturing. This is the part I chose because it is not how a typical sports story would go. A typical sports story would intro the player, talk about him or her, then talk about the games and end the book by making the player win or lose. That’s what a typical sports story would be; but not this time, this book talks about Perry improving. It talks about his experience of being a black athlete in the mid-60’s. He is threatened, and he is cursed at. Another really interesting part of the book is realizing how he was treated. I’m just saying, it was hell. Why do you think he was treated that way? The worst place he played at (racist wise) was Starkville Mississippi and Auburn. Perry called it “Four Days in Hell”.

I liked this book because it is unique and it tells a different story than most other sports books do. The time period is very interesting to me since it’s not how we would live today. We don’t have segregation anymore and sports players of all colors, and other people, are allowed to do whatever they want. I have two feelings about recommending this book to other students. I think you should read this because it’s such an inspiring and realistic story.  It teaches people how hard it was for people of color in the 1960s.  Also, I do not recommend this book because there are a lot of curse words in it. This book reminds me of the movie Race; it is about Jesse Owens and him overcoming racism just like Perry Wallace did. Overall, I would rate this book with three and half stars. The reason I only rated it with three and a half stars is that it’s not a kid’s book, because of that I thought that it was a little slow moving. If you are a kid that likes grown-up books you will like this book, but if you’re a kid that likes fantasy and things like that, then this probably isn’t an amazing book for you, but otherwise it was great.