Games of Deception by Andrew Maraniss - ADVISABLE

Games of Deception: The True Story of the First U.S. Olympic Basketball Team at the 1936 Olympics in Hitler's Germany by Andrew Maraniss, 240 pages. NON FICTION. Philomel Books (Penguin), 2019. $19.

Language: G (0 swears, 0 “f”); Mature Content: PG ; Violence: PG

BUYING ADVISORY: MS, HS - ADVISABLE

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE

In 1936 a group of 14 athletes boarded the S.S. Manhattan en route to the Olympic Games in Germany.  Representing the United States, these athletes would become the first basketball team to compete in the Olympic Games. Adolf Hitler had gained power in Germany and many athletes and political figures had heard rumors of mistreatment of Jews and Jewish supporters.  The athletes completing in the Olympic games would never see any evidence of this.  Berlin, Germany was like a movie set; clean sweep streets, painted store fronts and smiling happy German people who had know idea what was yet to come.  This is the fascinating, true story of how basketball came to be and the many accounts of players involved in getting to the games. This book holds so many interesting facts about basketball that I never knew. 

Maraniss goes into James Naismith's invention of the game, and to how each player and team sought funding to attend the Olympics.  There are also some troubling facts about Adolf Hitler looking to the United State's treatment of Native Americans and African Americans when designing his ideal Germany and when African American athletes, such as Jesse Owens, returned from the games a decorated champion, still faced segregation and persecution.  Students who enjoy basketball and World War II will like this book.

Jessica Nelson Librarian