What This Book Is About
Gene Luen Yang—the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature and author of the award-winning American Born Chinese—never cared about sports. He was the kind of kid who read comics in the bleachers while everyone else watched the game. So when the basketball team at the high school where he teaches goes on an improbable championship run, he decides to follow them for a year and turn their story into a graphic novel. What starts as a sports story quickly becomes something much bigger.
Dragon Hoops weaves together three narratives: the team's present-day championship quest, the untold history of basketball's origins (including the contributions of Chinese Americans to the sport), and Yang's own journey of self-discovery as an Asian American man reckoning with his relationship to sports, masculinity, and identity. The full-color illustrations shift between documentary-style realism and expressive cartooning, making this one of the most visually inventive graphic novels of recent years. A National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestseller, Dragon Hoops proves that a story about basketball can also be a story about race, immigration, belonging, and what it means to step outside your comfort zone.
Available at Popular bookstores, Kinokuniya, and the Singapore National Library.
Why We Recommend This Book
Dragon Hoops is a masterclass in interdisciplinary storytelling—it connects sports, history, race, and personal identity in a single narrative. For UWC students, the book models the kind of intellectual curiosity the school values: Yang didn't set out to write about race or history, but by following his curiosity honestly, he discovered those themes were inseparable from the story he was telling.
The graphic novel format also makes it accessible to visual learners and students whose English is still developing, while the sophisticated themes ensure it challenges even the strongest readers. Yang's exploration of Asian American identity is particularly relevant for UWC's large Asian student population.
Reading Level Guide
Challenging at A2. Build confidence with A2-B1 books first, then come back to this one.
Ideal difficulty. Right in the sweet spot for steady growth.
Easy at C1. A quick, enjoyable read—great for pleasure or genre exploration.
Other UWC Recommended Books for This Grade
Not sure if this book is right for your child? Take our free English assessment to find their CEFR level, then choose books that match.