82 pages • 2 hours read
Walter Dean MyersSlam!
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1996A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Chapters 1-3Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
Seventeen-year-old Greg “Slam” Harris loves basketball. It’s his life, and he is a very talented player. Slam goes to Latimer, a charter school in the Bronx known for its visual arts program. The school has enacted a new policy designed to bolster its racial diversity. Mr. Tate, the school principal at Latimer, tells Slam’s mother that Slam’s grades are at risk of keeping him from playing basketball. Slam can’t even think of a world in which he no longer plays basketball. The anxiety causes him to lay awake at night. Outside, Slam can hear the noises of the neighborhood: boom boxes, people talking outside, and police sirens. He reflects on how hearing sirens is common in his Harlem neighborhood. Worrying about his future, Slam thinks about the things that bother him in his life. His mother is worried about his grades, but he doesn’t know how to solve the issue. Slam’s father has a hard time holding down a steady job, and when he’s unemployed he drinks too much. Slam also worries about Derek, his nine-year-old brother, and his future growing up in their neighborhood. Reflecting on what Mr. Tate said about getting his grades together, Slam is concerned he will have to transfer back to Carver, his former school.
Talking to his mom, Slam wonders if he should just go back to Carver because he can’t imagine life without basketball. His mom wants him to focus on fixing his grades, suggesting that maybe he should take a break from basketball. Ultimately, she leaves things up to Slam.
Slam also recalls trying out for Latimer’s basketball team, getting to the tryout late, watching the other kids play, and meeting Coach Nipper, the head coach, and Coach Goldstein, the assistant. At the tryout Slam sees Ducky, who is the first person Slam met at Latimer. There are not many other Black students at Latimer, and there’s only one other Black kid on the basketball court at tryouts: Jimmy Ellis. Slam watches the tryouts, evaluating the talent of the other players and waiting to jump in because he was late. Coach Nipper tells Slam to go in at center, but Slam says he doesn’t play that position, that he only plays guard, so Nipper tells him to stay on the bench. After the tryout has ended, Slam says he is better than everyone there, making sure he’s loud enough for Coach Nipper to hear. Nipper challenges Slam to one-on-one. Slam wins easily, showing off his skill and ability to slam dunk, and Nipper puts him on the team. Slam learns that Nick is the name of the player Slam thought was the best player out there.
Back at home, Slam learns from Derek that their mom is out because Grandma Ellie is sick in the hospital. Their mom left money for dinner, but Derek didn’t go out to buy anything because there was a drive-by shooting near where they live. A little girl was hit by a stray bullet, but she avoided serious injury. Slam thinks about how he hates drive-by shootings—he doesn’t want to get shot on purpose or accidentally.
Chapter 2 Summary
Ducky, whose locker is right next to Slam’s, shows Slam a newspaper article about Latimer’s basketball team. They are at risk of having a fifth consecutive losing season, though Ducky, having seen Slam’s skill, believes they will have a good season. Slam tells him to bet on it.
On his way home from school, Slam heads over to the park and sees one of his best friends, Ice, with another friend, Mtisha, both of whom attend Carver. The three of them go get some food, and Ice says that he misses having Slam on the team at Carver. Slam mentions there’s some talent on Latimer’s team, but he doesn’t think they will be as good as Carver.
Slam starts thinking about how he and Ice have always been close, but over the past year, he has noticed that things don’t feel as normal between them. Slam wonders if it’s just because they are all getting older, or if Slam’s going to Latimer has anything to do with it. Ice then leaves to go buy a beeper. Slam remembers how when they were kids, they thought that having a beeper meant you were somebody important, but now Slam knows that the people in his neighborhood who have beepers are drug dealers.
After Ice leaves, Slam is alone with Mtisha. Slam likes her and describes how beautiful she is. Mtisha tells Slam she likes him, but she’s wary to get into a relationship with him—she is all set to go to college next year. Slam invites Mtisha inside, hoping she’ll kiss him, but she refuses. She expresses worry about Ice—she says Ice suddenly has a lot of money, and she wonders where he’s been getting it. Some rumors say it is from college scouts; others say that Ice has started dealing drugs in the park. Slam doesn’t believe—or doesn’t want to believe—that Ice is getting involved in that life. Mtisha kisses Slam before leaving.
Slam thinks about his friend Ice, whose real name is Benny Reese. He earned the nickname Ice because he looks like the rapper Ice T. Because of their shared childhood experiences seeing too many lives ruined by or lost to drugs, Slam is convinced that Ice isn’t dealing. Slam also thinks Ice is too good a player with a bright future, so why would he throw that away? Slam remembers seeing Ice in the park over the summer with some people he didn’t recognize and seeing Ice drink from a brown bag. Slam decides to check up on Ice and have a serious conversation with him.
Chapter 3 Summary
Slam and his mom go to the hospital to visit Grandma Ellie, his mom’s mom. She has cancer, and though Slam doesn’t enjoy going to the hospital, he knows it’s important to be there for his mom. Grandma Ellie tells Slam that getting his grades up is important because it’s his life and only he can take charge of himself. Slam takes her encouragement as nagging and is annoyed by it. He feels like everyone is on his case. On the way out of the hospital, Slam’s mom begins crying because Ellie has a tumor that has spread. Slam speculates that she doesn’t want to lose her mother, and he is sad to see his mom sad.
Chapters 1-3 Analysis
Slam is quick to explain that basketball is his life, that there is nothing else in his life that matters as much. This point becomes clearer when the reader learns of Slam’s dire academic situation at Latimer, a situation so bleak that Mr. Tate and Slam’s mother even suggest he takes a break from basketball to focus on his grades. This idea is unimaginable to Slam because basketball is the place where he feels most himself, where he knows how to express himself, and where he feels most confident. He does not feel confident in the classroom, but he also doesn’t know how to express what he needs. Slam’s escape from life’s uncertainties and challenges has always been basketball, and now that might be taken away from him.
While his future with basketball remains murky, Slam’s personal life is transforming a bit as well. His grandmother is in the hospital, and Slam has to watch his mom fret over her mom’s mortality. Additionally, Ice, who has been Slam’s best friend since childhood, appears to be branching off from Slam, perhaps even getting involved in selling drugs. Slam is concerned about the way the neighborhood might be getting to Ice. Both he and Mtisha, a potential love interest for Slam, are worried about Ice. Slam seeks a romance with Mtisha, but she is hesitant, mostly due to her uncertainty about Slam’s character. He’s impatient, he doesn’t know how to articulate his feelings, and his priorities aren’t necessarily in line with Mtisha’s.
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By Walter Dean Myers
