Canyon Dreams

A Basketball Season on the Navajo Nation

By: Michael Powell

Narrated by: Darrell Dennis

The inspiration for the Netflix film Rez Ball—produced by Lebron James

The moving story of a Navajo high school basketball team, its members struggling with the everyday challenges of high school, adolescence, and family, and the great and unique obstacles facing Native Americans living on reservations.

Deep in the heart of northern Arizona, in a small and isolated patch of the vast 17.5-million-acre Navajo reservation, sits Chinle High School. Here, basketball is passion, passed from grandparent to parent to child. Rez Ball is a sport for winters where dark and cold descend fast and there is little else to do but roam mesa tops, work, and wonder what the future holds. The town has 4,500 residents and the high school arena seats 7,000. Fans drive thirty, fifty, even eighty miles to see the fast-paced and highly competitive matchups that are more than just games to players and fans.

Celebrated Times journalist Michael Powell brings us a narrative of triumph and hardship, a moving story about a basketball team on a Navajo reservation that shows how important sports can be to youths in struggling communities, and the transcendent magic and painful realities that confront Native Americans living on reservations. This book details his season-long immersion in the team, town, and culture, in which there were exhilarating wins, crushing losses, and conversations on long bus rides across the desert about dreams of leaving home and the fear of the same.

growing up n the rez...

Basketball has been apart of America since inception. I love that it is such a tool for great opportunity.

Outstanding

A great story which I enjoyed very much. The fact that it was a true story makes it even better and more enjoyable.

One thing to add to my previous review

Left out something in my previous review: mispronunciation of Saguaro: the G is an H sound. Again, shame on Audible.

Rez Ball Fleshed Out

Having had the privilege of living on the Reservation for 25 years, this book is certainly an accurate portrayal of the hold the basketball has on the Navajo Nation. it was well done, poignant, and accurate. I appreciate the passion that the narrator put into this. Made you feel transported to the gym. Very well done and a good read for anyone interested in Navajo life.