Book excerpt: Hooper Ellen Hill—known as Hoop—is a teenager with dreams of basketball. She’s six foot five, obsessed with basketball trivia, and has also been diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome. Although she has trouble socializing and communicating, Hoop is more observant than most. And though her family views her as the one with special needs, she sees the oddities in the colorful characters that surround her. Hoop’s Truth: A Novella paints a series of contemporary portraits of the people in Hoop’s life. She portrays a medley of characters who journey through the worlds of basketball, promiscuity, depression, and love, facing a variety of difficulties from both internal and external sources. After each short tale, Hoop offers her own commentary—astute observations filled with commonsense wisdom and lessons to be learned. Full of relatable characters and intriguing personal tales, this novella presents character vignettes exploring the lives of the family members of the teenage narrator.