Are you ready for the Sweet Sixteen?

Chips? Check.

Cold drinks? Check.

Stack of nonfiction picture books?

Here are three great basketball books that every basketball fan–and every picture book fan!–will love.

Hoop Genius: How a Desperate Teacher and a Rowdy Gym Class Invented Basketball, by John Coy (Carolrhoda: 2013). The unlikely story of the beginnings of basketball and its first rule-maker, James Naismith. The book recently won a South Carolina PBA 2015-2016 library award, and their library system put out a lively book trailer.

Basketball Belles: How Two Teams and One Scrappy Player Put Women’s Hoops on the Map, by Suc Macy (Holiday House: 2011). The rollicking story of the first women’s intercollegiate basketball game, between Stanford and Berkeley.

Game Changer: John McLendon and the Secret Game by John Coy (Carolrhoda: 2015). Suspense-filled story of the first desegregated collegiate basketball game, played in secrecy in 1944. The story of the game was kept under wraps so that the coaches wouldn’t be arrested or lynched. It’s a triumphant, well-told story.