For every kid who makes it to the NBA, thousands more simply seek out the pleasure and camaraderie of playing pick-up basketball in their local community centre or on a court in the neighbourhood park. It's a story that plays out in sport after sport — team or individual, youth or adult, men's or women's. While the high-energy spectacle of professional basketball, soccer, or hockey may command our attention and fill our TV screens night after night, the world of grassroots, no- or low-stakes sports hums along in the background, a kind of connective tissue that brings city-dwellers together in ways that go well beyond the most obvious physical benefits.

Yet the 2020 pandemic and heightened concerns about racial exclusion have revealed just how important these pastimes are, and what happens when we either lose access to them or take for granted the public spaces where we play. In this closely reported exploration of the role of community sports in highly diverse urban centres, Toronto journalist Perry King offers a compelling roadmap for re-imagining neighbourhoods whose residents are active, healthy, and genuinely connected. (From Coach House Books)

Perry King is a Toronto journalist, communications officer and author. His writing focuses on themes of sports, community, culture and education. His work can be seen in Spacing Magazine, Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail.

"So it's a book about sports in the sense that it's about how we actively move — moving is so essential to humanity and who we are as people. So all those things kind of fit together to form a quality of living that we want and we want to try it out, something that we can respond to and grow, not just with ourselves, but with our neighbours and in different communities.

"Rebound is also about change. We live in constant change — we're constantly thinking about our lives and how to go about them. So the book is about a healthy, active living — and people think about their own and their families' health and well-being.

"Is not just about professional sports — and it's not just about 'Canadian' sports like hockey and lacrosse. Sports are political. It's about how we organize and socialize. Sports is about converging those two and having a better idea of how we want to set a better life."