HOT CORNER

A consumer’s guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise. Ground rules: If it can be read, played, heard, observed, worn, viewed, dialed or downloaded, it’s in play here. One exception: No products will be endorsed.

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What: “Hoop City”

Authors: Scott Blumenthal and Brett Hodus

Publisher: Scobre Press Corp.

Price: $9.95

This entertaining, 138-page paperback that became available this week tells the story of fictional basketball players Tony and Mike Hope, twin brothers from Harlem. Mike ends up with the wrong people in the wrong place and is crippled by a gunshot wound. Tony struggles to make it without his twin as a teammate but triumphs in the end. And, in his own way, so does Mike.

Written to appeal to students ages 9-14, the book provides an uplifting story that teaches lessons in life and also teaches young people that reading can be fun. At the end of the book is a test to determine how much information a reader has retained.

“Hoop City” is the second book written by Scott Blumenthal, 24, and Brett Hodus, 23, who have created a publishing company, Scobre Press Corp. of La Jolla.

Their first book, “The Road to the Majors,” came out earlier this year and sold more than 50,000 copies in three months. It tells the fictional story of Jimmy Hanks, whose troubles in the minor leagues consist of more than hitting and fielding. He has a scary experience with a couple of robbers who break into his motel room.

The two books are prototypes for 21 more being written by other young writers for Scobre Press Crop.

Blumenthal, who went to USC, and Hodus, who attended New York University, met in 1999 while taking part in the University of Pittsburgh’s “semester at sea” program. They discovered they both loved sports and writing. And it appears they have put those loves to good use.

-- Larry Stewart