Batting 1000

Sports fiction has a long pedigree—even Gilgamesh plays with a bat and a ball in one episode of his ancient epic. Lending itself naturally to tales that mix quick, exciting action with insights into both human nature and strategies for success in any endeavor, the genre's enduring popularity isn't hard to understand. Every one of these first-rate recent titles for middle and high school students not only makes absorbing, sometimes pulse-pounding reading, but also invites readers to think about the value of teamwork, determination, and setting goals as tools for coping with doubts and other personal challenges, along with peer, parental, and (yes) pedagogical pressures.

Of course, character development isn't always on the front burner. The Windy City (S & S, 2008, Gr 4-7) by Phil Bildner and Loren Long joins previous episodes in the “Barnstormers” series in reading like an old-time radio serial, replete with sudden twists, ominous portents, and melodrama. The pace never slackens as the three Payne siblings, along with their widowed mother—playing catcher—and the rest of the Travelin' Nine take their magic baseball to Chicago for another thrilling contest on the diamond, highlighted by a huge spectral cow and roaring fires, not to mention another run-in with agents of the mysterious, menacing, money-hungry Chancellor. Generous helpings of baseball talk and Long's expertly evocative pictures add plenty of period flavor to this turn-of-the-20th-century page-turner.

On the other hand, even while pitching her otherwise all-boy summer league team to a championship game, 12-year-old Madison finds herself sharing the mound with her own inner conflicts, concerns, and feelings about others in Karen Day's No Cream Puffs (Random, 2008, Gr 5-8). With her father and her erstwhile best friend absent, her feminist mother sometimes a little too present, a crush on a teammate to cope with, and a bully in the background, opposing batters are only some of the challenges she faces. Happily, the author endows her narrator with a willingness to learn, an engaging voice, and a good heart, along with plenty of baseball talent. Though set in 1980, this coming-of-age tale will resonate with today's young athletes, male and female, and would make a great choice for sparking a discussion of gender expectations—on the field or off.

Bonding is a common theme in sports fiction, though it usually takes place among team members. In former pro linebacker Tim Green's Football Hero (HarperCollins, 2008, Gr 5-8) and sports journalist Mike Lupica's The Big Field (Philomel, 2008, Gr 5-8), the connections among family members anchor each tale. In Football, orphaned Ty's hero is his big brother, Thane, a first-round draft pick headed for the NFL. Ty's dreams of following the same path run afoul of his abusive uncle, who not only does everything he can to keep Ty from playing on his middle school team, but also tries to use him to create a “connection” between Thane and a scary local mobster. Featuring rising tension, hard choices by the brothers, and nonstop action, this suspenseful novel will rivet readers, whether football fans or not.

Similarly for Hutch, 14, in Lupica's novel, the dream is to win a youth league state championship on a professional “big field.” It's hard to keep his eyes on the prize, though, when he is suddenly displaced at shortstop by Darryl, a gifted new player who sports a big chip on his shoulder, and gets more coaching and attention from Hutch's father than he ever rated. Lupica defines his three central characters' developing interrelationships with engrossing realism as the team goes from victory to hard-won victory. Casting Hutch as a dedicated student of baseball strategy and nuance, the author also provides readers with uncommon insights into the game, as well as compelling action scenes.

Sports action can charge up short stories with extra appeal too, especially for reluctant, unpracticed, or indifferent readers. The 10 tales (one written as a play, another as a poem) in Baseball Crazy, edited by Nancy E. Mercado (Dial, 2008, Gr 4-8), share a sport but range in mood from hilarious to sad to charged with emotion. In content they include scenes that explore a hapless outfielder's thoughts as a fly ball sails in his direction, and the profound effect that attending a major league ballgame has on an orphaned child. Among the authors are such fixed and rising stars as Jerry Spinelli, Maria Testa, and Charles R. Smith, Jr.; an “author card” precedes each story, adding both atmosphere and biographical information to this absorbing collection.

In the selections in Lay-ups and Long Shots (Darby Creek, 2009, Gr 5-8), the common element is more subtle, as young people of average talent test their abilities in athletic pursuits that range from football to table tennis and, sometimes, surprise even themselves. Chubby Carla, for instance, doesn't get far climbing the rope in gym class but confounds all expectations on the track in Lynea Bowdish's “Fat Girls Can't Don't Run.” And in an M. E. Anderson story, Jeff's “Big Foot” proves to be anything but a challenge on the football field.

Some of the entries—particularly Joseph Bruchac's account of a miserable basketball tryout and Jamie McEwan's of a kayaker who nearly suffers a wardrobe malfunction in a spill—seem too genuine to be entirely fictional. No matter: true or not, each of these nine episodes implicitly conveys the notion that dreams and determination bear rewards even when talent is in short supply. How reassuring is that?

Deep insight into both a game's plays and its players is nowhere better balanced than in James Preller's Six Innings (Feiwel & Friends, 2008, Gr 5-8). A gripping championship contest between two teams of middle school students furnishes the setting for a rare clinic in baseball rules, strategy, and tactics (as well as intangibles like luck and momentum).

Point-of-view shifts put readers inside the heads of Sam, driven from the playing field to the announcer's booth by a serious illness that he can't, at first, bring himself to specify, and each of his former teammates, from the angst-ridden shortstop to the slugger whose only and greatest desire is to smash the ball. Each successive inning brings a fresh surge of suspense and a character-defining play or moment, along with just enough background to add personal meaning without introducing side issues or extraneous incidents. Preller demonstrates a deep knowledge of the sport and of the 12-year-old mind; his exemplary tale will have baseball fans and resolute nonfans nodding in recognition.

A shared passion for sports brings people together, whether as fans or players. Several new novels, distinct in tone and voice, revolve around a central theme of identity and a missing parent.

Molly's father passed on much of his philosophy of life in their daily games of catch, as well a knuckleball, a pitch that flutters, in Mick Cochrane's The Girl Who Threw Butterflies (Knopf, 2009). Recollecting his instruction, the eighth grader remembers that he taught her it was more than just a pitch, it was an attitude toward life: “You don't aim a butterfly,” her father used to say. “You release it.” As she works through her grief over his recent death, Molly finds comfort in her memories and determines to go out for the boys' baseball team.

Cochrane creates an awkward, endearing protagonist in Molly, and surrounds her with well-drawn characters in her mother, her teammates, and her friends in this warmhearted, thoughtful novel. As the girl wins a place on the team, the author memorably captures the sights and sounds of the game. Relishing the satisfying pop her pitch makes when it lands for a called strike, Molly observes: “You'd have to write a poem about it, a haiku maybe.”

Baseball was also a passion Ryan shared with her dad in Jennifer E. Smith's The Comeback Season (S & S, 2008, Gr 9 Up). The Chicago Cubs drove their enthusiasm and, in his unfaltering loyalty to that team (“there's always next season,” “hope is everything to a Cubs' fan”), her father also revealed his positive outlook on life. Since his death five years earlier, the 15-year-old has found little reason to be hopeful and, as she struggles through her first year of high school, she decides to ditch classes to attend the Cubs' season opener.

At Wrigley Field, Ryan encounters Nick, a popular new boy in town who loves the Cubs as she does. Their romance blossoms over the course of the baseball season, but it is threatened when the teen learns that Nick is struggling with a rare form of cancer. Smith, a first novelist, treats her young subjects with insightful compassion, crafting nuanced characters in an evocative story of loss and resilience.

In Matt de la Peña's novel Mexican WhiteBoy (Delacorte, 2008, Gr 9 Up), Danny is tall and gangly with long arms that can hurl a fastball more than 90 mph. Since his parents' divorce, the 16-year-old believes that his father has returned to his native Mexico. Half-Mexican, half-white, Danny is spending the summer with his father's family in National City. He's hanging out with his favorite cousin, Sofia, and his unlikely new friend, Uno. Both boys dream of reuniting with their fathers and hustle a pitching con game for cash to realize their dreams.

As he did in Ball Don't Lie (Delacorte, 2005), the author evokes gritty urban landscapes, deftly bringing his characters and their struggles to life. De la Peña locates his characters in a figurative and literal borderland: on the cusp of adulthood, his teens are well aware of the not-so-subtle line between haves and have-nots as they warily navigate among white, black, and Hispanic cultures.

Love of sport, along with complicated sibling relationships and rivalries, both draws characters together and pulls them apart. In Chris Lynch's humorous The Big Game of Everything (HarperTeen, 2008, Gr 7-10), brothers Jock and Egon look forward to spending their summer doing odd jobs for their grandfather on and around his 13-hole golf course and sports complex. Jock is the older, but not the bigger, brother. He's wiry and thoughtful, while Egon is stocky and antisocial. The two experience a relationship of opposites in too-close proximity. But both boys adore Grampus, a larger-than-life ex-military man, and view the sports complex as a half-wild paradise.

As the sweltering summer progresses, they come to understand their grandfather and his struggles in a new light, and learn more about themselves in this insightful novel. Though Jock is an inept golfer (as his grandma points out, “you are so abysmal at this, I believe every time you swing a club, somebody in Scotland drops down dead”), this book offers sports fans rich insights on winning and losing.

Kyle was born into a Nascar racing dynasty started by his grandfather, a legend known as Sir Walter. So far, the teen has been overshadowed by his charismatic older brother, Kris, but when Kris is injured, Kyle is asked to take over for him behind the wheel. Robert Lipsyte's Yellow Flag (HarperCollins, 2007, Gr 6-10) depicts a protagonist torn between his family obligations and his dream of a music career. While Kyle finds that he does indeed love racing, he wonders if he has the drive to win at all costs.

Veteran sportswriter Lipsyte is a sure hand when it comes to action, and this novel is another electrifying page-turner. Even as he draws readers into Kyle's internal struggles, the author conjures the loud, fast-paced soundtrack of racing: “You have to let your car talk to you: the reassuring thumping of the engine, the whine of the gears, the squeal of metal tortured by the wrenching left turns and the air rushing past.”

In Savvy's case it's her family's financial situation that has turned their lives upside-down. With their fortunes at rock bottom, the Christophers move across the country to live on Aunt Betty's sheep farm in Kathy Mackel's Boost (Dial, 2008, Gr 7-10). Savvy and her sister, Callie, each cling to “one thing” as they deal with their new lives: Callie, a gymnast turned cheerleader, hopes to get a spot as the “flyer” on the cheer squad, and at six foot two her sister has basketball. Savvy earns a place on an elite travel team, but to win a starting spot, her coach warns her that she'll have to boost her game. When steroids are found in her gym bag, her teammates, coach, and even her family wonder if Savvy has gone too far. As she did in Mad Cat (HarperCollins, 2005), Mackel writes an intense sports novel filled with edge-of-your-seat action and an eye-opening look at the pressure many young athletes face.

Orphaned Jack is also on the move in John H. Ritter's The Desperado Who Stole Baseball (2009). In this prequel to The Boy Who Saved Baseball (2003, both Philomel, Gr 5-8), Ritter has once again crafted a sports tall tale with larger-than-life characters and a mock-epic plot. Jack is riding west in the 1880s to meet his father's long-lost brother, Cap'n Dillon, a mine owner and baseball player who has challenged a team of all-stars to a contest that will decide the fate of his town. Along the way, the boy meets up with another traveler, the young outlaw Billy the Kid, and together they play a key role in the far-fetched goings-on.

In Billy, Jack finds the brother he never had, and the two forge a powerful bond. Ritter displays his usual flair for bombast, and thrilling plot twists and turns, and fans of his earlier book will not be disappointed.

Whimsical or tragic, savage or lighthearted, each of these stories offers a rich literary experience along with instruction both basic and skilled in a variety of sports—not to mention plenty of food for thought about the pleasures and pitfalls of competition, making good choices, understanding peers and family, and finding true measures for success and failure. With a winning lineup composed of seasoned authors and some promising newcomers, fans of sports novels can look forward to an exciting season of reading.