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PLUNKED by Michael Northrop

PLUNKED

by Michael Northrop

Pub Date: March 1st, 2012
ISBN: 978-0-545-29714-1
Publisher: Scholastic

It’s April, baseball is in the air and sixth-grader Jack Mogens is nervous about the making the Little League team.

Jack does make the team and gets a starting spot in left field, but in the very first game, the opposing pitcher is wild and Jack gets plunked by an unintentional beanball. He’s down for the count and taken to the hospital. The doctor says it’s perhaps a minor concussion, but he’ll be fine. Except he’s not fine. Now Jack’s afraid of inside pitches, and he either bails out on anything inside or stands at the plate like a statue, frozen by fear of being hit again. He has nightmares and decides he can’t play baseball anymore. But a baseball team is a community, and eventually his teammates rally around Jack. When he tells his best friend what’s been going on, his friend offers sensitive and profound advice: “GET OVER IT.” Readers will appreciate this down-to-earth sports story that stays within its game, offering no theatrics and special effects, just a realistic story rooted in the writer’s knowledge of the game and what it means to its young players.

Jack Mogens is a likable young player, and readers will empathize with him and cheer him on.

(Fiction. 8-12)