A lovely nod to Derek Jeter rounds out a winner of a sports novel.
In the opener of a four-book series about kids in the baseball-loving town of Walton, 12-year-old Jack Callahan struggles to square his personal sorrows with his deep love of the game.
Gifted baseball player Jack and buddy Gus, whose family roots in the Dominican Republic partly inform his aspiration to the Little League championships in Williamsport, have played since T-ball. Jack’s sudden announcement on tryout day that he won’t be playing this season angers Gus and bewilders his own parents. But the town’s softball superstar, classmate Cassie, steps up to offer simple, straightforward friendship to Jack. She persuades Jack to keep connected with the game by helping her dad coach her team. A new friendship with another classmate, Teddy, allows Jack to reveal that he blames himself for his risk-taking older brother’s accidental death the summer before. Adults are admirable: Coaches emphasize sportsmanship; parents set aside their own troubles to support their children. The baseball narrative is terrific—Lupica recaps these fictional games with brisk, exciting clarity. The friendship story is solid, kind and reassuring, and even if most of the young characters demonstrate unlikely maturity rather than depth, readers will only notice the qualities that are best in them.
A lovely nod to Derek Jeter rounds out a winner of a sports novel. (Fiction. 9-13)Pub Date: Feb. 17, 2015
ISBN: 978-1-4814-0995-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Dec. 5, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2014
An almost-orphan and a rescue dog share lots of heart in a winsome coming-of-age story.
After her mother succumbs to heart disease, 13-year-old Lydia goes to live with her mother’s older sister, Aunt Brat, and her wife, Eileen, in their small Connecticut town.
Almost immediately the loving couple adopts a large rescue dog that becomes mostly Lydia’s responsibility. The unfortunate animal isn’t even housebroken, and Lydia’s most decidedly not a dog person, so caring for Guffer is challenging. So is trying to be cordial—but not too friendly—with her 12 eighth grade classmates. Previously home-schooled, Lydia’s not quite ready for the friend thing. Secrets, like who could have been responsible for maiming two baby goats or why Brat is secretly caring for them at a neighbor’s farm, complicate life. Background plotlines (an angry neighbor who hates Guffer, Lydia’s absent father, and the cause of Guffer’s anxieties) all gradually evolve. Similarly, Lydia slowly learns to cope with her grief, sometimes aided by spending time with “the goddesses”—artistic collages of strong women that she and her mother crafted. Gentle, fully fleshed characters (most seemingly white) are lovingly drawn in this long tale of healing, but the pacing is sometimes frustratingly slow. Although she’s clearly intelligent, Lydia’s first-person narrative often seems more like the voice of an adult than a young teen. In spite of these minor flaws, her poignant tale is engaging and uplifting.
An almost-orphan and a rescue dog share lots of heart in a winsome coming-of-age story. (Fiction.10-13)Pub Date: Feb. 25, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-06-279678-3
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Oct. 8, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
Stronger in character than plot but spooky in parts.
An old Colorado hotel with dark secrets and a brooding horror novelist as its caretaker make a properly atmospheric setting for a young filmmaker’s latest project.
Fresh from the cinematic escapades of Shark Summer (2021), teenage documentarian Elijah Jones arrives in Estes Park thinking he’s been invited to record a rare interview with famous recluse Jack Axworth—but he’s actually been summoned to make a biopic of the novelist, who has young-onset dementia. Once again, the footage Elijah ends up with tells more than the story he set out to make, as Axworth’s poignant reminiscences and increasingly erratic behavior become inextricably mixed with a portrait of a struggling town whose history and very survival center on the nearby Underlook Hotel, a closed-up resort haunted by tales of supernatural evil and slated for imminent demolition. Is there time to save it? The storyline struggles to advance through thickets of subplots and hints, but the Underlook’s deadline adds enough suspense to keep readers interested, and the hotel turns out to have hidden levels and treasures to be discovered when the action flags. Also, Marcks trots out such an engaging supporting cast, led by local teen engineering whiz Suzy Hess and including colorful characters like a ghost hunter with a truly creepy crow, that watching the ensemble in action is pleasurable enough. Finished art was not seen, but Elijah and another significant character present as Black in the otherwise White cast.
Stronger in character than plot but spooky in parts. (Graphic fiction. 10-13)Pub Date: Oct. 25, 2022
ISBN: 978-0-316-27806-5
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Aug. 16, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 2022
BOOK REVIEW
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