ROY MORELLI STEPS UP TO THE PLATE

A .370 average is great in baseball but not so great in history class, and since Roy Morelli is failing history, his parents won’t allow him to play for the Pilchuk All-Star team; he has to get a tutor and raise his grades first. Ray has the tools to be a fine player—average, power, base running, speed and arm strength—but, as Coach Harden tells him, there’s a sixth tool—the mental game—and this is precisely what Roy most needs to develop. Roy’s quest for that sixth tool is the heart and soul of this fine baseball novel. Heldring effectively captures the wise-guy, self-righteous attitude of an eighth-grade boy and carefully delineates Roy’s change of character as he comes to understand what it takes to be a team player. With plenty of well-described baseball action and a protagonist to care about, this will be a hit with young baseball fans. (Fiction. 9-14)