Nourishing fare for Matt Christopher graduates.
A boy takes first steps on the road to physical and emotional recovery from a bout with polio, thanks to help from a solid new friend and a baseball hero.
After a year in the hospital, Nick gets a harsh welcome home from his embittered widower father. The onus of being a “cripple” is eased by the unfaltering friendliness offered by his baseball-loving neighbor Emma and the news that the owner of the local semipro team, the Bismarck Churchills, has not only signed up more talented “colored boys” but enticed the great Satchel Paige to return for the 1935 season. As his father is the team’s catcher, Nick is enlisted to sell programs and generally make himself useful—which allows him to witness Satch leading a spectacular integrated team to a minor league world championship win. Along the way Nick also watches the renowned pitcher respond with dignity to racial hatred (including an encounter with a “cracker cop”). Absorbing both advice (“Ain’t no man can avoid being born average, but there ain’t no man got to be common”) and some of Satch’s prized “deer oil,” he quickly sheds his leg brace and regains his own pitching skills. Tooke sticks closely to historical records, with the addition of a few extra Paige exploits and aphorisms, and though Nick’s recovery seems a little too easy, the fictional overlay offers a comfortably predictable “hard work brings just rewards” arc.
Nourishing fare for Matt Christopher graduates. (Sports fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: Feb. 21, 2012
ISBN: 978-1-4424-3346-5
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 18, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 15, 2011
BOOK REVIEW
It’s great to see these kids “so enthusiastic about committing high treason.” (historical note) (Historical fiction. 10-12)
Near the end of World War II, two kids join their parents in a plot to kill Adolf Hitler.
Max, 12, lives with his parents and his older sister in a Berlin that’s under constant air bombardment. During one such raid, a mortally wounded man stumbles into the white German family’s home and gasps out his last wish: “The Führer must die.” With this nighttime visitation, Max and Gerta discover their parents have been part of a resistance cell, and the siblings want in. They meet a colorful band of upper-class types who seem almost too whimsical to be serious. Despite her charming levity, Prussian aristocrat and cell leader Frau Becker is grimly aware of the stakes. She enlists Max and Gerta as couriers who sneak forged identification papers to Jews in hiding. Max and Gerta are merely (and realistically) cogs in the adults’ plans, but there’s plenty of room for their own heroism. They escape capture, rescue each other when they’re caught out during an air raid, and willingly put themselves repeatedly at risk to catch a spy. The fictional plotters—based on a mix of several real anti-Hitler resistance cells—are portrayed with a genuine humor, giving them the space to feel alive even in such a slim volume.
It’s great to see these kids “so enthusiastic about committing high treason.” (historical note) (Historical fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: April 21, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-338-35902-2
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Scholastic
Review Posted Online: Jan. 20, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2020
An eminently satisfying story of family, recovery, and growing into manhood.
In this prequel to Newbery Award–winning The Crossover (2014), Alexander revisits previous themes and formats while exploring new ones.
For Charlie Bell, the future father of The Crossover’s Jordan and Josh, his father’s death alters his relationship with his mother and causes him to avoid what reminds him of his dad. At first, he’s just withdrawn, but after he steals from a neighbor, his mother packs a reluctant Charlie off to his grandparents near Washington, D.C., for the summer. His grandfather works part-time at a Boys and Girls Club where his cousin Roxie is a star basketball player. Despite his protests, she draws him into the game. His time with his grandparents deepens Charlie’s understanding of his father, and he begins to heal. “I feel / a little more normal, / like maybe he’s still here, / … in a / as long as I remember him / he’s still right here / in my heart / kind of way.” Once again, Alexander has given readers an African-American protagonist to cheer. He is surrounded by a strong supporting cast, especially two brilliant female characters, his friend CJ and his cousin Roxie, as well as his feisty and wise granddaddy. Music and cultural references from the late 1980s add authenticity. The novel in verse is enhanced by Anyabwile’s art, which reinforces Charlie’s love for comics.
An eminently satisfying story of family, recovery, and growing into manhood. (Historical verse fiction. 10-12)Pub Date: April 2, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-544-86813-7
Page Count: 416
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: March 3, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2018
SEEN & HEARD
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