A wonderful narrative for readers who love baseball that also offers valuable lessons to those who don’t.
In Derr’s illustrated middle-grade novella, a boy must learn how to become a leader.
Eleven-year-old Luis is close friends with the kids on his coed baseball team, the McIntyre Manatees—but that hasn’t always been the case. In this book, he and his friends relive what happened when they first met a year ago, when Luis moved to Ohio from Texas. His parents encouraged him to join the local baseball team to ground him in familiar habits after the upheaval of a big move. He was new to the well-established Manatees and was shocked when the new coach picked him to be captain over kids who’d been on the team longer, and his teammates were similarly surprised. Only soft-spoken catcher Gary seemed to be on his side when he took up his position, and the hardest player to get along with was first baseman Jimmie, the biggest, strongest, and meanest kid on the team. As Luis and his teammates played through the season, they realized that winning games isn’t just about skill—it’s also about being able to work together. Readers follow Luis as he learns leadership skills in a smooth, well-paced narrative that models good communication and perseverance. They’ll find themselves rooting for the Manatees as the story builds and playoffs approach. A major letdown, though, is that Derr has players recounting playoff highlights after the fact rather than allowing readers to experience the game as it occurs. He also frames the novel as the story of Luis and Jimmie’s learning to become friends, which feels discordant at the end, when greater emphasis is on Luis’ growth as team captain. However, these aspects don’t spoil the joy of the story or the portrayal of the characters’ clear love for sports, which are evident in the text and grayscale line drawings by LaCoste, which are cartoonlike and expressive; characters are depicted with an array of skin tones.
A wonderful narrative for readers who love baseball that also offers valuable lessons to those who don’t.Pub Date: April 1, 2024
ISBN: 9781643712840
Page Count: 146
Publisher: Red Chair Press
Review Posted Online: May 3, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship.
A young tennis champion becomes the target of revenge.
In this sequel to Legacy and the Queen (2019), Legacy Petrin and her friends Javi and Pippa have returned to Legacy’s home province and the orphanage run by her father. With her friends’ help, she is in training to defend her championship when they discover that another player, operating under the protection of High Consul Silla, is presenting herself as Legacy. She is so convincing that the real Legacy is accused of being an imitation. False Legacy has become a hero to the masses, further strengthening Silla’s hold, and it becomes imperative to uncover and defeat her. If Legacy is to win again, she must play her imposter while disguised as someone else. Winning at tennis is not just about money and fame, but resisting Silla’s plans to send more young people into brutal mines with little hope of better lives. Legacy will have to overcome her fears and find the magic that allowed her to claim victory in the past. This story, with its elements of sports, fantasy, and social consciousness that highlight tensions between the powerful and those they prey upon, successfully continues the series conceived by late basketball superstar Bryant. As before, the tennis matches are depicted with pace and spirit. Legacy and Javi have brown skin; most other characters default to White.
A worthy combination of athletic action, the virtues of inner strength, and the importance of friendship. (Fantasy. 9-12)Pub Date: Aug. 24, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-949520-19-4
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Granity Studios
Review Posted Online: July 27, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2021
BOOK REVIEW
Poet Alexander deftly reveals the power of the format to pack an emotional punch.
Basketball-playing twins find challenges to their relationship on and off the court as they cope with changes in their lives.
Josh Bell and his twin, Jordan, aka JB, are stars of their school basketball team. They are also successful students, since their educator mother will stand for nothing else. As the two middle schoolers move to a successful season, readers can see their differences despite the sibling connection. After all, Josh has dreadlocks and is quiet on court, and JB is bald and a trash talker. Their love of the sport comes from their father, who had also excelled in the game, though his championship was achieved overseas. Now, however, he does not have a job and seems to have health problems the parents do not fully divulge to the boys. The twins experience their first major rift when JB is attracted to a new girl in their school, and Josh finds himself without his brother. This novel in verse is rich in character and relationships. Most interesting is the family dynamic that informs so much of the narrative, which always reveals, never tells. While Josh relates the story, readers get a full picture of major and minor players. The basketball action provides energy and rhythm for a moving story.
Poet Alexander deftly reveals the power of the format to pack an emotional punch. (Verse fiction. 9-12)Pub Date: March 18, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-544-10771-7
Page Count: 240
Publisher: HMH Books
Review Posted Online: Dec. 17, 2013
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2014
SEEN & HEARD
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
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