SLIDING INTO HOME

Thirteen-year-old Joelle has moved to a small town and is appalled to learn that she will not be allowed to play on the school baseball team. There are strict boundaries between boys’ and girls’ sports and she’s pressured to join the girls’ softball team instead, although she repeatedly explains the fundamental differences between the two games. Eventually she inspires the formation of a girls’ baseball league and enlists players from many surrounding towns. There are many setbacks along the way, but in sports-story tradition, Joelle and her team triumph in the end. Joelle is a well-drawn character, sometimes unsure of her place in the scheme of things, and at other times ready to take on the world. Butler tells the story almost exclusively through conversation or through Joelle’s unvoiced thoughts, which are italicized for recognition. In style and content it’s reminiscent of a typical Disney Channel movie script. Breezy and fast-paced, with a feminist slant. (Fiction. 10-13)