COMING UP SHORT

Seventh grader Bea stars on her suburban New Jersey softball team until news spreads of her lawyer father’s one-year suspension for professional misconduct and the emotional stress takes a toll.

Suddenly, she can’t play. Not only was Bea unaware of her dad’s misuse of funds, she soon finds out other family news that’s been kept from her, something that is especially hurtful when she thought her parents shared everything. To get away from her friends and their gossip about her personal situation, she arranges to stay with a maternal aunt she barely knows and attend a softball camp on the Massachusetts island where her mother grew up. Bea has never understood why her mother hated the island and seems to dislike her own sister. During the two-week summer camp, she regains her confidence, makes new friends, and gets to know her Aunt Mary, who has always wanted them to have a closer relationship. She also learns about the impact that mental health struggles have had on her family, knowledge that is tied to long-held secrets. There are lots of sports scenes for softball fans, but this is also a novel that realistically explores deeper psychological truths around friendship and family relationships. There’s even a bit of sweet budding romance. Bea’s family is White; Aunt Mary is cued as lesbian.

A tween girl explores changing relationships in this sincere, character-driven story.