OUT STANDING IN MY FIELD

Ty Cutter is expected to live out his father’s dreams of baseball glory. Having had an unsuccessful “cup of coffee” in the major leagues, Ty’s father is now a bitter, angry coach of his son’s Pony League team. But Ty has absolutely no skill at the game he loves. He lives in dread of every fielding play and of every at-bat. So he survives via a wildly unique stream-of-consciousness narration of the game and its surrounding events. Ironically it’s his sister Daisy who’s the skilled baseball player. She’s also a whiz at math. She uses her eccentric, mathematically based philosophy to score the games and to help Ty understand his father and reach some decisions about their future relationship. Jennings has crafted an unusual father-son story that goes far beyond the typical baseball novel. Humorous and insightful. (Fiction. 10-12)