HARD BALL

Weaver (Farm Team, 1995, etc.) continues his clear-eyed scrutiny of the adventures of 14-year-old Billy Baggs; Billy's father is out of jail and his mother, having tasted independence while her husband was away, holds on to the gains she has made in the household's balance of power. Just when it appears as though Billy's heartthrob, Suzy, is ready to leave her boyfriend, ``King'' Kenwood, Billy gets smashed in the teeth with a ball at a baseball game and is forced to wear shiny steel jackets. His mother's support and his own mulishness help Billy to rise above his mortification, and soon he and Suzy are sharing time alone in the barn. When King catches the pair, a fight ensues, and only the coach can figure out a way to end the feud between the boys: Each one must spend time in the other's home, suffering through the same chores (at Billy's) and enduring the same amount of bombast (at King's). The families may conform to the stratification of communities in northern Minnesota, but they have aspects—King, the rich town kid, has an alcoholic mother, while Billy's father, complete with cow dung on his boots, is the ultimate hayseed with some common sense on his side—that, though played for laughs, are still stereotypical. Eventually the boys realize how their fathers feed their hatred of each other, and confront the older men in a slick scene aimed squarely at reconciliation all around. Still, Weaver succeeds in creating an offbeat, exciting narrative that features a credible hero who is unpolished and thoroughly human. (Fiction. 11-14)