It\u2019s the 1970s in Walnut Creek, in an unnamed U.S. state, long before cellphones and social media, and preteen Jimmy Hamilton daydreams about big league baseball, throws crab apples at the neighbor\u2019s cat, and hopes his mom doesn\u2019t order him to tear down his tree fort. On the plus side, summer and Little League are about to start. If only his mother wouldn\u2019t drag him to the library every week. (Jimmy\u2019s dim view of libraries is a frequent reminder of the book\u2019s subtitle: \u201cfor those who hate to read.\u201d) When an accident occurs on his 11th birthday, Jimmy\u2019s summer takes a disappointing turn. In this uneasy mix of small-town Americana (baseball, church, home-baked cookies, playing catch in the backyard with Dad) and coming-of-age angst (angry outbursts, verbal obscenities, a first crush, upturned friendships), Jimmy plans to prove himself on the pitcher\u2019s mound and to keep invading girls and rowdy teens out of his new fort in the woods. The latter intention leads to the novel\u2019s sobering conclusion, involving a shunned homeless man with baseball skills. The book shines brightest in its depictions of baseball through Jimmy\u2019s eyes. At night, the cornfield is \u201csilhouetted against the outfield fence\u2026.The magic of the game filled the bleachers,\u201d and the \u201cBermuda grass was crisp under their spikes.\u201d Less magical is the boys\u2019 oblivious, laughing cruelty; for example, Jimmy disembowels a living snake and pokes a knife into the three-legged frog the snake had consumed. The boys compare the frog to \u201cthat cripple with just the one arm who sits in his wheelchair out in front of the grocery store.\u201d Jimmy\u2019s nascent hormonal confusion rings true, however, and there\u2019s heart in the book\u2019s depictions of his caring mom, a girl with empathy and \u201cchocolate eyes,\u201d and the epiphanic ending.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s the 1970s in Walnut Creek, in an unnamed U.S. state, long before cellphones and social media, and preteen Jimmy Hamilton daydreams about big league baseball, throws crab apples at the neighbor\u2019s cat, and hopes his mom doesn\u2019t order him to tear down his tree fort. On the plus side, summer and Little League are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":458,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}