Twelve-year-old House Jackson, star pitcher and team captain of the Aurora County All-Stars, has been sidelined for a year with a broken elbow. Now that he's healed, the biggest game of the season is set for the same day as the pageant for the county's 200th anniversary. What's House to do?
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Summary
Twelve-year-old House Jackson, star pitcher and team captain of the Aurora County All-Stars, has been sidelined for a year with a broken elbow. Now that he's healed, the biggest game of the season is set for the same day as the pageant for the county's 200th anniversary. What's House to do?
Description
Twelve-year-old House Jackson--star pitcher and team captain of the Aurora County All-Stars--has been sidelined for a whole sorry year with a broken elbow. He's finally ready to play, but wouldn't you know that the team's only game of the year has been scheduled for the exact same time as the town's 200th-anniversary pageant. Now House must face the pageant's director, full-of-herself Frances Shotz (his nemesis and perpetrator of the elbow break), and get his team out of this mess. There's also the matter of a mysterious old recluse who has died and left House a wheezy old dog named Eudora Welty--and a puzzling book of poetry by someone named Walt Whitman.
Through the long, hot month of June, House makes surprising and valuable discoveries about family, friendship, poetry . . . and baseball.
Critic Reviews
“"There's much to savor: bubbly prose (a little girl 'twinkles' down some steps, House 'bulldozes' to a stage); a dog named Eudora Welty and a kid named Parting Schotz; a wonderfully convoluted plot involving an old man's death 'at the simmering time just before daybreak,' a sheaf of Walt Whitman quotes; a Fourth of July pageant; lots of baseball lore; and a cliffhanger of an all-star game that brings the whole town together. As one character sighs, 'It's positively Thornton Wilder.' But it's Thornton Wilder on a sugar high--and that's some high."”
"A poignant and humorous coming-of-age story."--Kirkus Reviews, starred review "A slow-simmering stew of friendship and betrayal, family love and loyalty, and finding oneself."--SLJ "A home run for Wiles."--Publishers Weekly, starred review A Junior Library Guild Selection New York Public Library's One Hundred Titles for Reading and Sharing --
About the Author
DEBORAH WILES is the award-winning author of Each Little Bird That Sings, a National Book Award finalist; Love, Ruby Lavender, an ALA Notable Children's Book, a Children's Book Sense 76 Pick, an NCTE Notable Book for the Language Arts, and a New York Public Library Book for Reading and Sharing; Freedom Summer, a Coretta Scott King Honor Book; The Aurora County All-Stars, a New York Public Library Book for Reading and Sharing; and One Wide Sky. She lives in Georgia.
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