I did not want to read this book for two reasons.

1. It’s about a girl named Molly whose baseball-fiend dad is killed in a car accident. (My daughter’s name is Molly and my husband is a baseball fanatic.)

2. I really, really, really, really, really don’t like baseball and don’t usually like books that feature sports heavily.

However, I am trying to read every galley I am sent, and this was next up in the Random House pile, so I grit my teeth and opened it. And guess what? It’s really good.

Molly’s in the 8th grade, and her life is upside down. Her dad recently died in a car accident, and her mother’s become an entirely different person. There’s no HOME left in Molly’s house – no cooked dinners, no comforting hugs, no talking about her dad to make some of the hurt go away. School’s hard too; everyone seems to think that losing a parent is contagious, and most of her classmates stay far away. If it weren’t for her best friend Celia, Molly would feel completely alone in the world.

Baseball season is about to start up again, which means it’s back to girls’ softball for Molly. Molly’s never really been happy playing girls’ softball:

She didn’t really dislike softball; she just wasn’t all that interested. There was something second-class about it, for sure: people said “girls’ softball,” but nobody said “men’s baseball.” The roundhouse windup, the kneepads, the cheers and chants from the bench, like playground jump-rope songs. It seemed, well, a little girlish, fine if that was the sort of thing you went for. But it didn’t have much to do with the game she and her dad had watched…

Molly’s dad had taught her to love the game of baseball practically from birth. They watched together and played together, and by the age of 9 he had even taught Molly how to throw a knuckleball – a difficult, special pitch that was a rare gift among pitchers. But you couldn’t throw a knuckler in girls’ softball. You couldn’t really do anything in girls’ softball that made Molly feel close to her dad.

So with Celia’s encouragement, Molly goes out for the baseball team and earns a spot in the lineup. Many of the boys are unhappy about it, but she gets support from quiet, artistic, loner Lonnie and her two coaches, who seem to see her as a player first, girl second. Slowly Molly starts to feel not only as if her dad is still with her, somewhere, but also like she has a comfortable place in the world. Molly’s mother doesn’t seem to understand, but maybe if Molly holds on long enough, baseball will heal that relationship too.

It’s a little sad, and a little funny, and a little enraging (to this feminist), and a lot lovely. Really, really good writing here.

This is listed as being a teen book, but I’m not sure why – it doesn’t read any older to me than Mike Lupica’s stuff does. I think it’s fine content-wise for middle school.

Publisher: Random House

Pub Date: March 10, 2009