All-Star Season

Reviewed by Osvaldo Peralta (age 12) for Reader Views (1/08) Avi and Reuven are brothers and they both love baseball. Their dream is to make it on their local All-Star team. They both go to a Jewish school, but that is the only thing that makes them different from the other guys on the team. Reuben is in the 9th-grade and Avi is in the 8th-grade. Reuben is one of the fastest pitchers on the baseball team. He knows how to throw a fastball, but he would love to throw a curveball. Against his father's wishes, Reuven gets a book that teaches him how to throw a curve. His father warned him that he was not ready and he would mess-up his arm, but he did not listen. Reuben hurts his arm and is not able to play. He brother gets the position in the All-Star team. The brothers learn how to be competitive and supportive of each other. I liked this book, it was excellent. I liked it because my favorite sport is baseball and you cannot predict the ending of the book like most stories. I highly recommend "All-Star Season" to kids that love sports.

A well-written novel for pre-teens, this is the story of two brothers whose first love is baseball, and their attempts to excel in the game. In addition, it is a coming-of-age saga of brothers reconciling themselves to working together as a team, while in competition with each other. Reuven is in ninth grade. He is organized, competent, an excellent student, and very shy. He is focused on becoming an even better pitcher than he already is. He is willing to go against his father's advice not to practice new strategies in the journey to improve his game. Younger brother Avi is in eighth grade, and is an outstanding catcher who has a more happy-go-lucky personality than his brother. For example, he often leaves his schoolwork until the last moment. Both characters are well developed and believable. Each brother has many strengths, but the differences between them, in addition to the zeal they bring to playing baseball, make for an intense sibling experience. There is a tremendous amount of jealousy between the two as they each excel in different areas. Reuven and Avi are part of a close and loving family. Both parents assist and guide the boys through their challenges and their lives. Their father, in addition, acts as their regular baseball coach on Sunday mornings. The family is Orthodox, and the brothers attend a day school for boys. Because of their religious commitments they are forced to miss three games held on the Sabbath during the season. This is an issue of great concern to each boy, as each carries the dream of being picked to be in the All-Stars game at season's end. The family's Orthodoxy is an interesting subplot that does not interfere with the non-Orthodox reader's enjoyment of the sports theme, but another sub-plot involving a relationship Reuven has with a baseball-loving young woman is not very realistic. This book, while in manuscript form, was the winner of the Association of Jewish Libraries' Sydney Taylor Manuscript Award for best unpublished children's book of Judaic interest. Ages 9 and up.

I loved this book! As a middle school librarian, I am thrilled to have an exceptionally well-written, heart-warming baseball story that has appealed to both boys and girls at my school. There's lots of baseball certainly, and sibling issues are dealt with as well since the main character plays on the same team as his brother. This was a wonderful realistic story - I read it in one sitting!