Heat

The best adolescent sports fiction develops a human-interest story line simultaneously with the sports action and that is what Lupica does in this book. Michael Arroyo is growing up very close to Yankee Stadium and he is an excellent pitcher at the Little League level. His family fled Cuba, leaving their records and much of their life behind. In the previous spring, Mike's father died, leaving his 17-year-old brother Carlos and Mike to fend for themselves. The problem is that Mike is too good and a few of the parents with children on other teams generate controversy by claiming that Mike is too old to play in the league. Much of it is competitive spite, but when Mike is unable to produce his birth certificate, he is suspended from play. Furthermore, the lack of a parent in their lives attracts the attention of the department of human services and Mike and Carlos are terrified that they will be exposed and placed in foster care. Lupica does an excellent job of weaving these threads together and adding some deep friendship, witty dialog and involvement of the Yankees. This is a story that will keep you interested and even though you know that there will be a big game at the end, the trek there makes the predictable exciting.

I LOVED LOVED LOVED Heat. It's about a twelve-year-old boy named Michael Arroyo, who is a baseball pitcher. And he's not just any pitcher. He has "the heat" in his arm that makes great pitchers stand out. His team has a chance to make it to the Little League World Series, in large part because of his pitching ability. Making it to the World Series is critically important for Michael, because it will fulfill a dream of his father's, and his own. But Michael has problems, too. His mother died when he was younger, and his father has been absent for several months. Recently, some of the adults in the community have begun asking Michael and his older brother Carlos difficult questions. Carlos is working multiple jobs to support them, but if word gets out about their father, the brothers fear that they will be separated, and put into the foster care system. Things get worse when a rival player accuses Michael of being older than his 12 years, and hence ineligible to play Little League. Michael can't prove his age because his birth certificate was lost when he emigrated from Cuba. And without his father to help, he and Carlos don't know where to turn. As the playoffs begin, Michael finds himself on the sidelines. The story isn't all gloom and doom, of course. Michael has several things going for him. He has his love of baseball, his loyal best friend Manny, and a grandmotherly neighbor who cooks for him. And he meets a girl, a very special girl named Ellie. With help from his friends, Michael is able to confront his demons. The ending is heart-warming, and may require tissues. I loved the characters in this book, especially Michael, whose loneliness in the absence of his parents is palpable. His usually empty apartment serves as an image of his solitude, when he's not with Manny. Manny is one of my all-time favorite sidekicks (though some have called him too good to be true). He's completely loyal to Michael, a catcher willing to take second place to his pitcher. Manny's optimism provides a nice counterbalance to Michael's angst. Here's an example: "Michael mumbled his reply on purpose. "I didn't quite catch that," Manny said. "I said you're right." Manny Cabrera, light on his feet as always, more graceful than all the people who called him No Neck knew, danced now on the Bronx street corner, Michael's catcher celebrating as if he'd just scored a touchdown." Here's another example, after Michael has an experience that turns out expectedly well. Michael thinks: "Maybe that was the way you should go through life, if you really thought about it. Maybe if you didn't expect good things to happen to you, well, when something did, it would seem much bigger and better than it actually was. ... In Manny's view of the world, there was always another sundae coming along that needed another cherry, just because Manny believed every single day was going to be the best of his whole life. Michael tried to remember the last time he had felt that way a

I read this book myself, and enjoyed it. For an adult, it's a cute, heartwarming story. However it's a good book for a young adult, short enough for them to complete it in good time. My 13-year-old boy, who doesn't always read much, finished this book over the course of a few days. He enjoyed it enough to read it on his own from cover-to-cover. The book is about a 12-yr old boy from Cuba and touches on the struggles of immigrants, the working poor, family dynamics, caring neighbors, and adolesence. Oh yeah, and baseball too.....

Heat is a great book. In addition to integrating many complex concepts, such as family and kindness, into an easy, fun book to read, Mike Lupica involves some cool strategy about baseball. Heat became sort of monotnous at times because Michael, the main character, continuously struck everybody out, but Mike Lupica "heated" it up when he needed to. The climax of the book was especially exciting.

This is a great book for young and old. The story is touching and refreshing. Baseball fan or not you will love it. Highly recommended.