My Brother Stealing Second

I have taught high school students who have experienced difficulty reading or who have had no interest in reading. This book was a grabber for almost all of them. It's an interesting story with a moral dilemma that fascinated them. I had one student who admitted that it's the only book he had ever read and enjoyed. This doesn't mean that everyone will enjoy it, but his review meant a lot to me. Sadly the book is out of print, and getting a classroom set might be a problem. However it can still be an interesting assignment if you have the "problem" reader in your class.

The book My Brother Stealing Second is about a kid named Bobby Connely who lost his brother, Billy Connely. Billy was a excellent baseball player, but he died in a car crash with the parents of a girl named Annie Dunham. Billy was accused of killing Annie's parents even though he was dead. The accident totally ruins the Connelys. After the accident, Annie's family and Bobby's family tried their hardest to get away from each other. Bobby and Annie changed all their classes so they could never ever see each other. One day Bobby comes up to a hill where he comes all the time to clear his mind. By coincidence, he meets Annie Dunham and they started to talk. First Annie was cold to Bobby, but after a while they became friendlier. Also Mr.Connely used to be a big drinker. After Billy's accident, Mr.Connely started to drink again. Bobby's life was ruined by Billy's accident. One day, Bobby is hanging out with Richie, friend of Billy Connely and finds out a fact that will change everything..... I thought this book was unpredictable. However, the book wasn't very exciting. They had boring parts about Bobby's life. Along with all these uninteresting events, there are a couple of funny parts. Bobby used to wet his hair and freeze it so he could catch cold to skip school. I thought that was pretty tricky and that part attracted me to the book. Also they used inappopriate languages, but I thought that was all right, since they needed it to make the book realistic. I would give this book a 7 since it's a great book with some unnecessary events.