Extra Innings by Fred Bowen

Extra Innings by Fred Bowen. Peachtree, 2024. 9781682634110






Rating:  1-5 (5 is an excellent or a Starred review) 3



Format : Hardcover fiction



Genre : Sports



What did you like about the book?  Fourteen year old Mike McGinn is his Babe Ruth summer baseball team’s best starting pitcher. He hopes to play in as much of the 14-game season as possible, but will his father make him get a ‘real’ job’ instead?



This short (125 pages) novel is chock full of baseball plays, strategy, terminology and dugout chatter, and will be a thrill for avid baseball fans and players. There’s a minimal amount of character development and family drama, keeping the focus on sports, including a bit of golf, when Mike gets a job caddying. A bit of suspense enters the story as Mike’s dad evolves to take Mike’s pitching prowess seriously, and as readers wonder if Dad will actually get to a game. This is a working class family, with not a lot of money, so the summer job concept is important. Mike ends up throwing a near perfect game in tournament play at the end, but the team still loses. A section at the end tells a similar true story of a major league pitcher, Harvey Haddix, who pitched for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1960s.



Anything you didn’t like about it? This sports novel won’t interest anyone but baseball fans.



To whom would you recommend this book?  Middle grade baseball fans. It could also serve as a high-lo book for older kids.



Who should buy this book?  A serviceable purchase for elementary and middle school collections that need more sports books.



Where would you shelve it?  Fiction



Should we (librarians/readers) put this on the top of our “to read” piles? No



Reviewer’s Name, Library (or school), City and State: Stephanie Tournas, Robbins Library, Arlington, MA



Date of review:  June 2, 2024