Forced Out

April 1, 2012

Gr 6-10-This hi/lo series focuses on individual members of an elite travel team of 17-and-under baseball players from Las Vegas. In Forced Out, Zack's team gets the funding to play in a New York tournament that will have a lot of major-league-scout representation. However, when a new kid who's mediocre at best-but whose father is a multimillionaire-suddenly joins the team, Zack realizes that the coach might have compromised his standards for the travel money that Dustin's dad is promising. How can Zack support his coach and still be a good friend to the catcher, who is being forced out of his position by Dustin? In Power Hitter, Sammy Perez is one of the team's best hitters. When Coach signs the team up for a wooden-bat tournament, Sammy believes he will never be noticed by an MLB scout-his hits just are not as dramatic with wood-and he sees his dreams of supporting his family slipping away. His father tells him of a performance-enhancing drug that doesn't show up on tests, and Sammy is tempted to try them for that extra edge. Shortstop Trip Costas takes center stage in Out of Control. His father has lived out his baseball dreams through his sons, but Trip is tired of his father directing his life and wants to take a break. Only the wisdom of Coach Harris and others allows him to separate his frustration with his father from his feelings for the game. These authors pack a lot of drama and sports action into about 100 pages. The characters might be just a little too good to be true, but the tone is not didactic, and students will appreciate the real-life issues and ethical dilemmas that the players face.-Kim Dare, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA

Copyright 2012 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2012
This entry in the Travel Team series is totally focused on baseball and its intricacies. Second baseman Zack is ideally positioned to see the pitching, watch the fielding and support the Las Vegas Roadrunners, a team that is full of outstanding players looking to shine for scouts. There is diversity in ethnicity, sexual orientation and income. Zack has little money and is thrilled to be on the team, but he is wary about costs. Suddenly a new catcher appears, whose father's wealth makes an expensive out-of-state tournament possible. Zack's allegiance to buddy Nick, the previous catcher, tests his baseball savvy. While the players have lives off the field, this series is almost exclusively about the challenges of the game and the complexities of team play. Two other entries release simultaneously. Out of Control, by Rick Jasper, focuses on shortstop Trip, whose father is a famous singer. Trip also likes music and wonders if his father's insistence that he be a great baseball player is worthwhile. In Power Hitter, M.G Higgins writes about Sammy, a right fielder struggling to switch from an aluminum bat to the wooden ones required for a special tournament. In each, the coaches play key roles as authority figures and decision makers who set up opportunities. Ideal for reluctant readers who know baseball as a complex and strategic sport; the books' brevity and recurring characters will add appeal. Useful and priced right. (Fiction. 11-16)

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July 1, 2012
The Roadrunners travel baseball team encounters daunting opponents on the field while tensions off the field threaten the team's solidarity. Dustin's father blackmails the coach; Sammy loses his power hitting when forced to switch from aluminum to wood bats; Trip alienates his father when he considers pursuing music instead of the major leagues. Crisp dialogue and personal challenges keep this series alive for baseball fans.

(Copyright 2012 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)