by Patricia MacLachlan
First sentence: “I am young, four years old, when it first happens.”
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Content: It’s a slim book with lots of white space. It’s in the Middle Grade (grades 3-5) section of the bookstore, but I could see it going younger.

Lucy’s dad is a minor league baseball pitcher, hoping to be called up to the majors. She’s always been into baseball, but never had enough courage to pitch in her after-school games. But she has been practicing in the mornings, and maybe she’ll be able to pitch a game. And then, maybe she’ll be able to perfect her father’s specialty: the knuckleball.

There’s a couple of side plots with her parents: her mother opens up an art show, and her dad comes back from where he lives while he’s playing, but mostly it’s about Lucy’s determination to become a pitcher.

I don’t mind a low-stakes middle grade book. There’s not much to this one, either with plot or with words, but that’s okay. Lucy has a goal, she works toward it, and she succeeds at pitching a game as well as pitching a knuckleball. It’s nice. But that’s really all it is. Nice. The thing about nice books is that they really don’t have means to soar. There’s no real conflict so that the resolution doesn’t feel earned. But that’s okay: there’s some girl out there who wants to be a baseball player and she will find this book, and it will make her happy.

And that’s all that really matters.