The Big Field

Here's what most good sports books are: exciting, suspenseful, action-packed. This one is too -- the many game and practice scenes are fast-paced and lovingly described. Here's what some of the best baseball books are: lyrical, almost poetic, in their attempt to capture that indefinable feeling that makes baseball different from any other sport. This one is too -- Lupica's sharp and rhythmic prose brilliantly captures the passion, joy, intelligence, and beauty of the summertime sport.

Here's what most of those other books are not: moving, powerfully emotional, as much concerned with the characters as with the sports action. But this one is. There's really only one other writer who can pack this much emotion and sheer intelligence into sports fiction for kids: Bruce Brooks, and he hasn't had a new novel in years. Lupica deftly uses Hutch's rivalry with Darryl to lay bare Hutch's troubled relationship with his distant and disappointed father, who has given up on life and wants Hutch to do the same. This is what you hope for when you recommend a sports book to reluctant readers: action that will keep them riveted to the page in a story will help deepen their understanding of the game, of people, and of life.