Heart of a Champion - Softcover

Deuker, Carl

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0316067261 ISBN 13: 9780316067263

Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2007

Synopsis

Jimmy Winter is a born star on the baseball field, and Seth Barnam can only dream of being as talented. Still, the two baseball fanatics have the kind of friendship that should last forever. But when Seth experiences an unthinkable loss, he's forced to find his own personal strength--on and off the field.

An ALA Best Book for Young Adults
An ALA Best Book for Reluctant Readers
A New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age
Pennsylvania Young Reader's Choice Book of the Year

About this title

About the Author:

Carl Deuker is a teacher in the Northshore School District outside of Seattle. He has won numerous awards for his novels.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 6-10-- On the day Seth Barham met Jimmy Winter, his life changed. Seth had been an unfocused, confused pre-teen who had never come to terms with his father's death when he was seven. He meets Jimmy in a park as Jimmy's overbearing father is putting his son through intense baseball drills. As their friendship develops, Jimmy's intensity and self-assurance on the playing field spills over into Seth's life, helping him to blossom as a student and a baseball player. However, Jimmy's home life begins to unravel when his parents divorce. Also, he is suspended from the team when he develops a drinking problem. Seth withstands peer pressure to drink, and, with his mother's support, begins to accept his father's death. However, his biggest battle comes when he must cope with Jimmy's death in an auto accident. Baseball action permeates the story, increasing the novel's interest to those readers familiar with the sport but setting up possible barriers for the uninitiated. Seth's simply told, often moving first-person narrative is meant to be his way of accepting the two losses in his life. However, although the semi-therapeutic story covers three years in the boys' baseball lives, it largely ignores their school lives and some readers may wonder what else they did. Mixing themes common to many YA coming-of-age titles with strong character development, this easy-to-read and well-paced novel will involve many readers. --Jack Forman, Mesa College Library, San Diego
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0316067261
• ISBN 13: 9780316067263
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 208