Prime Time Pitcher

December 1, 1998
Gr 4-7-Koby Caplin is the star pitcher for the Cardinals, the seventh-grade baseball team at Monticello Middle School. His friend Sara Wilson, sports reporter for the school newspaper, gives lots of press to the team and especially to Koby, hoping to increase student support. The publicity and a winning streak soon result in full stands at all of the games. Then a local TV newsman decides to do a documentary on middle-school athletics with Monticello and Koby as its focus. When the attention goes to his head, Koby forgets all about teamwork, loses a game, almost loses his friends, and nearly blows the conference championship. This fast-paced, easy-to-read story has plenty of baseball action. Excerpts of sports articles from the school paper, including trivia questions about real-life major league players, add a great deal of interest and the book's message is driven home successfully. A prime-time read for baseball fans.-Kate Kohlbeck, Randall School, Waukesha, WI

January 1, 1999
Published spring 1998. Singled out to star in a baseball documentary for local television, middle school pitcher Koby Caplin begins to alienate friends due to his expanding ego. Koby learns the value of teamwork and sportsmanship just in time to help the Cardinals win the conference championship. Both the unusual television subplot and the inclusion of newspaper sports columns add interest to an otherwise blandly written story.

(Copyright 1999 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)