Baseball Crazy edited by Nancy E. Mercado.

Baseball Crazy is a collection of short stories from the same editor as Every Man for Himself, but this time the theme is the national pastime, baseball. The stories follow a variety of characters from baseball stars, to bench-warmers, from statisticians, to fans and does so in a variety of formats too, mostly short stories, but also a play and poetry. Once again their are some big names like Jerry Spinelli (Maniac Magee) and Joseph Bruchac (Code Talker) backing up this collection and they deliver some great stories

I enjoyed this collection just as much as Every Man for Himself. Give this one to baseball lovers grades 4-8.

Peak

"My right ear and cheek were frozen to the terra cotta wall.
"To reach the top you must have resolve, muscles, skill, and...
"A FACE!"

Peak is the oddly named son of the world's most famous climber ("It could have been worse. My parents could have named me Glacier, or Abyss, or Crampon,") and a great climber in his own right. So great, in fact, that he starts climbing New York City skyscrapers and tagging them. When he gets busted tagging his sixth building, the judge threatens to throw the book at him (3 years jail time) to prevent copycats from endangering themselves. However, his lawyer and father come up w/ a plea bargain, Peak has to leave the country immediately to live w/ his father, Josh, (who he hasn't seen in 7 years) until all the media attention surrounding "spider-boy" (Peak) blows over.
Peak ends up in Tibet with his father on the slopes of Everest, but it turns out Peak's father has an ulterior motive, he wants to get Peak up the mountain making him the youngest climber up Everest and (hopefully) making his fathers climbing company rich.

This book was fast paced and exciting cover to cover. Life and death climbs, multiple visits from the Chinese military and yaks. Lots and lots of yaks. What more do you need? Give this one to adrenaline junkies Grades 6+

Keeping Score

Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, the entire New York Yankees team, the 50s were a great time to be a baseball fan in New York, whether you were a Dodgers, Giants or Yankees fan. Of course, Maggie Fortini doesn't see it that way, because her team, the Dodgers, always fall just short of winning the world series. Maggie, already the Dodgers biggest fan, becomes an even more ardent supporter when she learns to keep score from one of the guys down at her dad's fire station- Jim (a Giants fan yuck!). Maggie and Jim quickly become close friends because of their shared interest in baseball. So much so, that even after Jim is drafted and sent to Korea Maggie writes him letter after letter. But when the letters abruptly stop coming Maggie wonders were they ever really friends at all?

A great book, Maggie's character is instantly lovable and I really got into the whole baseball thing when I was reading the book (I still kinda want to learn how to keep score). A great book for sports fans (especially female sports fans) for ages 10-14.