Central Kansas Library System

In this novel, the careers of a golden boy rookie hitter for the Cubs and a hard-hitting Mets pitcher take very different paths. The baseball is thrilling, but it is what happens off the field that makes this story a classic.

Based in part on the life of baseball legend Ty Cobb, this book belongs in the pantheon of great baseball novels. John Barr is the kind of player who isn't supposed to exist anymore. An all-around superstar, he plays the game with a single-minded ferocity that makes his New York Mets team all but invincible. Yet Barr himself is a mystery with no past, no friends, no women, and no interests outside hitting a baseball as hard and as far as he can....

In this wordless picture book, a young outfielder imagines all the terrifying ways he might not catch the baseball, and one way that he can.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Until that September of 1952, Luke Chandler had never kept a secret or told a single lie. But in the long, hot summer of his seventh year, two groups of migrant workers — and two very dangerous men — came through the Arkansas Delta to work the Chandler cotton farm. And suddenly mysteries are flooding Luke’s world.

A brutal murder leaves the town seething in gossip...

"Dust Bowl refugee Gloria Mae Willard finds herself uprooted and working on a California peach orchard, where she tries to join the secret, all-boys baseball team that she's desperate to play on"--

When he learns why his best friend taught him an unbeatable pitch instead of using it himself, Bernie learns a sad lesson about friendship.

Summer is around the corner, and Little League first baseman, Billy Kramer, is looking forward to playing another year with the LA Southgate Sharks. His plans are uprooted when his mother announces an unexpected move to rural Bennington, Nebraska. Billy's world is turned upside down. Billy hoped to find a new team that could compete at the same level as his former team. He soon finds that Bennington's local team, the Bunz Town Badgers, is composed...

Charlie Brown has difficulty appreciating his friends' efforts to celebrate Arbor Day.