Strike Zone

August 16, 2019

Gr 4-7-Nick Garcia hopes to be as good a pitcher as his idol, New York Yankees ace Michael Arroyo (whom readers may recognize from Mike Lupica's Heat), but first he has to get his team to the Dream League tournament. If they win, he gets to throw the first pitch at a Yankees game. However, Nick has much more on his mind than baseball; his sister has lupus and his family lives in constant fear of ICE discovering his parents' undocumented status. In this timely tale, Lupica has written a story that is extremely relevant to today's political climate, highlighting how immigrants feel under today's administration and the reality of ICE raids. As always, Lupica's action sequences are thrilling and fast-paced. He has gotten the voices and calls of radio announcers John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman down pat-readers will feel like they're listening to the game on their local WFAN affiliate. Short chapters encourage quick reading for reluctant readers while swiftly moving the plot along; readers will most likely realize how the baseball plot will play out, so the real anticipation comes from waiting for ICE to show up for Nick's father. When they finally do, it packs a serious emotional punch to the gut of the reader. Fair warning-Lupica takes a hard political stance against the current administration without naming names. VERDICT Baseball acts as the backdrop to tell the story of life as an immigrant in modern day America. Solid purchase where Mike Lupica and the Yankees are popular.-Kerri Williams, Sachem Public Library, Holbrook, NY

Copyright 2019 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 1, 2019
Grades 5-8 More than a decade ago, Michael Arroyo was a Little League phenom in the Bronx (Heat, 2006); now he's an all-star pitcher for the Yankees. Phenoms from the Bronx keep coming, though, and they have dreams of their own. Twelve-year-old pitcher Nick Garcia, like Arroyo before him, dreams of taking his team to the league championship, and if he's named Most Valuable Player, of throwing out the first pitch at a Yankees game and meeting his hero, Arroyo himself. Nick has plenty of confidence in his fastball mowing down opposing teams' hitters, but the obstacles he faces off the diamond are more daunting: his parents, immigrants from the Dominican Republic, are undocumented, and his father has a police record, thanks to a trivial infraction years ago. When Nick witnesses an ICE raid on his block, he knows that his family may be playing on borrowed time. As he did in Heat, Lupica skillfully juggles the baseball drama with the larger social issues that swirl around it, vividly putting a human face on the immigration crisis.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

Starred review from August 15, 2019
A new dimension is brought to the sports genre with expertly developed characters and bold exploration of social issues. In this companion book to Heat (2006), seventh grader Nick Garcia is the gifted pitcher for his Bronx team, the Blazers. He lives and breathes baseball and is happiest when he's pitching strikes during the summer-league tournament. His life at home stands in stark contrast to the simple joy of the game: His family lives in constant fear of deportation to the Dominican Republic, and his older sister, Amelia, struggles with complications from lupus. Nick works hard to leave the stresses of home off the field, but it proves nearly impossible as immigration enforcement tightens its grip on his neighborhood and Amelia's condition worsens. Readers follow Nick through each exciting championship game, feeling the sting of injury and the thrill of each thrown strike. Lupica skillfully addresses the timely and complicated topic of living as the child of undocumented immigrants and the uncertainty facing many American families. Issues and dilemmas are carefully constructed throughout the novel and mirror the real problems that many young people are experiencing today. This exceptional baseball novel delivers both lively sports action and critical subject matter. (Fiction. 10-14)

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