FORCED OUT

This entry in the Travel Team series is totally focused on baseball and its intricacies.

Second baseman Zack is ideally positioned to see the pitching, watch the fielding and support the Las Vegas Roadrunners, a team that is full of outstanding players looking to shine for scouts. There is diversity in ethnicity, sexual orientation and income. Zack has little money and is thrilled to be on the team, but he is wary about costs. Suddenly a new catcher appears, whose father’s wealth makes an expensive out-of-state tournament possible. Zack’s allegiance to buddy Nick, the previous catcher, tests his baseball savvy. While the players have lives off the field, this series is almost exclusively about the challenges of the game and the complexities of team play. Two other entries release simultaneously. Out of Control, by Rick Jasper, focuses on shortstop Trip, whose father is a famous singer. Trip also likes music and wonders if his father’s insistence that he be a great baseball player is worthwhile. In Power Hitter, M.G Higgins writes about Sammy, a right fielder struggling to switch from an aluminum bat to the wooden ones required for a special tournament. In each, the coaches play key roles as authority figures and decision makers who set up opportunities. Ideal for reluctant readers who know baseball as a complex and strategic sport; the books' brevity and recurring characters will add appeal.  

Useful and priced right.