highheat

High Heat, by Carl Deuker ISBN: 0-618-31117-3 c2003 277 pages

Good sections to read aloud: pp. 3-5 where Shane’s dad is arrested at his baseball game

Summary: Shane is the closing pitcher on his high school baseball team and a good one at that. His life is great.....he has a nice house, goes to a ritzy private high school, and he has great parents....or so he thought. Dad is arrested one day at one of Shane’s baseball games for laundering money at his car dealership. Shane tries to believe dad when he says he doesn’t know anything about it, but faster than Shane can imagine, his life is going down the tubes fast. Dad does something that no one expected and leaves the family hurting for money. Shane no longer lives in a fancy house or goes to a private school and he questions if baseball is really for him anymore.

YA sports fiction: baseball; fathers; family problems; high school; suicide

©Jennifer Lang-WDMS-2006