deanduffy

Dean Duffy, by Randy Powell ISBN: 0-374-31754-2 c1995 170 pages R.L.-5.2 Points-7

Good sections to read aloud: pp. 3-5 where we are with Dean as he’s finishing his senior year and letting us in on what he will do after high school p. 11 where he’s describing his freshman and sophomore years

Summary: Dean Duffy is just finishing high school when we meet up with him. He had stellar stats during his freshman and sophomore years on the high school baseball team. But after throwing as many pitches as he did those two years, his arm is no longer good for pitching. Dean isn’t too upset....he can still hit and play first base. But, the next two seasons, his junior and senior years, don’t go so well. All of the colleges that were once interested in him aren’t coming to watch anymore or sending him applications. Dean figures he’s washed up. After he graduates he helps his parents start remodeling a place for a bed and breakfast and helps out a friend by apartment sitting. It’s only then that he is given a chance to shape up his life and possibly involve baseball in it again.

YA sports fiction: baseball; self-esteem; father figures; college

©Jennifer Lang-WDMS-2003