Review of
The
Fox Steals Home, by Matt Christopher ISBN 0316139866
Four out of five stars
While
Christopher is one of the best writers of adolescent sports fiction, there are
many times when his stories are formulaic and predictable. In this case the
title informs you what the climactic event will be. Bobby is a boy whose
parents just divorced. While there is no bitter animosity, there is an
undercurrent of hostility to the point where Bobby worries that if his dad
comes to his baseball games, he will be in violation of the custody agreement.
Therefore, the
story revolves more about Bobby’s relationship with his parents and the people
in their lives. He lives with his mother and she has her female friends with
their shared interests. Bobby discovers that his father is seeing a widowed woman
that is the mother of a player on another team. These circumstances make this a
book more about Bobby the boy struggling over new circumstances than it is
about baseball.
In the modern
world, the message is a powerful one, namely that even if your personal
circumstances are difficult, you need to concentrate on the important things in
your life. This story is a bit different in that there is no grand moment at
the end where Bobby’s life is made whole again, his father makes a major and
unexpected announcement. The baseball action is very routine and predictable.
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