Review of "Plunked," by Michael Northrop

Review of

Plunked, by Michael Northrop ISBN 9780545297158


Five out of five stars

 The fear that is part of the game

 Jack Mogens is a Little League baseball player, an outfielder and a good hitter. He goes through the spring tryouts and is named the starting left fielder. Since everyone plays in Little League, this means that he will get the majority of the playing time. He has several close friends on the team, and he has a special eye for Katie, the team’s talented shortstop.

 There is an incident where Jack experiences the innate fear of baseball players, getting hit in the head by a pitch. While there is no serious injury, he becomes a little fearful of inside pitches. Unfortunately, before he can recover psychologically from the hit, another pitch hits him in the ribs. Painful and scary, but with no serious injury.

 The remainder of the story describes how Jack battles his personal demons in trying to get himself to stand in at the plate and not flinch from the inside pitches. Even though he lies about things, he never really fools his friends, family or coaches. They stand by him as he works through and overcomes his fear.

 This is a good adolescent sports book, for it is not about the game so much as it is about dealing with the adversity of a bad incident. All batters get hit at some point, some in the head. To get back up and stand in tight is something many people have to do. Jack does it eventually and produces a valuable lesson.