A Season of Daring Greatly by Ellen Emerson White

This young adult novel about the first woman to be drafted for major league baseball is so realistic, it read like nonfiction. The coach/sports photographer author, Ellen Emerson White, writes from experience, but you don't need to be a baseball fan to enjoy A Season of Daring Greatly. Most of the drama was in the locker room/clubhouse. This feminist story focuses on the challenges and historical impact of being the first woman on a professional team.

Eighteen-year-old Jill Cafferty is a likable protagonist and a fine role model for girls. She is a skilled pitcher and a strong student but struggles with insecurity in this new and often hostile environment with too much media attention. Her Gold Star family aren't into sports, but they try to be supportive. Her father was a baseball fan who died while serving in the National Guard. It was nice to see a military family in a YA novel, and the author does a fine job of capturing how that background would shape character.

I also appreciated how the author included several diverse characters who broke stereotypes. Most of the Hispanic teammates struggle with English, but one is fluent and wealthy. The smartest member of her team is an African American on his way to medical school. Jill is white but speaks Spanish and tries to learn Japanese to make her teammates feel welcome. Although sexual attraction creates issues, the central relationships are friends and family. Her high school friends (one is gay and the other is disabled) keep in touch via text. Jill often regrets her choice not to go to college, but she keeps trying her best. Some of the most touching scenes were when Jill acted out like a normal teen and faced worse consequences.

I enjoyed the book from the engaging opening to the satisfying ending, but fewer details about food and minor characters would have sped the pace (432 pages is long for YA). I wondered why Jill didn't defer her acceptance to Stanford for a year so that she'd have a backup if pro ball wasn't a good fit for her. Then again, an all-or-nothing set up makes for higher stakes! A Season of Daring Greatly would make a fine holiday gift for a sports fan of any age. I loved the cover art too.

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@Barrie Summy

Good Books About Refugees: Tropical Zion, The Good Braider and Out of Nowhere

Last week's terrorist attacks in Beirut and Paris should raise - not diminish - compassion for refugees. Now is not the time to close our borders against the Syrian refugees who are fleeing these very same terrorists. Most of the global victims of terrorism are Muslims. None of the 750,000 refugees who have resettled in the USA since 9/11 have been arrested on domestic terrorism charges (source: The Economist). The terrorists win twice if they can rob us of compassion along with lives. How can we reverse this rising wave of xenophobia?

Books can help increase empathy. I've chosen one historical book and two young adult novels that could be used in the classroom to help young people understand the plight of refugees. If you have other books to recommend, please leave a comment. I'd especially like one about Syrian refugees.

Some countries have learned from history. Germany is welcoming a million refugees, but the USA is only accepting 10,000. Our low quota reminds me of World War II when many Jews fleeing the Nazis were not allowed into the USA. My great grandfather Arthur Lamport and other American Jews raised funds to help Jewish refugees resettle in the Dominican Republic. That true story is told in Tropical Zion by Allen Wells (2009), a history professor at Bowdoin College.

Nonfiction has the facts, but reading literary fiction has been proven to increase empathy. In a good story, we experience what the characters are feeling. The Good Braider by Terry Farish (2012) is a romance between a South Sudanese refugee and an American boy. I don't usually like novels in verse, but this one spoke to me, especially the parts set in Africa. Farish's novel traces a girl's escape from civil war in Sudan to limbo in Egypt and finally to resettlement in Portland, Maine. My only concern was that the abusive mother might give young readers a warped impression of Sudanese immigrants; most have integrated well in Maine and are dedicated to their families. Understandably, wartime trauma can lead to psychological problems so the mother was a believable character.

Farish's novel touched me on a personal level. My children went to school in Portland with many immigrant children. My son's high school girlfriend was born in a Sudanese refugee camp in Kenya and resettled with her family in Portland. She graduated from Waynflete School with honors and is now attending Wesleyan University through Questbridge. We invited her family to share Thanksgiving in our home; it was their first after many years in the USA. Before you form an opinion on refugees, get to know one. Remember that the USA is a nation founded on immigration.

Another refugee story that is set close my home is Out of Nowhere by Maria Padian. This excellent young adult novel was inspired by true events in Lewiston, Maine. The book was released in 2013 in hardcover and is now available in paperback. Soccer fans will love it. You can read my review here.

There are true stories about refugees with happy endings. The Lewiston Blue Devils have just won the Maine State Championship for soccer. Many of the players are immigrants. The coach shares their inspiring story about multicultural teamwork in a moving video below:




One Team: The Story of the Lewiston High School Blue Devils from LHSOneTeamFilm on Vimeo.

Reviewer's Disclosure: Allen Wells is a colleague of my husband at Bowdoin College and his wife taught our daughter history. My dad sent Tropical Zion to me without realizing that we knew the author. I'm friends with author Maria Padian and borrowed a galley for review purposes. I bought both young adult novels from indie bookstores and was not compensated for my reviews.

A Winter Walk on Skis

The bright side of winter: no leaves means more sunshine in the woods!

In Maine winter lasts well through March. Walking is challenging in deep snow or on icy sidewalks. My advice to newcomers is to find a winter sport. You need to embrace winter, not hide from it.

If you can't walk out the back door, try snowshoeing or cross-country skiing.

My children grew up skiing behind me as soon as they could walk. My daughter is captain of her school's Nordic Ski Team and my son has joined the Nordic Club at college. Now I struggle to keep up with them!

It's the best way "to walk" the dog.

We're lucky to live right off a wooded trail that circles Bowdoin College's playing fields. I'm often the first one out after a big storm. This year I got stiffer boots with more ankle support and wider backcountry skis to make it easier to cut the track. I apply Musher's Secret to protect Scout's paws. Snowball paw is no fun.

Young Scout is still learning the hazards of wandering off trail. 

I'm training Scout to run behind me without stepping on my ski tails. My command for getting out of a skier's way is "beep beep." We don't usually encounter that many on our morning outings. The trail winds past two ponds, good for iceskating too. If there's enough snow cover, I can go 6 miles roundtrip through the town commons, only taking off my skis twice to cross roads.

On work days, I usually turn around at the first pond. We pause to listen to water flowing through the dam. I enjoy the peace and quiet of winter, the times of frozen solitude. As I ski, I plan out the chapter I'll write later that day. I don't drink coffee. The exercise wakes me up and gets my mind going.

At the end of the day, I warm up by the fire with a good book, Scout crashed out at my feet.

More Winter Walks at A Tidewater Gardener.
Do join us by posting a winter walk from your house.

Writing Backstitch

Simpsons Point, Brunswick at sunset

February has been a month of shoveling, skiing and writing. We've had three major storms and the piles are now higher than my head. January was frigid with very little snow. My work-in-progress was equally frozen for a month of revision, but now I'm writing new chapters. I've been writing at home or in a hotel room while visiting colleges with my 16-year-old daughter. The word count fluctuates daily.

I feel like I'm writing in backstitch, moving two words forward and one word back. One day I'll draft a new scene, and then the next day I'll rewrite it. Sometimes I go back to previous scenes to weave in backstory and foreshadowing or to mend plot holes. Other days I shuffle scenes.

Before I start writing a novel, I know the beginning, the ending and a few major plot points, but I don't outline the first draft. I enjoy the spontaneity of discovery as I write. If I can't surprise myself, how will I surprise the reader?

My non-linear writing style works well with Scrivener since you compose in scenes that are easy to shuffle around as virtual index cards on a cork board. I keep track of characters on other index cards. Scenes get organized into chapter folders. There are some features I can't figure out, like how to check where a scene is in the total word count. I expect the novel writing software to be the most useful for revising future drafts. Now to ski before an ice storm ruins the snow.


Olympic Watch: the gold medal ice dance of Meryl Davis and Charlie White 2/17/14

Out of Nowhere by Maria Padian

Out of Nowhere by Maria Padian tackles the issue of post 9/11 prejudice toward Muslims in America. In this soon to be released young adult novel, Somali war refugees are pouring into Enniston, Maine. This working class town can barely house the impoverished families let alone educate the shell-shocked children, who barely speak English. Ethnic tensions flair when the mayor makes a plea in the newspaper to discourage Somalis from inviting more family members and friends to her overwhelmed community.

As the teenaged protagonist reflects, "You gotta wonder who the genius was that came up with the plan to put a bunch of Africans in Maine, the coldest, whitest state in America."

For Tom the issue becomes personal when a legal challenge is made to block Somalis from playing varsity soccer. His team's best player, Saeed, is Enniston's only hope for beating their rich, entitled rivals from Maquoit. Other problems ensue when the fasting month of Ramadan falls in soccer season and also when Tom is made to do 100 hours of community service tutoring Somalis after he vandalizes Maquoit High School. As Tom struggles to understand a foreign culture, he begins questioning his own values and those of his family, friends, girlfriend and neighbors.

All the characters were well developed and multi-dimensional, with the sole exception of Tom's girlfriend, Cherisse. I couldn't believe that a smart, empathetic boy like Tom would date a mean girl only because she was hot, but then again, I'm not a teenaged boy. Myla (a college student) and Samira (Saeed's smart sister), who volunteer with Tom, were more compelling female characters. Tom's Franco-Maine family was also well portrayed. The writing was pitch perfect for teens:

"He [Saeed] pronounced each word hesitantly. As if it were a new food he was tasting for the first time." 

"The other two guys? I didn't know them, but word from Ismail was that they were dipshits, too. So what we all knew was that the fight on the bus had nothing to do with race or religion. It was pure asshole-ness. Of course 'Assholes Fight' is not a newspaper-selling headline in the post-9/11 world. 'Ethnic Tensions Flare' sure is." 

"You know, Captain, outside of your family I doubt anyone much cares where or whether you go to college," Myla continued. "But as a healthy, smart white male growing up in one of the safest, most prosperous countries in the world, you know what? You have a moral obligation to do something worthwhile with your life and not be an asshole. Just sayin.'"

Some readers might be put off by the swearing and underaged drinking in the opening pages, but this book is deeply grounded in morality and in religion, both Islamic and Catholic. There are consequences to reckless behavior, and the characters eventually learn from their mistakes. Some problems, however, are less easily resolved, reflecting the real world.

The Somali diaspora and a mayor's plea in the local newspaper happend for real in Lewiston, Maine back in 2002. Author Maria Padian, who has a background in journalism as well as in young adult fiction, spent weeks in Lewiston and in Portland getting to know Somali families and the community volunteers. In the real world, Maine is making progress. Somali students at my children's school are well integrated and are thriving in a tolerant, supportive atmosphere.

I read Out of Nowhere in 24 hours; it was that hard to put down. The story was richly textured and beautifully rendered. Here is real Maine, not "vacationland." I'd strongly recommend this book to teens as well as to adults. The complex themes would make for fascinating classroom and book group discussions about race, religion, immigration and class differences. It teaches toleration without sounding preachy.

Out of Nowhere will be reviewed in The New York Times Books section this coming weekend. The book and ebook will be released next week on February 13th, 2013.

Disclosure: Maria Padian is a friend, and I borrowed an ARC for review on my request. I'll be buying a hardcopy at our town's independent bookstore. Brava, Maria!

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@Barrie Summy

Stealing Bases by Keri Mikulski and More Good Gift Books

Scout at Sunset, photo by my husband on Thanksgiving

From the books that I’ve reviewed this past year, I’ve compiled a list of novels that would appeal to a wide audience and are fun to read.  These aren't necessarily my absolute favorite books, but the ones that would make good holiday gifts.

Literary Fiction
The Tiger’s Wife by Tea Obreht
The Housekeeper and the Professor by Yoko Ogawa

Commercial Fiction
An Object of Beauty by Steve Martin

Classic
A Room with a View by E. M. Forster

Dystopia
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro

Award winning Young Adult Fiction (ages 14 and up)
Jellicoe Road by Melina Marchetta
Looking for Alaska by John Green (my 17-year-old son recommends)

Tween Girls and Reluctant Teen Readers (ages 10 and up)
Beauty Queens by Libba Bray (my 14-year-old daughter recommends)
Stealing Bases by Keri Mikulski (reviewed below)

If the name Keri Mikulski sounds familiar, it’s because she’s part of our Book Review Club. Earlier this year, I interviewed Keri and reviewed her first young adult novel in the Pretty Tough series. Head Games featured Taylor, a sweet basketball player who was victimized by a jealous girlfriend. Stealing Bases, the next book in the series, follows the “reformed” bad girl, Kylie, into softball season. I bought this paperback book for my collection of sporty teen girl novels.

Kylie is trying very hard to control her legendary temper, but her parents’ divorce and the loss of her starting spot on the varsity softball team push her over the edge. Her hardships explain her behavior without excusing it. Our unreliable narrator spins out of control, but we can’t help feeling sympathetic. It’s also bad fun seeing the world from a snarky girl’s point of view. The one disappointment was Kylie’s complete transformation; it seemed out of character. The lesson of good sportsmanship is, nonetheless, an important one.

Keri writes so well about sports and speaks to teens in their own language. Her girls play hard and get dolled up for prom. In the Pretty Tough series being athletic is both feminine and attractive. It’s wonderful to have easy-to-read books for girls in which sports and friendship take precedence over romance. Keri Mikulski hits a home run with Stealing Bases. The next two books in the series, Making Waves and Fifteen Love, are due to be published in 2012.

Do you have more gift book suggestions? List them in a comment or blog about them in the next 2 weeks, and I'll link to you from this updated post.  Also check out my links below.  The Book Review Club always has great suggestions.  Read on!

1. From The House of Edward listed Christmas classics, old and new.
2. The Education of a Pulp Writer listed Patti Abbott from our book review club.

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@Barrie Summy

My biggest fear

. . . after hairy spiders, was deep water. My earliest memory of swim class was having my head pushed under water for “ring around the rosie.” At day camp, a few years later, all my friends were diving “dolphins” while I was still stuck in the shallow end with the “goldfish.”

By age 19, I had not lost my fear of deep water or my longing to swim with the dolphins. I braved swimming lessons at college and registered for a School for Field Studies course on Dolphin Biology and Behavior in the Gulf of Mexico. My job was photographing dorsal fins, developing the film and drawing up ID cards by hand. I spent many happy hours aboard a small Zodiac marveling at those playful and intelligent creatures. The one time I swam with my beloved dolphins, though, I got stung by an enormous jellyfish and passed out. Tiger sharks kept us out of the water other days. I got seasick, sun burnt and bitten by fire ants. One of our teachers worked as a caterer to make ends meet. Maybe marine biology wasn't the career for me.

Splash ahead two decades and several careers, and here I am painting seaside landscapes and writing novels in coastal Maine. Before sitting down to write, I often swim laps. The pool is a sensory deprivation tank. All I can think about is that day’s writing. The physical exertion gets my brain going and makes it easier to sit still for hours afterwards.

One morning in the Bowdoin College pool, I discovered a class for adults. The Bowdoin swim coach was offering free lessons to the campus community. There were two triathlon athletes who wanted to improve their swim times and a woman who had nearly drowned at age 12. The coach’s comment to me: “At least you’re getting a good work out swimming that inefficiently.”

Sagahadoc Bay by Sarah Laurence

Do you get breathless while swimming the crawl/freestyle?

Like me, you’re probably holding onto your air and not exhaling properly. Every time you take a breath, you’re exhaling as well as inhaling. You end up with a backlog of old air, and the carbon dioxide builds up in your lungs. To break this bad habit, my coach has me exhale all my air above water and then sit at the bottom of the pool. While swimming, I focus on exhaling the entire time my head is in the water. When I take a breath, I try to inhale only.

More freestyle tips:

1. Don’t break your line. To inhale, rotate and barely lift your head. One eye remains under water.

2. Don’t swim flat on the water. Rotate your entire body from side to side with every stroke. Lead the pivot with your hips. There will be less drag.

3. Don’t rotate your arms around your shoulders like a windmill.  Shorten your arm stroke. Your hands should come no lower than your waist. Pull forward from your core like in rock climbing. 80% of the power comes from the arms, not from the legs, in freestyle.

4. Kick from your abs and glutes, not your quads. Flutter your legs quickly but with little motion under water.

I may not be a dolphin, but I’m finally able to enjoy swimming. The experience reminded me of what it’s like being a teenager: facing fears, jumping in and struggling to master a new skill. As adults, we too often get stuck treading water.

Disclosure: these tips are what I drew from my lessons and are not the Bowdoin swim coach's exact words. Both watercolors are by me. The top one is of the Giant Stairway rock formation on Bailey Island, painted after a hurricane.

Blog Watch:  Congratulations to Troutbirder for a story published in Minnesota Birding. Travels with Persephone is posting from South America on vacation. YA Highway had some good revision tips, including changing the font.

Jersey Tomatoes are the Best by Maria Padian: mom and daughter review & interview

Don’t let the title put you off: Jersey Tomatoes Are The Best is not about gardening or Snookie. The “Tomatoes” are talented Jersey gals like the author, my friend Maria Padian. Eva attends ballet camp in NYC, and Henry (don’t call her Henriette!) travels to Florida to be coached for junior-circuit tennis. They narrate in alternating chapters with distinct voices, keeping connected via cell phone. Pushy parents, rival peers and demanding schedules plague them to varying extents. This newly released young adult novel shows the sacrifices that come from seeking perfection, especially at a young age.

Henry’s story could stand on its own. My favorite character was her roommate, Yoly, who introduces Henry to Cuban American culture. Tennis superstar David adds romance and shows us the glamorous world of pro tennis. Henry’s nightmare sideline dad-coach provides comic relief. Interestingly, Maria originally intended for Tomatoes to be just Henry’s story.

It was a later decision to break the narrative in half to give Eva her own voice, or rather voices. Maria’s teenaged daughter made this excellent suggestion. Eva’s tale is more inward than Henry’s; it follows the emotional arc into mental illness. The main secondary character in Eva’s story is her horrible inner voice, who tells her she's fat and ugly. Her struggle with anorexia is heart rending due to its realism.

The triumph of Tomatoes is that anorexia does not consume the character. Eva is more than her disease; she’s a talented dancer and a good friend. It was also easier to read about her downward spiral because Henry’s sunny story balanced the darkness. Henry models a healthy attitude toward diet and exercise . . . and she looks like a Victoria Secret model. Good message!

Tomatoes would be an excellent book to share with your children or students for a discussion on body image. My beautiful 13-year-old daughter is both a dancer (shadow photos) and an athlete. She is also a healthy eater with a big appetite for young adult fiction. 

My teenaged daughter's review:

Jersey Tomatoes Are the Best definitely deserves a spot on my bookshelf. There is friendship, horror, romance and humor.  The book is an eye-opener, and I enjoyed the two narrators. Although their parts are drastically different, I thought they counter-parted each other very nicely. Henry’s chapters were light, fun and comical, while Eva’s were very deep, disturbing, passionate, and at times repulsive. Eva’s chapters definitely kept me on the edge of my seat, and they were very different than anything I’ve read before.

Though frightening, I thought Eva’s storyline was real. So many girls out there have eating disorders, but not many people talk about it. This book showed the horrors of anorexia and the true-to-the-bone feelings of Eva, which I thought was very fascinating, riveting and added an edge to the book. Tomatoes is a gripping story of two friends who are always there for each other through the best and the worst. It is a definite must-read.

Our Interview of Maria Padian

Author Maria Padian by Betsy Evans, her tennis teammate.

What’s the story behind your title?

Maria: the title is from a T-shirt I owned when I was young. It’s a play on words, since tomato is slang for girl. So that T-shirt and yes, my title, essentially say Jersey Girls Are the Best. It’s the mantra for my main characters, two teens who feel a tad defensive about being from New Jersey.

But while the setting and the background noise of the novel is largely New Jersey, the book is not about Jersey. Henry and Eva are talented kids facing extraordinary pressures, and the novel is about battling your demons, making healthy, life-affirming choices, and taking ownership of your future.

How did you get from New Jersey to Maine? 

I fell in love with New England when I attended college in Vermont, so while I lived and worked in the south for a while (Virginia, Georgia, Washington D.C.) I always hoped to “settle” north. Maine’s wonderful hiking, canoeing, skiing and camping drew my husband and me to the state, so 20 years ago we found work here and put down roots.

Those woods at left are where Maria and I often meet for walks to talk about books and writing.  Yep, that's what Maine looks like in early March.

How did you research anorexia and what made you write about it?

I have never struggled with an eating disorder myself; however, through high school, college and into my adult years I have known friends and family members who have struggled with eating disorders. They, along with professionals, have shared their stories and insights with me. I have been inside treatment centers and attended counseling sessions. I have wept with anguished parents who fear their daughters will die. I have been brought to my knees, watching helplessly as someone I care for disappears behind the veil of irrationality which is anorexia.

Despite all that is known about this illness and all the strides we have made in combating it, I have been bewildered by our ability to bear witness yet say nothing. Young people skip meals, become achingly thin, retreat from their friends and the rest of the world, and we say … nothing. We claim that we want to “respect their privacy.” We don’t want to “assume.” This situation, which must change, fueled my desire to tell Eva’s story.

The world of junior tennis and of pre-professional ballet in Tomatoes felt very real and detailed. What’s your background in those fields or was it researched?

I play tennis, and still play competitively, although not nearly at Henry’s level! As a result, writing the tennis scenes was easy for me. I also had an opportunity to tour the Evert Tennis Academy in Florida, and speak with a representative there about the work they do with young players. Evert makes a real commitment to helping players maintain a good balance in their lives and stay healthy.

The ballet sections took some real work, because I don’t dance and have never taken a single ballet class. I relied heavily on interviewing young dancers, reading books about ballet, combing through autobiographies of my favorite dancers, and even watching ballet how-to videos. I once tried standing en pointe in some borrowed slippers. That lasted about one excruciating second! Luckily, I’m a big ballet fan so getting up to speed on the dance sections was a real labor of love.

What was the inspiration for the Cuban American character, Yoly?

The inspiration for Yoly came from two places: first, my mother. My mom is Latina and like Yoly, when she speaks Spanish she is one person; when she speaks English she is another. It's something you've got to see to believe! My second inspiration came from visiting Calle Ocho in Miami's "Little Havana" and eating some pretty amazing Cuban food. I grew up eating my mom's arroz con pollo, but it was nothing compared to the roast pork and black beans I found on Calle Ocho. I couldn't resist putting that pork in Tomatoes!

Do you think “write what you know” is good advice?

Write what you know is emotionally true. Write from the place where you can relate to the characters and the situation. For example, I can’t dance. But I do know about performing. I was a classical pianist for many years, and as a teen actually prepared for a piano competition at New York’s Carnegie Hall. I believe that experience enabled me to write Eva’s sections of the book.

That's a yearbook photo of me at age sixteen (at left) near the age of my main characters.  I had just returned from a week at the Jersey Shore . . . that's where I got those pooka beads.

Can you tell us about your next young adult novel?

It’s set in Lewiston, Maine, and the narrator is a 17-year-old boy who befriends a Somali immigrant who plays on his soccer team. Lewiston is a predominantly white, Catholic, Franco, former mill town, which has seen a huge migration of refugees from Somalia and other nations over the last decade.

This is the first time I’ve written from a male point of view, and the first time I’ve set a fictional tale in a real place, against the background of actual events. I feel tremendous pressure to get this “right,” especially because I have been so moved and inspired by the amazing people I’ve met in Lewiston, especially the teenagers. The projected publication date is fall 2012.

Tomatoes' release date: March 8, 2011. Thanks for joining us today, Maria!

More Young Adult Novels on Anorexia:

I’d also recommend two other well-written novels about eating disorders. In Just Listen (2008) by Sarah Dessen the protagonist’s sister is an anorexic model. Dessen does a great job in engaging the reluctant reader, but the eating disorder plot is secondary. Winter Girls (2010) by Laurie Halse Anderson is more grimly realistic and focused, but the protagonist is anorexia, not the girl. "I am the space between my thighs," says Lia. The haunting images of this exquisitely crafted novel terrified me. In both of these books, however, I never got a sense of the characters beyond their afflictions. Eva in Tomatoes felt more real.

Disclosure: I borrowed the Tomatoes ARC from Maria at my request.  I will be buying a finished copy for us.  I also reviewed Maria's debut Brett McCarthy: Work in Progress. The Roseate Spoonbill birds and Alligator photos were taken by Maria in Florida. I borrowed Wintergirls from Maria and bought Just Listen myself. No free products were received for these reviews.

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@Barrie Summy

Baby Watch: congratulations to Denise and David @ The Education of a Pulp Writer on the birth of their first child! Their daughter is called Ava, which is also how you pronounce Eva, one of the MC’s of Tomatoes.

Head Games by Keri Mikulski: review, interview and sporty girl books

photo of author Keri Mikulski by Justin Mikulski, her husband

Title IX of the Education Amendment of 1972 banned the exclusion of students from programs or activities on the basis of gender in American schools. This progressive law has allowed girls’ teams to flourish at public high schools. Nonetheless, most teenaged sports books are written for boys, even though nearly as many girls play sports. It's time to address the lacuna.

In 2007 Razorbill (Penguin) started publishing the Pretty Tough series about girls who play sports. Liz Tigelaar wrote the first two novels about soccer and football. Young adult author Keri Mikulski has picked up the ball for the next four books in the series. If the name sounds familiar, it’s because Keri is a member of our book review club. Her publisher sent me an ARC to review on my request.

Head Games by Keri Mikulski is a sweet basketball romance. Taylor is a six-foot-tall (and still growing!) freshman. Her phenomenal basketball skills have earned her the center position on the girls varsity basketball team. However, her height is “a serious boyfriend handicap” off court. Playing Seven Minutes in the Closet, Taylor is humiliated when a shorter boy chooses to watch the clock on his phone instead of kissing her.

Only the boys basketball center is tall enough to look her in the eye, but unfortunately gorgeous Zach is dating her teammate Kylie. Team dynamics are shattered when Zach dumps Kylie and starts shooting hoops with Taylor. Adding to the stress, Taylor’s best friend needs her to play fashion model for a designer competition. A self-described “people pleaser” and klutz, Taylor has to learn how to be more assertive and self-confident off the court.

“No one has ever called me ‘hot’ before. Except maybe my mom when I’m sick.”

The romantic shenanigans were amusing, but I was a bit bothered by how romance ruined the girls’ game but not the boys’ game. Still, in the context of this story, it made sense, and the main character certainly took sports seriously. Taylor is a sweetheart who would make a fine role model for tween girls.

Head Games is a quick and easy read, but you had better know your Gossip Girl and teen pop culture to get all the references. Facebook takes a lot of court time too. This fun and engaging novel would appeal to reluctant readers and to sporty girls ages 10-14 years. Even a non-basketball player like me (I’m 5 foot 3 inches) could understand the plays and appreciate the drama. Keri Mikulski is on top of her game. Head Games will be released tomorrow on January 6th, 2011 in the USA. Congratulations, Keri!

From Keri's Bio Page:

"From as far back as I can remember, I’ve always loved sports and books. However, as a teen and tween, I fell out of love with reading. For years I never picked up books for pleasure because I couldn’t relate to the main characters. They weren’t like me. They didn’t play sports.

"Then, decades later, I witnessed many of my sporty middle school students also morph into reluctant readers. As soon as I began writing professionally, I set out to write the books to reach this audience. And here I am – living my dream."

My Interview of Keri Mikulski

Keri Mikulski (center) in her high school yearbook

Sarah: how did you end up taking over the Pretty Tough series from another author?

Keri: About three years ago, I began writing web articles for the Pretty Tough website. While writing for Pretty Tough, the brand read Screwball, asked me if I had written any other sporty books, and requested to read my work in progress. At the time, I was working on FULL COURT PRESS (which is now Head Games). I sent Pretty Tough FULL COURT PRESS and they loved it! Immediately, Pretty Tough asked me if I would be interested in writing novels for the brand. Since I absolutely adored the first two novels (written by the amazing Liz Tigelaar, executive producer of Life Interrupted), I accepted the offer and we began the process of attempting to sell the series again with Head Games through my agent.

Has this constrained your writing?

Not at all! ☺ I LOVE writing sporty books and I was honored to continue the series after Liz did such an excellent job with the first two novels. Since it’s been four years since the first two books were published (the original characters sadly graduated from Beachwood Academy), the only two elements that stayed the same are the setting and one character.

How did you research the California setting and the techno-savvy habits of contemporary teenagers?

I emerged myself in California. I viewed, read, and studied everything I could get my hands on about Los Angeles. I connected with friends who live in California, spent a lot of time on the phone with Pretty Tough asking detailed questions, and I’m on my way to Los Angeles this spring. ☺

Since I’m a teacher, I spend a TON of time with teens and tweens. I have a front row seat to their technology habits. Technology has drastically changed the way teens and tweens communicate with each other and I find the subject both fascinating and scary.

The photo booth picture is of my best friend (right) and me at the same age as my protagonist.

Ha! Classic.  Were you a teen athlete like your protagonist?

Yes! I LOVE sports. I played basketball, softball, and soccer, earned ten varsity letters as a senior, and served as captain to all three sports.  In the photo below I'm #40, grabbing the rebound during my junior year (from my yearbook.)

How tall are you?

I’m five foot eight inches tall. ☺

Are you still involved with sports now?

When I’m not writing or on deadline, I love, love, love to play sports. When I can, I participate in adult soccer and softball leagues, but my favorite sporty times are with my daughter and hubby.

How do you balance career and family?

Basically, I live by this rule. When I’m with my daughter, I’m with my daughter. When I’m teaching, I’m teaching. When I’m writing, I’m writing. I try to write around her schedule – write at night and in the morning.

What’s the best writing advice you’ve received?

Actually, there are two pieces of advice I consistently refer to. A well-known author once told me, "You can only control your writing." In other words, you can’t control your sales, publicity, and/or the publishing business. And another fabulous author told me to "Write Because You Have To." I love this piece of advice because it reminds me everyday that without writing I’m not balanced. ☺

Can you give us a sneak preview of the next three books in the Pretty Tough series? 

Absolutely! I’m super excited about the series. ☺ Each Pretty Tough book will follow a different athlete from Beachwood High School. The next book, Stealing Bases follows the ‘mean girl’ and softball superstar in Head Games, Kylie Collins. But, after writing the book, I love her now! ☺

Here’s the back cover of Stealing Bases:

Reformed mean girl Kylie Collins desperately wants to put the craziness of basketball season behind her and concentrate on her lifelong dream – being recruited for Division One softball. She also wants to move on from her cheater ex, Zachary Murphy, which isn’t exactly easy when Kylie’s living in his backyard guesthouse with her father after her parent’s divorce.

But when Kylie arrives at her first softball practice of the season she comes face-to-face with her worst nightmare – Amber McDonald, the best pitcher in the state.

Now, Kylie’s forced to warm the bench as Amber wows crowds again and again. With all the drama happening out on the softball diamond, Kylie finds herself drawn back to her bad habits – sabotaging people and hanging out with a certain Zachary Murphy.

I’m currently writing Book 5. All I can divulge at this point is that it’s about a lifeguard. ☺

When are the other books due out?

Stealing Bases will hit bookstores on July 7, 2011. Book 5 and 6 will hit bookstores in 2012.

Thanks for having me, Sarah! ☺ Happy New Year!

Thanks, Keri, I'm looking forward to Stealing Bases.

Book Blog Watch: I’m not the only blogger who has noticed the dearth of sporty books for girls. Steph Su Reads included athletes in her list of “What’s Missing in YA Lit?” Reading in Color called for a protagonist “To be Young, Athletic and a PoC.”  She goes on to list several sporty books featuring People of Color, beyond African Americans playing basketball.

Blog readers, do you have any book recommendations about teenaged girls playing sports? My work in progress, A MATCH FOR EVE, is about an American softball player who goes to England to play cricket. I could also do with some cricket book (boy or girl) recommendations.

Happy New Year!

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@Barrie Summy

Google a Googly

Oxford University Parks Cricket Pavillion

I've had a lot of questions about the novel that I’ve just started writing, NOT CRICKET (renamed A MATCH FOR EVE). The first question was: how can an American woman write a book on cricket?

I’m not really writing a book on cricket (it is NOT CRICKET.) My novel is about two generations of American women at Oxford University for junior year abroad. Cricket is popular world wide and ever so charmingly English, but Americans just don’t get it. What a perfect metaphor for the cultural divide!

I love to play around with words. The expression “that’s not cricket” means not playing by the rules of gentlemanly conduct, and my novel revolves around a moral dilemma. The central male character is captain of his college cricket team at Oxford.

The rules of cricket are way too complex to explain in a novel. The last thing I want to do is bore the reader who is looking for a good story or the cricket expert who already knows more than I do.

There will be some cricket in the narrative, but on the level that even an American woman would find interesting. Guys look awfully good in cricket whites, and then there are the champagne and strawberries.

Since its inception in 1787, cricket has evolved. Back in the 1980’s (the first time period of my novel) college and university teams would have played in cricket whites. In the 2000’s (the second period of my novel) the lads are sporting bright colored nylon and spandex: pink, black and red!

Cricket reds? It just doesn’t ring true. The same was so for the Oxford vs. Cambridge Universities match in shades of blue nylon. It’s a mirror of cultural convergence, but the differences remain below the surface.

Cricket is good fun to watch on a sunny summer day. I’d have watched more matches only it was the rainiest spring/summer ever, or so people said. The English always say the weather is worse than normal. Games get rained out all the time. Can you imagine keeping those cricket whites white?

I like the college matches (like intramural sports) because they are played fast in just a couple of hours. A professional cricket match can last days. Yes, days. Five days is normal. Can you believe it?

So how did I become interested in cricket? When I was 15 my family visited England. My father had gone to business school with Sir T. We were invited to a cricket match at their sons’ school. We sipped champagne and nibbled strawberries while one handsome son in his whites tried to explain the game as his older brother played. The son was also an avid reader, and we had a fun conversation about literature. Another day we toured around gorgeous Oxford University.

My mother claims I imprinted on Englishmen that vacation like one of Konrad Lorenz’s goslings. Six years later at college I fell madly in love. That would be with my English husband Henry, an avid cricket fan.

We have a cricket bat in our umbrella stand. Maybe that’s not so strange, but the umbrella stand is in a mudroom in Maine, USA. The practice came in handy during our two sabbaticals in the U.K. Our daughter is quite good at cricket, even by English standards. She played during P.E. at her state school when we were living in Oxford last year.

My son’s wood-working project at the Abingdon School was to make a cricket ball carrier. His model was the fastest and built with the least expensive material. It ran on rubber band power. How’s that for Yankee ingenuity?

Henry’s great grandfather, Stephen Wildman Cattley, played professional cricket for Surrey. Stephen’s claim to fame was once catching out the cricket legend W.G. Grace. The heirloom ball was engraved for Stephen’s skill in the 1879 match against Kent. Stephen’s brother also played for Surrey.

Henry bought me a good short book What is a Googly? Rob Eastaway specifically wrote the book for his confused American friends or for “cricket widows” (ie clueless wives of cricket players.) It has become my well-underlined manual.

Cricket is full of odd terms, one of which is the googly. Eastaway defines it as “a ‘trick’ ball bowled by a leg spin bowler which spins the opposite way to the way the batsman is expecting.” Huh? That one I needed to see demonstrated by Henry. Bottom line: it’s a tricky ball to hit.

Actually all cricket balls are hard to hit: the ball is hard, bowled fast and bounces unpredictably on the grass. Even worse, the fieldsmen catch it bare-handed. The game requires nerve, skill and bravery. Aren’t you a little hooked?

I’m not the first one to recognize the symbolic beauty of cricket in representing the gap between Americans and cricket-playing nations. Joseph O’Neill’s Netherland looks at the opposite situation of my narrative. His book centers on immigrant men playing cricket in the USA. His protagonist, Hans, have moved to NYC from London and is the only white man playing cricket that season.

The cricket in Netherland is used metaphorically to demonstrate the sense of being “the other.” Chuck Ramkissoon from Trinadad umpires cricket matches on Staten Island (NYC), “You want a taste of how it feels to be a black man in this country? Put on the white clothes of the cricketeer. Put on white to feel black.”

The novel takes place in the months after 9/11 and centers on disillusionment. Although events in Netherland are contemporary, the language and structure O’Neill employs to tell his story draw more from late 19th century literature. The prose is beautiful if wordy, and the plot is as convoluted as a Henry James novel.

I’m a native New Yorker, and still O’Neill, an immigrant himself, revealed a side of my city I never knew existed. I was surprised to find another novel connecting Americans to cricket since I started researching mine over a year ago. Released in May 2008, Netherland has sold well on both sides of the Atlantic, hitting the NYT bestseller list. Americans can be interested in cricket if the story is good.

Anyway, don’t take just my word for it. Here’s my husband Henry on Netherland:

Netherland, I should admit up front, is almost written for me, with the plot revolving around a European banker who moves from London to New York and loves cricket. O’Neill captures many of the sentiments, new joys and estrangements that I’m familiar with. What makes the book special, though, is the use of cricket to explore ideas of belonging, identity and nationhood.

The transplant Hans looks back proudly at his boyhood skills as a batsman. But the elegant ground shots which worked so well on manicured European pitches quickly come to grief in the tangled weeds of derelict New York outfields. Yet he can’t quite bring himself to slog the ball high on the volley -- a scything batting style dismissed by English commentators as “haymaking” -- even as he realises his old approach is failing him in the New World. His resolution of this dilemma is one of the more enjoyable high points.

Meanwhile, Chuck Ramkissoon is determined that he will make Americans accept cricket rather than abandon cricket to be accepted by Americans. From his insistence that cricket has a longer American heritage than baseball to his dream of creating a first-class stadium in the city, it’s a glorious conceit - part Gatsby, part Ahab - and O’Neill makes you hope and believe that Chuck will pull it off.

I loved Netherland, although I should warn you that reading it is at times like watching Yorkshire batting great Geoffrey Boycott defending a difficult wicket: you know there’s a master craftsman at work, but does it have to be so SLOW?

Anyway, it’s great for ex-pat cricket fans like me and my good friend Michael, seen here in Maine fascinating each other but boring our friends on the vital topic of whether England or the West Indies suck worse.

Blog Watch: Anil P. is a cricket fan so we’ve been thinking about him today. Visit Windy Skies where Anil blogged about the terrible floods and famine in his part of India.

Oxford Eights Week

Apologies once again to Sarah’s regular readers! This is Henry, reporting (almost) live from the towpath during Oxford “Eights Week.”

This is the inter-college rowing regatta: 150 crews from the 35 different colleges race each other over 4 days, while a vastly greater number come to watch and/or drink. It’s the only event in the English social calendar to combine speed racing with a full-contact combat sport.

The details are way too complicated to explain here, so you can read about them here. Like so many other Oxford institutions, the rules have evolved bit-by-bit since the 1840s, seemingly designed to be utterly impenetrable to outsiders.

Crews race in line 1 1/2 boat-lengths apart, and the goal is to catch up to the boat ahead of you and hit it (hence “bumps” racing). Contact should be light, but this isn’t always possible at ramming speed. When contact has been acknowledged (the losing cox raising a graceful hand in surrender) both boats stop racing, and swap starting positions the next day.

Curiously, the combination of highly un-maneuverable boats, inexperienced coxes, high speeds and confined spaces doesn’t always end well. Here in the foreground black has bumped the red, so both have stopped, but the crews behind are still racing.

Seconds later, the race is unexpectedly over for everyone in a seven-boat pile-up:

Starting positions are initially determined by where your crew finished last year. Crews which “bump up” on all four days, or who achieve the top spot - “Head of the River” - earn the right to embellish an old oar with the names and deeds of the crew. So the races enshrine tradition, generate their own history, and entrench existing hierarchies all at once. Exactly like the rest of Oxford then…

You can see how the fortunes of different crews wax and wane over the decades with this bumps chart. As you can see, Oriel have dominated the event since the 1970s. Cynicism aside, my former crewmate Bruce and I got a kick watching the Oriel 2nd Eight bump up, musing that our fine performances all those years ago had had a direct, albeit distant, influence on the fortunes of the current crew.

None of these lads were even born last time we raced in the blue and white– back when “Tainted Love” was a song by Soft Cell rather than the Pussy Cat Dolls.

It was great to get back to Oriel and find the traditions alive and well. Great for me, that is. Not so much for the luckless undergraduates I found there. They were subjected to a mind-numbing series of dull stories beginning “Back in my day….” How much do you hate the sad, pathetic old timer who won’t let go? Well, that was me.

First stop was the dorm-room (as the Americans would say) traditionally inhabited by the year’s Captain of Boats. In it are accumulated all the blades, trophies and memorabilia of 30 years of Rowing Dominance. The current occupant was absolutely charming, even though he had a vital race in a few hours and vital exams in a few days. He graciously took time to show us around and even more graciously refrained from beaning me with an oar-handle as I launched into yet another tedious anecdote.

…finally I caught sight of this, all that remains of the Hardy Norseman, the boat in which I learned to cox. At the time it was cutting-edge technology; now it’s a museum-piece. There’s a message there somewhere…

The rest of the boat, I’m guessing, was burned on the paving stones of First Quad after a black-tie “Bump Supper,” historically convened for all the crews of the Head of the River College. At the conclusion of a long, rowdy meal (each crew had its own song and long-winded toasts and congratulations were always in order) we would torch the wooden shell and, linking arms, jump through the flames.

FANTASTIC fun. But then someone’s dress caught fire, and the Department of Health and Safety probably concluded, after a long investigation, that having a hundred drunken teenagers jumping in and out of a blazing fire was neither Healthy nor Safe. Go figure.

Instead, I gather, there is a more sedate dinner in our splendid Dining Hall.

That’s old boy Sir Walter Raleigh looking on, no doubt contemplating a bit of swashbuckling or getting it on with Cate Blanchett.

If the room, the Hall, or the boat-burning seem familiar, it’s because they appear in the cinematic classic Oxford Blues featuring Rob Lowe as the brash go-it-alone Yank who joins the Oriel Boat Club and learns the importance of teamwork and dating Ally Sheedy. Co-stars include Cary Elwes, Julian Sands, and the guy who played Batman’s butler. And me. I appear. As Myself. Patting Rob Lowe on the back after he has been beaten by Julian Sands in a sculling race. You’ll need a big screen, freeze-frame and a magnifying glass, but you can DEFINITELY make me out. Just.

Ah, the memories. But where, you ask, can I get a drink? In my thirst for knowledge, I checked out three boozers. The Head of the River has OK food, OK beer, and great deck overlooking the finish.

At the other end of the course is Iffley Lock.

Five minutes up the hill is a hidden gem: the Prince of Wales. Fantastic food, great beers and, astonishingly, the quintessential rowing cocktail Pimms on tap. Nice one.

Finally, the pub-formerly-known-as-the-Isis-Tavern on the towpath at the start-line is now the Isis Farmhouse, selling tea, coffee and cakes as well as some food. Sarah was not researching for this post, so she is on Elderflower Cordial. She only drinks on the job. Luckily co-researcher, medieval literature expert and keytar heart-throb Professor Aaron Kitch can attest to the mean half of lager. Cheers!