A Junior Library Guild Selection. OHazelgrove ("Rocket Man") measures out a generous sprinkling of American idealism while weaving in legitimate threads of sorrow, employing the oft-used baseball metaphor to fresh and moving effect.ON"Publishers Weekly."

HIGH-INTEREST, LOW-LEVEL: Reluctant readers will be engaged from beginning to end as they explore the responsibilities and skills of the pitcher in this 32-page nonfiction book. Side-by-side English and Spanish text and vivid, exciting photos show readers what it takes to fill this key position in baseball and softball. SPORTS BOOK FOR KIDS: Pitchers are team leaders. They train hard and must be smart with their throws. Just one pitch could win or lose the game! This book explores the pitcher position in baseball and softball and what makes a good pitcher great. INCLUDES: Readers will be hooked from beginning to end with facts and photos about some of the key positions in sports. Comprehension questions and activities support students, teachers, and parents. BENEFITS: This bilingual series supports reluctant readers with side-by-side English and Spanish text. Each book features stand-alone spreads, so readers can flip pages and read in any order. Glossary words are defined on the page where they appear, boosting reader comprehension. WHY ROURKE: Since 1980, we’ve been committed to bringing out the best non-fiction books to help you bring out the best in your young learners. Our carefully crafted topics encourage all students who are “learning to read” and “reading to learn"!

Ricky is a senior and all seems to be going well when Bailey Hutchinson moves in from Texas and has an almost hundred mile an hour fastball. Fernando comes back and demands money from Ricky when he hears MLB Scouts are interested in him. After a bad pitch hits him in the head he has to go back to throwing rocks with The Pitcher to find himself again.

“Undoubtedly modern America’s finest literary tribute to the baseball since Bernard Malamud’s novel The Natural” (Chicago Tribune). Henry Granville, a baseball fanatic and high school teacher, spends hours in the basement with his young son Danny, introducing him to balls of all shapes and sizes. He even turns the basement into an indoor stadium. Danny quickly distinguishes himself from his peers, most conspicuously by his ability to throw perfectly with either arm—a feat virtually unheard of in baseball. But he also possesses a visionary gift that not even he understands. Danny becomes a superior athlete, skyrocketing through the minor leagues and into the majors where he experiences immediate success, breaking records held for decades. When a journalist, a former student of Henry’s and hungry for a national breakout story, exaggerates the teacher’s obsession and exposes him to the world as a monster, all hell breaks loose and the pressures of media and celebrity threaten to disrupt the world that Henry and Danny have created. A baseball novel—and much more—The Man with Two Arms is a story of the ways in which we protect, betray, forgive, love, and shape each other as we attempt to find our way through life. “Magical realism meets baseball in [this] debut novel . . . [A] Roy Hobbs-like narrative.” —Chicago Magazine “Sings with joy and tragedy . . . An amazing debut, as a lyrical paean to the national pastime and as a touching exploration of the life of a boy becoming a man both blessed and burdened with a unique and extraordinary talent.” —Flagpole

The story of the remarkable 1968 baseball season. “Seldom does an era, and do sports personalities, come alive so vividly, and so unforgettably.” —The Boston Globe In 1968, two remarkable pitchers would dominate the game as well as the broadsheets. One was black, the other white. Bob Gibson, together with the St. Louis Cardinals, embodied an entire generation’s hope for integration at a heated moment in American history. Denny McLain, his adversary, was a crass self-promoter who eschewed the team charter and his Detroit Tigers teammates to zip cross-country in his own plane. For one season, the nation watched as these two men and their teams swept their respective league championships to meet at the World Series. Gibson set a major league record that year with a 1.12 ERA. McLain won more than 30 games in 1968, a feat not achieved since 1934 and untouched since. Together, the two have come to stand as iconic symbols, giving the fans “The Year of the Pitcher” and changing the game. Evoking a nostalgic season and its incredible characters, this is the story of one of the great rivalries in sports and an indelible portrait of the national pastime during a turbulent year—and the two men who electrified fans from all walks of life. “Explores so much more than the battle between two pitchers and their teams . . . A fine history of a vital period in the history of not only baseball, but America.” —Kirkus Reviews “A compelling tale of all that America was in the turbulent year of 1968, told through a (mostly) baseball prism.” —New York Post

Penny Porter is a fastpitch softball pitcher who learns lessons that not only apply to softball but also to life. This is an exciting, endearing story about a fastpitch softball pitcher with a big problem, a big secret, good friends, a new team, a mystery player, and a big game ahead!