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Summary
Summary
To Gwen summer means playing softball, spending every day with her best friend/cousin, Jess, and watching Fourth of July fireworks from the top floor of the Press Gazette building where her dad and his twin brother, Uncle Dave, both work. This summer sure isn't going as planned, though. The newspaper is on strike, and everybody in town seems to be taking a side. It's union versus management even within Gwen's softball team - and within her own family too. Uncle Dave is management; Dad is union. And once the battle lines have been drawn, they're almost impossible to erase. But Gwen insists on trying. After all, everything depends on it. Gwen's story is spiced with the fun of softball and sweetened by an endearing cast of characters, including Abe, the irresistible show-off, and Vicky, Gwen's ever-joking new friend. As she did in The Girls and The Ashwater Experiment, Amy Goldman Koss again brings sparkle, humour, and fresh insight to this lively exploration of loyalties and friendship tested.
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
Gr 4-7-Gwen can't be more excited as a summer of softball stretches ahead of her. She and her best friend/cousin, Jess, play for the Press Gazette, the city's newspaper, which employs both of their fathers. The girls have been "practicing forever," and building a championship team this season is well within their sights. What isn't anticipated is the strike that divides their families: Gwen's dad is "labor" and his brother is "management." At first, Gwen enjoys having her father home, available to shuttle her to practice and the movies, and she even accompanies him on the high-spirited picket line. He assures her that the dispute won't last long: "By tomorrow they'll be on their knees, begging us to come back." The mood darkens and tension builds, however, as the strike continues, ultimately disrupting relationships and, of course, the softball season. Characterization is strong, revealed through Gwen's first-person narrative and solid dialogue. In a believable plot, the young people finally are able to begin the healing process in the community-with a little help from their irascible grandmother. Koss has created realistic characters that young people will both recognize and relate to. They will also recognize the influence that the larger adult world has, and understand that they are not powerless.-Lee Bock, Glenbrook Elementary School, Pulaski, WI (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Horn Book Review
When the union at the town newspaper goes on strike, Gwen and her cousin Jess end up on opposite sides of the picket line--one of their dads is union, the other management. The strike tears apart both their friendship and the summer baseball league Gwen lives for. The ramifications of the strike are given a nuanced portrayal, while GwenÆs efforts to untangle her feelings about it have a ring of authenticity. From HORN BOOK Fall 2002, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
A bitter strike creates a family split possibly beyond even baseball's power to mend, in this engaging tale from the author of Stranger in Dadland (p. 185). Gwen is eager for a summer of softball with teammate, cousin, and closest friend Jess, but that field of dreams loses its luster when the local newspaper that sponsors their team is hit by a strike. Gwen and Jess learn that their twin dads are on opposite sides of the dispute-a fact that takes on more and more weight as the strike goes on, tensions mount, and ugly incidents begin to occur. At first, Gwen has no idea what it all means, but as a new "us vs. them" attitude polarizes even the children in management and labor families, as she overhears talk of scabs and scare tactics, and as she sees widening rifts develop within her family, even between her own parents, annoyance gives way to confusion, fear, and despondence. Soon even she and Jess are on the outs. So what is there to do but organize a game between the strikers' kids and managements'? Fortunately for the tale's credibility, though news of the strike's settlement happens to come during that game, sparking a jubilant, all-is-forgiven celebration, it's really a coincidence. The real victory here is the convincing way Gwen inches past that feeling of powerlessness to the realization that, while not all problems have simple solutions, there's nothing stopping her from stepping up to the plate and taking some healthy swings. (Fiction. 11-13)
Booklist Review
Gr. 4-6. Gwen and Jess are cousins, best friends, and enthusiastic ballplayers. Their fathers, who are twins, work for the local newspaper, the company that sponsors the girls' baseball team. When the newspaper's labor force goes on strike, kinship, friendship, and team spirit all take a beating. Told in Gwen's straightforward preadolescent voice, the story unfolds across the tense weeks of the strike, as the baseball team becomes a battleground for the adults. Jess and Gwen distrust each other, and Gwen learns how difficult it can be to form friendships when they don't come readymade from family ties. But Gwen is certain of one thing: she won't let the strike ruin a good baseball summer, and organizes a coed game that crosses management and family lines. The denouement is perhaps a bit pat, but Gwen is a wonderfully spunky kid who has real problems, creative solutions, and the guts to admit that she has a lot to learn about others' needs. --Francisca Goldsmith