Are being left-handed and wanting
to play baseball both really sinful?

Luke Bledsoe is naturally left-handed. He is thirteen-years-old and it's early spring in 1921. His father is a preacher in the Holy River of John the Baptist Church. His father also believes that being left-handed is unnatural and sets one up to be wild and a sinner. Luke's Uncle Micah, who is his father's brother, smokes tobacco, drinks liquor, dances all night, and just happens to be left-handed also. Luke's dad is so afraid that Luke will be like Uncle Micah that he kept Luke's left hand tied behind him for years trying to force him to be right-handed.

Luke's dad also believes baseball leads young people into sin, so he will not let Luke show any interest at all in the game. However, Luke has always liked to throw things with his left hand. Some of the kids in watching Luke throw rocks and apples realize that he is a natural left-handed pitcher. He can also play ball pretty good with his right hand because he has been forced to use it for years. Luke is pressured by his playmates to go out for the team, since they need a good pitcher.

Because of his father's strictness, Luke feels set apart from other kids in his age range. He also can't understand why his father tries to make him feel ashamed because he was born with the tendency to be left-handed.

Luke is tricked into demonstrating what a great left-handed pitcher he could be, if he would just try to play baseball. Even though he knows his father disapproves, Luke finally agrees to pitch for the local team.

The rest of the story is concerned with what happens when Luke's father finds out that his strict orders have been disobeyed. "Choosing Up Sides" by John H. Ritter is much more than just a baseball story. Be prepared for a really dramatic ending!

 

Can a really insecure kid hide
behind jokes all the time?

Gary Boone is a seventh grader at Floyd Hicks Junior High School. The other kids call him "Goon" and he has just sort of accepted that name for himself. Gary is sort of small for his age and is used to being pushed around by the other bigger guys. Girls don't take him very seriously either. He has learned to cover up his insecurity by telling jokes all the time - really corny jokes. He claims he wants to be a stand-up comic when he grows up. He's just practicing a lot while he is still young.

There was one girl named Angeline Persopolis who was the smartest kid in the whole school. She thought Gary was really funny and cracked up over about anything he said. But she was the exception. Besides, she was so smart that she was being sent away to a special school for gifted kids.

A talent show was being planned for the school. A $100 prize would be awarded the winner. Naturally, Gary was the first one to sign up. He was going to win the prize and show all the other kids he really wasn't a goon. He sweated over what kind of performance would be okay. Of course, Angeliine was impressed by anything he planned to do, but he knew that wasn't enough to impress all those other kids, the teachers, and the parents. Gary was so anxious that he tried to pull out at the last minute. They wouldn't let him!

What finally happens is a big surprise - to Gary and everybody else, including the reader of the story. If you like to read stories with a strange twist of an ending and one filled with lots of cornball jokes, you might like "Dogs Don't Tell Jokes" by Louis Sachar.

 

Another book about horses from
the Heartland series of books

Amy Fleming is a teen-ager who lives on a horse farm in Virginia. Called "Heartland," the farm was founded by Amy's mother to treat horses that had been abused or suffered trauma of some kind. Amy's mother had been killed in a tragic accident, but Amy had inherited her mother's talent at reaching horses that nobody else could help. Amy's older sister and her grandfather were around to run the farm, but it was Amy who had this unusual ability to understand and communicate with troubled horses.

"Out of the Darkness" is the seventh paperback in the series of books that are concerned with Amy's life and the story of Heartland. In this one, the plot revolves around the arrival of a high strung thoroughbred race horse named "Gallant Prince." The horse had been a famous racer who had won many big races. He had healed physically from being badly burned in a fire in the stables. His biggest problem, however, was that no one could work with him to retrain him after the fire.

For a while after Gallant Prince arrived at Heartland, it appeared that this horse was one that couldn't be helped. Not only was he dangerous to be around, but he was so wild that he was upsetting efforts to train the other horses at Heartland. Amy had to find a solution, or Heartland would face a much-publicized failure. Amy finds that she not only has a talent for helping troubled horses, but, while helping a horse, she can also help a troubled young man, who had given up on his life and family.

"Out of the Darkness" is another excellent addition to the Heartland series. The story stands on its own, but is more meaningful to that reader who has read the earlier books in the series.

 

A story about what it's like to live in a
country occupied by enemy soldiers

Pieter Van Dirk is only thirteen years old in 1944. Hie homeland of Holland is occupied by German invaders. The Allies, or friendly nations, are just about to invade Europe to free the occupied countries. The Nazi soldiers are cracking down on the Dutch people more and more as they both prepare for the coming Allied invasion.

Those Dutch who do what they can to help the Allies and disrupt the Nazis are called "the Resistance." Pieter wants to help out as much as he can. He knows that if he is caught by the Nazis while he is doing anything for the Resistance, he is likely to be shot. The Germans had already imprisoned his father and older brother earlier in the war.

Pieter helps out by carrying messages for the Resistance. In a surprising turn of events, an Allied soldier, injured as he parachuted into Holland, ends up in Pieter's home and taken care of by his mother. Pieter knows that someone in his village is a traitor and, if he or she knows what is going on, it will be reported to the Nazis.

You feel Pieter's fear and his distrust of anyone around him, as he tries to help the Resistance and, at the same time, protect his mother and his home.

If you want to know more about what young people experienced during World War II, especially those in occupied countries, "A Traitor among Us" by Elizabeth Van Steenwyk, is a good place to start.