Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Green (<EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Football Genius) wades into John Feinstein territory with this fast-paced story about two middle-schoolers who put themselves in peril to probe steroid use on a youth baseball team. Josh LeBlanc's father is a pitcher who never made it to the big leagues. After he's cut from the farm team for the Toronto Blue Jays, he projects his unfulfilled dream on Josh, yanking him from the school baseball squad to play for the Titans, a travel team run by Rocky Valentine, a winning-is-everything caricature who supplements his income by selling milk additives that will reputedly help players bulk up. When Josh is also slipped some “gym candy,” he talks over his suspicions with school reporter Jaden, and together they investigate with exciting, if predictable, results. A subplot about a bully who thinks Josh is moving in on his girlfriend adds nothing, and Josh's mother is basically relegated to serving meals. But most kids will not notice, focused instead on the action-heavy, high-testosterone plot that has Josh in near-constant motion. Ages 8–12. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Apr.)

Voice of Youth Advocates

Seventh grade baseball star Josh feels trapped by his fatherÆs failed attempts to be a major league player when his father pulls him from his new school team to try out for the championship Titans, a ninth grade ball club fueled by coach-distributed supplements and steroids. Involuntarily retired from a professional farm team, JoshÆs father has been offered a job by a local businessman who is promoting youth baseball to get big company endorsements. His father believes that playing with a nationally recognized team will give talented Josh the shot at the majors that he missed. When his super teammates pressure Josh to use ôgym candy,ö his two school friends help him craft a successful plan to expose the operation. The businessman goes to jail, but with Nike endorsements the father continues the team, and Josh is tapped to be part of a national company promotion. Like Heat by Mike Lupica (Philomel, 2006/VOYA April 2006), this feel-good story manages an involving plot filled with strong, appealing characters who face danger and find support from responsible adults. Centered on the headline issue of steroids and crafted with short, fast-paced chapters, it is a great middle school choice for both boys and girls whether they are reluctant or enthusiastic readers.ùLucy Schall.

ALA Booklist (Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 CST 2009)

Twelve-year-old Josh LeBlanc has moved a lot in his life; his father is a minor league pitcher hoping to make it to the majors. After his dad is abruptly dumped by his Triple-A team, Josh realizes that he has a chance to stay in one town and play baseball on his school team. His father, however, has other plans, signing Josh up for a traveling team, led by an intense and sometimes brutal coach. Josh eventually discovers that his coach's winning formula includes handing out steroids. With the help of Jaden, a school newspaper reporter, he manages to take a photograph of the coach receiving steroids behind a hospital. Green delivers a fast-paced story, told in short chapters that build to the exciting climax. He also doesn't sanitize the rough world of the locker room, showing the intimidation that often accompanies young people's sports. Add this to other novels that feature the temptations of steroids for young athletes, including Carl Deuker's Gym Candy (2007) and John Coy's Crackback (2005).

Horn Book (Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2009)

There are some mysterious goings-on at Josh's middle school involving the baseball team--and steroids. Assured, vigorous sports writing makes this book notable: Green knows about baseball and the pressures put on young players to perform at ever-higher levels. The text is convincing regarding training regimens and baseball play, though somewhat less so about middle-school social life.

School Library Journal (Wed Apr 01 00:00:00 CDT 2009)

Gr 5-7 Twelve-year-old Josh LeBlanc's father has come to the end of a baseball career that never made it to the majors. Josh is also a talented player, and the family's dreams of glory settle on him. His angry, controlling father pulls him off the middle school team to have him try out for a traveling youth team sponsored by a suspicious character named Rocky Valentine, who is also Mr. LeBlanc's new employer. While the competition is fierce, Josh eventually makes the team, but his doubts about Rocky Valentine continue to grow. With the help of a girl he likes, aspiring journalist Jaden Neidermeyer, Josh uncovers evidence that Rocky is dealing in illegal steroids. It appears that Jaden's father, a doctor, is supplying Rocky with the drugs, but eventually everything is straightened out. Rocky is apprehended, Dr. Neidermeyer is cleared, and, in a deus ex machina, a Nike Youth Baseball representative shows up out of the blue and offers to sponsor Josh's team, to put his dad on the payroll, and to sign Josh up to appear in Nike ads. While the resolution might strike even less-sophisticated readers as wildly implausible, issues of peer and family pressure are well handled, and the short, punchy chapters and crisp dialogue are likely to hold the attention of young baseball fans. Richard Luzer, Fair Haven Union High School, VT

Kirkus Reviews

Josh is a hugely talented player who loves baseball and is destined for greatness. His father, who never made it to the majors, takes a job with an independent youth baseball team, pulling Josh from his school team to join him. Josh wants to please his father, but all is not as it should be on the new team. Winning is everything and the coach pushes his players to be ever bigger, stronger and fiercer, insisting on tortuous weight training and surreptitiously passing along "gym candy." The third-person narration filled with crisp dialogue brings immediacy to Josh's painful practice sessions, the excitement of his games and his confusion at the flux of middle-school dynamics. Although several of the characters are somewhat one-dimensional, Josh and his friends are well developed and likable. Green carefully constructs the dilemmas and decisions they face as they come to terms with the steroid issues, so that the rather histrionic finale comes across as both plausible and satisfying. A cut above the usual baseball novel. (Fiction. 10-14)