In this follow-up to Miami Gets It Straight (2000), school has finally let out, and Miami is off to baseball camp. Miami's best friend, String, and Miami's rival, Destinee Tate, from the previous book, show up at camp, too, along with lively new characters, including Asher, a wildly talented, blind umpire, and Kenneth, a typical bully with a bad attitude. Camp is fun, but there's plenty of friction: Destinee campaigns for coed teams, and Miami teams up with Kenneth to fight the idea, straining his friendship with String. Wise counselor Lincoln reminds the boys about choices, and, in the end, Miami finds his conscience, voting for the coed team and speaking his mind to Kenneth. Humor and authentic dialogue balance the heavy messages in this well-paced chapter book, which raises questions about peer pressure and tolerance. Handsome illustrations by Michael Chesworth show the multicultural cast in action in this entry in the Road to Reading series.

When the folks in Cheshire, Massachusetts, home of Cheshire cheese, "the best you can serve at your table," learned that a Connecticut town was the favored cheddar supplier to President Thomas Jefferson, they decided to make him a 1,235-pound cheddar as a gift. This actual historical event--proof that sometimes truth is stranger than fiction--is documented in a reportorial, tongue-in-cheek style, extended in droll, elegantly limned illustrations.