Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews

A young man grows up in the Dominican Republic with ambitions to play baseball while a young girl in Minnesota finds the world both bigger and more encouraging when she becomes his fan. Brown-skinned Rafael falls in love with baseball in his hometown of San Pedro de Macoris. He plays in the neighborhood with a sock-wrapped stone for a ball and a stick for a bat and later in the nearby campo. Scaletta offers glimpses of the risks that baseball can bring in the Dominican Republic, where boys and struggling families hitch wagons to far-off stars. Twelve-year-old Maya's white, middle-class Twin Cities family includes teen sister Grace, an aspiring sports writer. When Rafael, now grown, kindly autographs Grace's ball at a spring-training game, Maya finds herself watching him closely and cheering him on, finding solace and connection in baseball. Maya worries about the health of the planet. Her summer project to grow a patch of prairie in her backyard to attract and shelter pollinators—bees—is painfully derailed by an insecticide made by her father's company. Scaletta deftly weaves worry, optimism, and determination together in Rafael's struggle to succeed and Maya's grappling with love for her father. The tight focus on the emotional lives of his protagonists in these connecting narratives inspires genuine feeling for each. Full of heart and hope. (Fiction. 9-13)

ALA Booklist (Wed Mar 01 00:00:00 CST 2017)

Scaletta introduces two intertwined stories. First, meet Rafael, a boy growing up in the Dominican Republic with a passion for baseball. Eight years later, meet Maya, a girl who's concerned about the environment, especially the declining bee population. It's Maya's sister who blogs about baseball, but when Maya watches (a now-grown) Rafael play in a minor-league game, she becomes his fan. The result is two separate books that strain, at times, to be one. Both, however, are thoughtfully written and plenty engaging. The hardship of growing up poor in a Dominican neighborhood, with baseball one of the few ways out, is vividly portrayed. (Though Scaletta is American, the notes explain his research.) Maya's story is more purposeful, as she comes up against her father's job at an agribusiness company, and must decide how much she can compromise her beliefs. The two main characters finally meet, but now that Maya knows Rafael, another ethical issue arises that she must consider d one not fully resolved by book's end. There is lots to discuss here.

Horn Book

Scaletta deftly weaves together the stories of Rafael, a young Dominican boy desperately committed to playing American Major League Baseball someday, and twelve-year-old Minnesotan girl Maya, who's desperately committed to saving the environment. He convincingly writes about these disparate subjects, peopling the novel with sympathetic, three-dimensional characters. Excellent sports writing, an appreciation of the natural world, and provocative ethical dilemmas add richness.

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

A young man grows up in the Dominican Republic with ambitions to play baseball while a young girl in Minnesota finds the world both bigger and more encouraging when she becomes his fan. Brown-skinned Rafael falls in love with baseball in his hometown of San Pedro de Macoris. He plays in the neighborhood with a sock-wrapped stone for a ball and a stick for a bat and later in the nearby campo. Scaletta offers glimpses of the risks that baseball can bring in the Dominican Republic, where boys and struggling families hitch wagons to far-off stars. Twelve-year-old Maya's white, middle-class Twin Cities family includes teen sister Grace, an aspiring sports writer. When Rafael, now grown, kindly autographs Grace's ball at a spring-training game, Maya finds herself watching him closely and cheering him on, finding solace and connection in baseball. Maya worries about the health of the planet. Her summer project to grow a patch of prairie in her backyard to attract and shelter pollinators—bees—is painfully derailed by an insecticide made by her father's company. Scaletta deftly weaves worry, optimism, and determination together in Rafael's struggle to succeed and Maya's grappling with love for her father. The tight focus on the emotional lives of his protagonists in these connecting narratives inspires genuine feeling for each. Full of heart and hope. (Fiction. 9-13)