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Teen reporters Stevie Thomas and Susan Carol Anderson might have the scoop of this year's World Series. While interviewing a young star hurler, they gain an inkling that the story he's pitching might not be entirely the truth. What, they wonder, is he covering up? Is it a scandal, some past crime, or perhaps just an embarrassing family secret? As they probe his background, they learn a few things too about ethics and the human side of sports.
VOYA
- Nancy Pierce
Teens Stevie Thomas and Susan Carol Anderson are back on the newspaper sports beat, this time at the World Series. Veteran reporters, they have access to athletes and locker rooms to get the stories fans want to read, and it seems that Stevie has hit it big when he interviews Norbert Doyle, a pitcher for the Washington Nationals. Doyle has never made it big in baseball, but he is about to. Doyle gets to start the first game of the Series and becomes the biggest feel-good story in baseball. As Stevie digs for more material for his story, he finds out there is more to Doyle than he first thought. While covering the Series, Stevie tries to also uncover the truth of Doyle's past, and then must decide if it is something the world really needs to know. Readers will appreciate the sports details and real-life characters Feinstein includes throughout the novel. He provides enough background of the sport so even non-baseball fans can appreciate the action. It is not the drama of the World Series or baseball as much as the mystery of Doyle's past that moves the book forward, as Stevie and Susan Carol interact with Doyle's teenage twins and visit his former hometown to get at the truth. Yet readers never forget that Stevie and Susan Carol are newspaper reporters as they grapple with deadlines, sources, ethics, and the power of the press. This book is an enjoyable trifecta of sports, mystery and journalism for young readers. Reviewer: Nancy Pierce
Children's Literature
- Candice Ransom
Cub reporter Stevie Thomas has covered the Final Four, the Super Bowl, the NBA finals, and the U.S. Open in both tennis and golf—and he is only fourteen. With his partner and girlfriend, Susan Carol, the next assignment is the World Series, with the unlikely Nationals pitted against the Red Sox. Stevie wins an interview with Norbert Doyle, a minor league player who had no hopes of making it to the majors, much less as starting pitcher for the Nationals in the World Series. After his wife's death in a car crash, Doyle is raising their twin teenagers, David and Morra. As Stevie examines the facts of Doyle's life, he finds parts do not ring true. What secret are the twins hiding? Why is Susan Carol spending so much time with David Doyle? And what really transpired the night Norbert Doyle's wife died? Sports fans will relish Feinstein's authentic details. A well-known sports columnist, Feinstein's zesty style gives readers close-up views of the baseball world from the pitcher's mound to the locker room. Stevie grapples with the truth and the ethics issue of where to draw the line between journalism and the invasion of privacy. A solid mystery grounded in the game, lightened with a slight romance—this one hits a home run with sports fans. Reviewer: Candice Ransom
School Library Journal
Gr 6–9—In previous books, teenage sportswriters Stevie Thomas and Susan Carol Anderson exposed a scheme to throw a game in the NCAA basketball tournament, unraveled a kidnapping plot at the U.S. Tennis Open, and uncovered a steroid scandal at the Super Bowl. Now they are assigned to cover the World Series, where the underdog Washington Nationals are meeting the Boston Red Sox. While checking out the Cinderella story of the 38-year-old Nationals' rookie pitcher, Norbert Doyle, the friends discover a shadowy incident in the man's past. Although Doyle, his children, and especially his agent attempt to deceive, manipulate, and intimidate them, in the end the two reporters base their decision about running the story on the good it would do versus the harm it would cause. As in the other books in the series, Feinstein brings his insider's knowledge of sports to bear, with good effect. The inclusion of real-life sports and media figures along with fictional characters is likely to appeal to knowledgeable fans. For libraries in which the other books have proven popular.—Richard Luzer, Fair Haven Union High School, VT
Kirkus Reviews
Fourteen-year-old sports columnists Stevie Thomas and Susan Carol Anderson begin freshman year with a close-up look at a dramatic wild-card National League Championship final and then at the World Series between Boston and Washington, D.C. When a player who's come up from the minors in a late-season trade pitches a near no-hitter in game two, the mystery and personal tragedy in his past become the story Stevie pursues. Feinstein trots out an array of familiar personalities and offers a look at the way that the players, Major League Baseball and the media interact. He winks editorially about everything and everyone from Tony Kornheiser to the deficiencies in the new Nationals stadium. But the dogged running to earth of the pitcher's story is the real focus, far more than the game of baseball, which is seen only in glimpses. While Stevie and Susan Carol's unlimited freedom stretches credulity more than a bit and nuanced relationships and glimpses of dugout grit are in short supply, fans of the series will enjoy another inside scoop. (Mystery. 12-14)
