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Synopsis
Welcome to Moundville, where it’s been raining for longer than Roy McGuire has been alive. Most people say the town is cursed—right in the middle of their big baseball game against rival town Sinister Bend, black clouds crept across the sky and it started to rain. That was 22 years ago . . . and it’s still pouring.
Baseball camp is over, and Roy knows he’s in for a dreary, soggy summer. But when he returns home, he finds a foster kid named Sturgis sprawled out on his couch. As if this isn’t weird enough, just a few days after Sturgis’s arrival, the sun comes out. No one can explain why the rain has finally stopped, but as far as Roy’s concerned, it’s time to play some baseball. It’s time to get a Moundville team together and finish what was started 22 years ago. It’s time for a rematch.
Children's Literature
Roy McGuire loves baseball; he even plays catcher at his summer baseball camp. There is just one problem—the town where Roy lives does not have a baseball team because in Moundville it rains non-stop. In fact it has rained every day since the last baseball game played in Moundville was called for rain twenty-two years ago. Everything changes the summer Roy is twelve. When Roy gets home from baseball camp there is a stranger, a foster brother, Sturgis, sharing his room. At first Roy has little in common with this strange boy with a troubled and secret past—until Roy talks to Sturgis about baseball and teaches him how to pitch. When the rains miraculously stop, Roy forms the first Moundville youth baseball team in twenty-two years and finally finishes the long awaited rematch. This novel uses the sport of baseball and the rich culture of small town youth sports as a background to examine the issues and anxieties that preteen boys face: transitioning between schools, girls, and the potential of dating, changes in friendships, the possible betrayal of friends, and family members (Roy's mother left him and his father to be an international flight attendant), and learning to be a part of something that is larger than oneself. At the end of the novel, Roy has not only learned how to be a better person and leader on his own baseball team but has also helped Sturgis deal with his own problems. Full of humor and written in an easy to read style, this book would be a great read for any teenage boy, especially those interested in baseball. Girls interested in baseball would also find this book and the girl members of the Moundville team interesting. Reviewer: Jamie Hain