Scandal makes softball star take her eye off ball

Nic Stone Ages 8 to 12

TWELVE-YEAR-OLD Shenice Lockwood comes from a long line of talented baseball players. Nicknamed “Lightning,” she is carrying on the tradition with her softball skills.

Shenice is the catcher and captain of the Fulton Firebirds, the first allBlack team in the predominantly white Dixie Youth Softball Association. She's determined to lead her teammates through tournament season, maybe even to the league championship. Part of her wants to do this for her dad, who walks with a cane because he badly hurt his knee while stealing home during a college baseball game.

The narrator of “Fast Pitch,” Shenice is funny and honest about how she feels about herself and those around her. She thinks Drake, her younger brother, is annoying. She tells how her parents are loving, supportive and sometimes confusing. She appreciates her language-arts teacher as well as her “excellent friends,” especially Scoob, a boy she's known since kindergarten, and BrittMarie, her team's center fielder.

But Shenice's intense focus on the Firebirds gets sidetracked once she meets her great-granduncle Jack for the first time. When no one else can hear their conversation, he tells her about a baseball-related scandal that his late brother – her greatgrandfather – was unfairly connected to decades ago.

Nic Stone draws on her own experience as a softball player and smartly conveys the frustrations of a tough game as well as the fun tension of a close one. Whether dealing with the present or searching the past, Shenice and her story always move at a confident and fast pace.