I read Sue Corbett's Free Baseball last night and realized that this book is about way more than a kid who loves the game. I originally requested it because there are a zillion sports books out there for kids but I have been looking for something different to review. Free Baseball is the story of eleven year old Felix who is a pretty good ballplayer but he also happens to be the son of a member of the Cuban National Team. Baseball in America is one thing - in Cuba it is a religion. Felix idolizes his father, or rather the person he assumes his father to be. He doesn't really know him though because Felix and his mother left Cuba when he was a year old, and his father had to stay behind.
Free Baseball is about one week in Felix's life - a week when he wins tickets to a minor league game and becomes a bat boy by mistake and most importantly, a week when he finally starts asking the tough questions about his father and mother and what happened in Cuba after he left. There's also a great dog, a Mom willing to admit she's made a mistake or two and some baseball with cool ballplayers - all in all a solid sports story that is about way more than baseball.
The one thing about this book that bothered me (and bothered is probably the wrong word) is that from the title and cover shot you would assume that it is all about baseball and less about Cuba and what happens after you get to Florida. Free Baseball is the type of book that actually would appeal to a far broader audience than ballplaying boys (or girls) and is maybe even more appropriate to an immigrant audience, particularly kids who know about Cuban or Caribbean immigrants, than anyone else. I hate to say that a book should be read by anyone specifically, because honestly a good book will just appeal to anyone who loves good books, but I hope that Free Baseball is making its way throughout the Florida school and public library systems. This is just a good book about Cuba for young adults and we don't have nearly enough of those. (So says the reviewer who grew up in Florida and learned crap about the country the entire time I lived there!)
I liked Free Baseball a lot - review to follow this summer.
