A well-writ­ten nov­el for pre-teens, this is the sto­ry of two broth­ers whose first love is base­ball, and their attempts to excel in the game. In addi­tion, it is a com­ing-of-age saga of broth­ers rec­on­cil­ing them­selves to work­ing togeth­er as a team, while in com­pe­ti­tion with each oth­er. Reuven is in ninth grade. He is orga­nized, com­pe­tent, an excel­lent stu­dent, and very shy. He is focused on becom­ing an even bet­ter pitch­er than he already is. He is will­ing to go against his father’s advice not to prac­tice new strate­gies in the jour­ney to improve his game. Younger broth­er Avi is in eighth grade, and is an out­stand­ing catch­er who has a more hap­py-go-lucky per­son­al­i­ty than his broth­er. For exam­ple, he often leaves his school­work until the last moment. Both char­ac­ters are well devel­oped and believ­able. Each broth­er has many strengths, but the dif­fer­ences between them, in addi­tion to the zeal they bring to play­ing base­ball, make for an intense sib­ling expe­ri­ence. There is a tremen­dous amount of jeal­ousy between the two as they each excel in dif­fer­ent areas. Reuven and Avi are part of a close and lov­ing fam­i­ly. Both par­ents assist and guide the boys through their chal­lenges and their lives. Their father, in addi­tion, acts as their reg­u­lar base­ball coach on Sun­day morn­ings. The fam­i­ly is Ortho­dox, and the broth­ers attend a day school for boys. Because of their reli­gious com­mit­ments they are forced to miss three games held on the Sab­bath dur­ing the sea­son. This is an issue of great con­cern to each boy, as each car­ries the dream of being picked to be in the All-Stars game at season’s end. The family’s Ortho­doxy is an inter­est­ing sub­plot that does not inter­fere with the non-Ortho­dox reader’s enjoy­ment of the sports theme, but anoth­er sub-plot involv­ing a rela­tion­ship Reuven has with a base­ball-lov­ing young woman is not very real­is­tic. This book, while in man­u­script form, was the win­ner of the Asso­ci­a­tion of Jew­ish Libraries’ Syd­ney Tay­lor Man­u­script Award for best unpub­lished children’s book of Juda­ic inter­est. Ages 9 and up.