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Detail of book cover Baseball Crazy

Baseball Books

Some great books for boys and girls who love baseball — a biography of one of today’s top players, a history of the women’s pro league, an anthology of great baseball writing, a fictionalized journal of a negro league player, and lots of good teen fiction with baseball featured in the subplots. This list was developed by Kasha Hayes.

Baseball's Leading Lady: Effa Manley and the Rise and Fall of the Negro Leagues
Andrea Williams

Baseball's Leading Lady: Effa Manley and the Rise and Fall of the Negro Leagues

Genre:
Biography
Age Level:
Middle Grade

Before Jackie Robinson broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier in 1947, Black athletes played in the Negro Leagues — on teams coached by Black managers, cheered on by Black fans, and often run by Black owners. Here is the riveting true story of the woman at the center of the Black baseball world: Effa Manley, co-owner and business manager of the Newark Eagles. Elegant yet gutsy, she cultivated a powerhouse team. Yet just as her Eagles reached their pinnacle, so did calls to integrate baseball, a move that would all but extinguish the Negro Leagues. On and off the field, Effa hated to lose. She had devoted her life to Black empowerment — but in the battle for Black baseball, was the game rigged against her? 

 

Baseball Saved Us
Ken Mochizuki

Baseball Saved Us

Genre:
Fiction, Historical Fiction
Age Level:
Middle Grade

During World War II, Japanese Americans were placed in internment camps. Isolated and bored, baseball became a life and soul-saving pastime which successfully brought very different people together. Darkly hued illustrations evoke the difficulty of the time, based on the author’s family story. Spanish version available.

Bastard Out of Carolina
Dorothy Allison

Bastard Out of Carolina

Genre:
Fiction
Age Level:
YA

Bone confronts illegitimacy, poverty, the troubled marriage of her mother and stepfather, and the stigma of being considered “white trash” as she comes of age in South Carolina.

Being Jazz
Jazz Jennings

Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen

Genre:
Autobiography and Memoir
Age Level:
YA

Jazz Jennings is one of the youngest and most prominent voices in the national discussion about gender identity. At the age of five, Jazz transitioned to life as a girl, with the support of her parents, eventually becoming one of the most recognizable activists for transgender teens, children, and adults. In her remarkable memoir, Jazz reflects on these very public experiences and how they have helped shape the mainstream attitude toward the transgender community, as well as the challenges, bullying, discrimination, and rejection she has faced. Through it all, her family has been beside her on this journey, standing together against those who don’t understand the true meaning of tolerance and unconditional love. Now Jazz must learn to navigate the physical, social, and emotional upheavals of adolescence—particularly high school—complicated by the unique challenges of being a transgender teen. 

 

Cover of book with beach hat, sunglasses, round towel, and book laying near the shoreline at a beach.
Beth Reekles

Beach Cute

Genre:
Fiction
Age Level:
YA

From the author of the hit Kissing Booth series comes another sizzling story following three very different girls on summer vacation! Equal parts romance and humor, this is the perfect beach read for your next getaway.

Luna, Rory and Jodie are strangers in the need of a getaway… 
 
Luna has unexpectedly broken up with her boyfriend. 
 
Rory has to come up with a creative way to break it to her family she wants to pursue her art passion. 
 
And as for Jodie, she feels lost in both life and love. 
 
But these three strangers have one other thing in common: they are on their way to the same resort. As their lives collide under the sun, will they have a summer they’ll never forget?