Publisher Description
Newbery Honor–winner Joan Bauer's newest protagonist always sees the positive side of any situation—and readers will cheer him on!
Jeremiah is the world’s biggest baseball fan. He really loves baseball and he knows just about everything there is to know about his favorite sport. So when he’s told he can’t play baseball following an operation on his heart, Jeremiah decides he’ll do the next best thing and become a coach.
Hillcrest, where Jeremiah and his father Walt have just moved, is a town known for its championship baseball team. But Jeremiah finds the town caught up in a scandal and about ready to give up on baseball. It’s up to Jeremiah and his can-do spirit to get the town – and the team – back in the game.
Full of humor, heart, and baseball lore, Soar is Joan Bauer at her best.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In a novel filled with dramatic highs and lows, Bauer (Tell Me) introduces an irrepressible boy who finds a way to triumph over limitations. Twelve-year-old Jeremiah Lopper was abandoned as an infant, then caught a virus that weakened his heart. More recently, a heart transplant has left him frail. Jeremiah has remained optimistic through these rough times, but it's been hard for him to accept that he may never have a chance to play baseball, his favorite sport. Unexpectedly, Jeremiah gets an opportunity to become involved with the sport when he and his adoptive father move to Hillcrest, Ohio, a baseball-obsessed town whose high school and middle school teams have been destroyed by scandal. Jeremiah's enthusiasm for baseball is infectious, and he plays a major role in rebuilding and coaching a team at the middle school while lifting the sagging spirits of community members. Outgoing Jeremiah plays a humorous foil to his socially challenged father, and their mutual love and respect is evident. If the book contains a few too many convenient resolutions, most readers will feel that Jeremiah's victories are well earned and deserved. Ages 10 up.
