Left-Handed Shortstop

Casey, Tracy & Company #3

by Patricia Reilly Giff

What is Walter Moles to do? A budding ecologist,  he'd rather pick up bugs with his pooter than  field baseballs. But the honor of the fourth grade is  at stake because the fifth grade had challenged it  to a baseball game.



In the  excitement, Goony, the hotheaded captain of the  fourth-grade team, chooses Walter as his star shortstop.  And Goony won't give Walter a chance to confess  that he's a lousy ball player or to tell him that  there hasn't been a left-handed shortstop since 1892.  Walter has got to become a great shortstop in a  hurry or else find a way to weasel out of the game.  Can his good pal Casey Valentine scheme up a  surefire strategy that will keep Walter from striking  out?

Genres: Childrens, Middle Grade

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Patricia Reilly Giff was the author of many beloved books for children, including the Kids of the Polk Street School books, the Friends and Amigos books, and the Polka Dot Private Eye books. Several of her novels for older readers have been chosen as ALA-ALSC Notable Books and ALA-YALSA Best Books for Young Adults. They include The Gift of the Pirate Queen; All the Way Home; Water Street; Nory Ryan's Song, a Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Golden Kite Honor Book for Fiction; and the Newbery Honor Books Lily's Crossing and Pictures of Hollis Woods. Lily's Crossing was also chosen as a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book.

Reviews

[Sara Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice ending about friendship. And of course, gotta love baseball!