Vivy Cohen's mom is a bit over protective of her 11-year-old daughter and hasn't quite yet seen that she's growing up and doesn't need quite so much parental guidance (or interference, as may be) any longer.
Three years ago Vivy met Major League Baseball's knuckleball pro, Vincent James Capello, or VJ. She's been working on her knuckleball ever since, and now that she's got it down she wants to pitch -- for a team.
Fortuitously, a coach for a Little League team sees her pitch in the park and invites her to pitch for his team.
But her mom's just not there yet. With a little help from a teen older brother, Vivy drags her mom into the world of baseball. Vivy is Jewish, autistic, and the only girl on the all-boys team, where the "star" pitcher is the coach's son. VJ is one a few elite Black pitchers in the MLB and the two connect by writing old-fashioned letters, to start, and later emails, once Vivy's dad (a MLB fan) gives his permission.
It's a touching story of growing up and overcoming challenges on many fronts -- society, school, sports, family -- and even inside ourselves.
Enjoy!
Teachers Note:
This is a true epistolary novel. I haven't seen too many of these in recent years, so if you're looking for a recently published book in that literary form to teach, this is an excellent example!
However, I searched for a free teaching guide and couldn't find one. I don't believe the publisher offers one.
Note: Be careful on Teachers Pay Teachers with this title and others. In a rather disturbing trend, I'm finding more and more TpT'ers re-packaging, for relatively low prices ($1-$4), materials that are already offered for FREE by the publisher. In this case, it was 31 pages of text, which you can get free here and in audio book format (the first 5 minutes are available for free listening from the publisher here for $4.
Just double-check anything you find, and make sure it isn't offered for free elsewhere, because you can't afford to spend more money than necessary.
Have a great teaching year!
