A Topps League Story: Book Three: Zip It!
By Kurtis Scaletta
Illustrated by Eric Wight
Chad is one of the Pine City Porcupines home field batboys. Two of his classmates also work for the Pines, Abby and Dylan. Normally the Pines just try not to be in last place. But this season, when the Pine’s came back from a traveling week, they were tied for First Place with the Rosedale Rogues. That’s where they wanted to stay.
For the Balloon Day game, Wally, the Pine’s manager, was going to be away, so Chad was assigned extra duties to help cover for him. Chad had to make coffee (the players always drank coffee before the game) and hand out clean towels and uniforms.
The team was doing well. But Chad thought he jinxed the game by mentioning that Lance (the pitcher) was having a perfect game – no runs for the other team – and that is bad luck. He does everything in his power to improve Lance’s attitude when a hot air balloon crashes on the field.
This is book three of the four book series. It is a slim chapter book that second grade boys will love to read. This baseball story has many strong male characters. Chad, Dylan, and Abby are all characters that second grade readers will identify with.
The story is presented in 12 short chapters, so it could also be presented as a quick read aloud during baseball season. There is at least one black and white illustration per chapter which will move the story along for the second grade reader.
Here is the link to Kurtis’ website where you will find more information about him and his other books, as well as the other books in this series – http://www.kurtisscaletta.com/.
Title: A Topps League Story: Book Three: Zip It!- Author: Kurtis Scaletta
- Illustrator: Eric Wight
- Publisher: Amulet Books, 2012
- Reviewer: Susan Couture
- Hardback: 100 pages
- ISBN: 978-1-4197-0436-9
- Genre: Sports Ficiton
