AXEL Claims His Prizes and Lucky: My Best Summer Ever

Our good friend AXEL SIMONE came by last weekend to claim his prize package for reading all 6 books in the Sluggers series. Here he is, proudly displaying his trophies of reading:And here are his reviews of the fifth and sixth books:

blasting the blues

after the payne family learns there is a mole on the team they try to figure out who it is. i loved it. i recommend the series to everyone. bye.

home of the brave

after their uncle is shot and the baseball is stolen the paynes head to baltimore. i loved it i reccommend it to everyone. bye.

Thanks, AXEL! Very well done! Don't forget, guys, that you could get such a prize package for reading all 6 books. (although we're all out of Camp Half Blood t-shirts, we have lots of others)

Speaking of baseball books, here's one that I liked a whole lot! It's Lucky: Maris, Mantle, and My Best Summer Ever by Wes Tooke. This was a realsitc story, so there isn't a magic baseball but you could say there's magic involved--the magic of seeing your dreams come true.

It's 1961 and young Louis May lives with his father, stepmother, and stepbrother in White Plains, a suburb of New York City. Louis loves baseball and has a huge collection of baseball cards. In fact, he has memrozied all the information and statistics on all those cards. Imagine, then, his surprise when he gets to be a batboy for the Yankees! He gets to be friends with his two heroes, Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, and watches with anticipation as they try to break Babe Ruth's record for the most home runs in one season. Louis's stepbrother is jealous, however, and seems determine to ruin his life--even attempting a very low trick with Louis's baseball card collection. Will his stepbrother actually win? And do Maris and Mantle get to break the Babe's record? You can find out only by reading this terrific book!

I liked it a lot. The story moves right along and you really care what happens to Louis, his family, Roger, and Mickey. It's great to see what happens as Louis achieves his dream of being a batboy, and the players' dreams of creating new baseball records. It's also great to see how Louis grows over this summer, learning how to deal with bullies, solve tough problems, and sneak a baseball star out of a locker room in a cart of dirty laundry! Be sure to read this one, guys! And if you like baseball books, click on the "baseball" tab under this post and see the books we've reviewed in the past.