Curveball The Year I Lost My Grip by Jordan Sonnenblick

I should never have read this book in the shape I'm in.

Last night I came down with the flu or food poisoning--not sure which--but either way it's been miserable. Consequently today I've had to miss a big family event. As you can guess, I've been feeling a little sorry for myself.

I picked up this book to distract me. It sure did. Then came the part about Pete's grandpa having Alzheimer's. I was okay at first, but as the rest of the story progressed, I got more and more emotional. Finally I had to put the book down and have a major cry. Then I felt a little better.

Is this a sad book? Not remotely. Is it an emotional book? Not any more than life seems to be (on a normal, well-rested day). It's about Pete, a boy who loves baseball more than anything. Pete has an elbow injury that makes it so he can never play again. All of that happens in the first chapter of the book, so I'm not giving away anything you'll want to discover on your own. The rest of the book is about his Freshman year in high school, and coping with the changes that come his way in life.

Sonnenblick writes about this age in an accurate way, I think. This is a young adult book, but I think it is enjoyable for adults as well. No foul language, which is such a relief (Okay, thankfully perhaps not truly accurate about young teens).

I would almost call this book perfect, except I do have a couple of criticisms. One, the book font is Gill Sans. I actually like that font, but a sans serif font is harder to read in a book. And the italicized words (of which there were quite a few) were harder to notice. Second--and this was distracting enough to make me want to rate the book a little lower in my mind--trying to portray the photography teacher's New York accent was completely distracting. The fact that the teacher was from New York had no bearing on any of the rest of the story. Mentioning the fact, and letting those who know a New York accent imagine it in their minds would have been more than enough.

That said, I really liked the book.