American playwright and award-winning children’s author Tommy Greenwald crafts a wonderful, compelling story that delves into the growing epidemic of referee and umpire abuse that is endangering youth sports around the world, while providing a nuanced take for middle grade and teenage readers that isn’t full of caricatures or cliches.
Fifteen-year-old Cal Klondike has become the star pitcher for his high school baseball team, but as his star rises and the attention and pressure grows, he begins loving the game a little less, and his mental health is affected as he starts to lose himself along the way. Meanwhile, his father, always supportive, starts taking Cal’s baseball far more seriously than before. Especially as scouts start showing up at Cal’s games. College, scholarships, even a pro contract? How far could Cal’s star rise, if he can hold it together?
But as tensions boil, an unexpected confrontation upends Cal’s life, and the town. Greenwald does a fantastic job setting the hook early, and conveying a thrilling story in an epistolary style, utilising a mixture of text messages, newspaper articles and transcripts. He has a strong, authentic understanding of teen concerns, ambitions, and conversations, alongside adult ones. Rather than having clear-cut heroes and villains, he showcases that most people can be a mixture. Good people can make grievous errors.
While written primarily for adolescent and teenage readers, I think many adults will find a lot to really enjoy in The Right Call, a great story about sport, life and what matters.
Book review by Craig Sisterson
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Tommy Greenwald is the author of Game Changer, Rivals, and Dinged, among many other books for children. Game Changer is on 18 state lists, was an Amazon Best Book of the Month, a YALSA Top Ten pick, and a Junior Library Guild Premier selection. Rivals was also an Amazon Best Book of the Month, a Junior Library Guild selection, and a YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Young Adult Readers.
Greenwald is also the author of the Charlie Joe Jackson series and Crimebiters! series. Day job–wise, Tommy is the cofounder of Spotco Advertising, a theatrical and entertainment advertising agency in New York City, and the lyricist and co-bookwriter (with Andrew Lippa) of John & Jen, an off-Broadway musical that has been produced around the country and internationally.
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