Roy Morelli Steps Up to the Plate

Sermon swamps story in Heldring's (Toby Wheeler: Eighth-Grade Benchwarmer) preachy novel about priorities and teamwork. The eponymous hero has his vision firmly fixed on high school%E2%80%94and becoming shortstop. But Roy has to pass eighth-grade history first, and his divorced parents decide he will sit out a season on the all-star team to concentrate on his grades. Roy's only baseball option is the low-key rec league team. Both Roy's history teacher and baseball coach are portrayed as imbeciles%E2%80%94history instruction consists of reading a chapter a night in the textbook then re-reading it aloud in class; the coach insists it's all about fun but doesn't notice team bullies picking on the smallest player. As cultural anthropology, it's a depressing portrait of modern American life: Roy's mother takes night classes, so he and his sister%E2%80%94whose conversations amount to insult exchanges%E2%80%94sullenly share dinners like "mac 'n' cheese with peas and salad out of a bag." Roy does nothing to undermine the dumb jock stereotype when, rather than study, he embraces his classmate's strategy for multiple-choice tests: "It's never, ever the same letter twice in a row." Ages 9-12. (Mar.)