cover image Lucky: Maris, Mantle, and My Best Summer Ever

Lucky: Maris, Mantle, and My Best Summer Ever

Wes Tooke, . . Simon & Schuster, $15.99 (192pp) ISBN 978-1-4169-8663-8

Louis May's father has remarried, so the 12-year-old is facing his first summer living with his disapproving stepmother and resentful stepbrother in White Plains, N.Y. His fortunes change when he catches a foul ball at a Yankees game, depriving the opposing fielder of making an out. His game-saving play earns him a meeting with the batter he helped: Roger Maris. Louis's exhaustive knowledge of player statistics—Mickey Mantle dubs him “the walking baseball card”—improbably earns him a chance to be the team's batboy. Thus Louis has a dugout seat for one of baseball's greatest dramas—Mantle and Maris chasing Babe Ruth's single-season home run record in 1961. A subplot about Louis's mother, who left his father to live among beatnik poets, isn't fully fleshed out. The pleasures in Tooke's debut are voyeuristic, as kids get to go behind the scenes to learn about two legends through Louis, who realizes collecting cards is no match for knowing the men behind the pinstripes. Says Louis: “It was like the difference between someone who collected stamps from foreign countries and someone who actually traveled the world.” Ages 8–up. (Feb.)