Eighteen-year-old Jill Cafferty just made history. Her high school's star pitcher, she is now the first woman drafted by a major league baseball team. Only days after her high school graduation, she'll join the Pittsburgh Pirates' Class A Short Season team ...but not everyone is happy to have her there. On top of the pressure heaped on every pitcher, Jill must deal with defying conventions and living up to impossible expectations, all while living away from home for the first time. She'll go head-to-head against those who are determined to keep baseball an all-male sport. Despite the reassurance of coaches and managers alike, a few of her teammates are giving her trouble. The media presence following her at each game is inescapable. And to top it all off, Jill is struggling with the responsibilities of being a national hero and a role model for young women everywhere. How can she be a role model when she's not even sure she made the right choice for herself? Didn't baseball used to be fun? This literary and engrossing story of a young woman trying to mark out a place for herself in a male-dominated world will captivate fans of Friday Night Lights, The Art of Fielding, John Corey Whaley, and Laurie Halse Anderson.

 

There are 432 pages in this book. This book was published 2017 by HarperCollins Publishers Inc .

Ellen Emerson White is the author of numerous books for middle grade and teen readers both under her own name and under pseudonyms. She has lived in New York City for many years, but still hankers for New England a bit. She roots for the Red Sox, even when they are not at their best, and shares her home with animals like the ones in Webster .