Book Embargo

MADISON IS NOT your average 12-year-old girl from Michigan in 1980. She doesn’t use lipgloss, but she loves to play sports, and joins baseball for the summer—the first girl in Southern Michigan to play on a boys’ team. The press call her a star and a trailblazer, but Madison just wants to play ball. Who knew it would be so much pressure? Crowds flock to the games. Her team will win the championship—if she can keep up her pitching streak. Meanwhile, she’s got a crush on a fellow player, her best friend abandons her for the popular girls, the “O” on her Hinton’s uniform forms a bulls-eye over her left breast, and the boy she punched on the last day of school plans to bean her in the championship game.

This is the description of “No Cream Puffs” by Karen Day. It has a May 2008 release date, so it is coming out pretty far in the future, but it is good enough to talk about NOW. It is being published by Random House and this is Karen Day’s second novel.

Let me tell you why I liked this book. It felt like you were twelve again. You are beginning adolescence, becoming a teenager, your body is changing and your mother obviously doesn’t understand no matter what she says. Madison doesn’t like the attention she is getting, she just wants to play ball. She likes the cute boy on the team, but he isn’t all he is cracked up to be, and it is sometimes a shock to discover what is hidden from you. When I was a kid there were plenty of things I noticed… There were even more things I did NOT notice. Madison has a similar feeling. Her older brother and her mom discuss the hostages in Iran. (The book takes place in 1980.) She doesn’t understand what is actually happening… or where Iran is, but she does understand the tension and that it isn’t right.

This book FEELS like a twelve year old. And that is why I liked it, beyond the fun story, interesting situations and good characterization.

Look for No Cream Puffs by Karen Day wherever books are sold (though preferably at your local independent bookshop) in May of 2008.

1980, 2008, baseball, book, day, elementary, gulf war, iran hostage crisis, juvenile literature, karen day, madison, may 2008, no cream puffs, random house, twelve years old, young adult, young riders

Tags: 1980, 2008, baseball, Book, day, elementary, gulf war, iran hostage crisis, juvenile literature, karen day, madison, may 2008, no cream puffs, random house, twelve years old, young adult, young riders

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