Week 31 Review: A Season of Daring Greatly

From Goodreads:
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.

My Review:
This book was pretty awesome, I loved the idea of a girl getting into the minor league baseball, because I think it just happened in real life, too. I don't know if there's also a separate league of teams for women or not, I'm not a sports person, but yeah, this is kinda a big deal, and I really enjoyed that!

Jill was an interesting character. She was smart, she was very athletically inclined, and she was very driven. I really enjoyed reading her journey, she's a trailblazer, and it's a difficult journey. There's been variations on this before, but this is a baseball one, and I enjoyed it!

Her talent at baseball is enough that she has a chance to go pro-to be the first woman to be drafted in a major league. And that makes waves, both with her new team, and in her life, in what she's leaving behind, and how people react to her.

I'm a bit on the edge about the ending. On the one hand, it went out on a good note, of a game, that of the part that she pitched, was perfect. But on the other, it felt like not everything was resolved, you know? More like it was a slice of life, and things will continue, and hopefully they'll go in a good direction, they seemed to be pointed that way. But we don't know, and I'm wavering on whether or not I like that.

This book was a great read, and I really enjoyed it!

Author: Ellen Emerson White
Read: July 25th, 2020
Source: Edelweiss
Reason Why: Sounded really good, and it's a SAC 2020 Book!
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Published: February 14th 2017

5/5 Hearts

4/5 Books

4/5 Stars