This is a fun book about playing baseball where the main character is tired of losing; as a way of making himself feel better, he creates a baseball card with an imaginary player for his team and is surprised to see that person show up for practice the next day. It makes him set his mind to winning, no matter what the cost to the actual players on the team.

The overall message is a good one: winning isn’t everything. I do wish this book focused a bit more on the friendships and the characters–I feel like it focused too much on the skills of the imaginary players to have a solid lesson/message. The idea itself is interesting, and it’s a fast read. I can see this winning over kids who are really into baseball, but there’s not much substance on the whole for it to be an amazing story.

Also posted on Purple People Readers. ( )