Baseball in April and Other Stories Book

A contemporary classic about the pitfalls and triumphs of the teenage years is given a fresh new look for its tenth anniversary.

In this unique collection of short stories, the small events of daily life reveal big themes-love and friendship, youth and growing up, success and failure. Calling on his own experiences of growing up in California's Central Valley, poet Gary Soto brings to life the joys and pains of young people everywhere. The smart, tough, vulnerable kids in these stories are Latino, but their dreams and desires belong to all of us.

Publishers Weekly

Diaz and Gongora give Soto's heartfelt collection just the right spark of Latino flavor in this sharp audio production. From Jesse, a nine-year-old struggling to improve his baseball skills in "Baseball in April" to Veronica, who is crushed when her new, much cherished Barbie doll is ruined, Soto introduces vivid characters who struggle with the longing, hope and acceptance that are part of everyday life. Soto's accessible writing voice and poetic language permeate these 11 tales of first dates, worries about one's looks and the difficulties of dealing with idiosyncratic family members. With the help of solid performances (and crisp pronunciation of the smattering of Spanish words and phrases) by Diaz and Gongora, listeners will take away a real sense of what it was like for many Mexican-American kids growing up in California's Central Valley (including Fresno, Soto's hometown) not so many years ago. Ages 10-up. (Jan.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|