Reviewed by Betsy Bird
Review Source: School Library Journal
Book Author: Skyler Schrempp
The gutsy girl is a conundrum in children’s books. She seems so easy to conjure up. Writing a bit of historical fiction? Surely all you have to do is just give your heroine some feisty comebacks and historically accurate inequities and the audience will be on her/your side, right? It’s not so simple. There’s a book for adults I love called How I Became a Famous Novelist by Steve Hely that is a biting takedown of the adult bestsellers. It pauses, however, at one point to eviscerate precisely the kind of book I’m talking about here today. At one point the main character’s aunt is writing a historical novel about a girl in Revolutionary Era America who wants to become a cooper (a barrel maker). I cringed with delight at the familiar tropes Hely was able to conjure. They were painful and true.
There are thousands of awful books in which “girl power” has been shoehorned into a specific moment in history. They don’t feel historical after that happens. They feel like they contain contemporary characters in a historical reenactment. Now connect all that to what Skyler Schrempp is doing with her middle-grade novel Three Strike Summer: Headstrong girl? Check. Rubbing up against the prejudices and sexism of the time? Check. Contains a storyline with familiar tropes? . . . No check. No, Ms. Schrempp isn’t one of those authors who have phones in her history. Her writing has bite. Her characters erupt from their era, rather than feeling like they were dropped in. And her heroine? Character development and a hero’s journey go hand in hand with this stunning tale. Continue reading on School Library Journal.
Find more recommended books on these topics on our Labor, Sports, and Historical Fiction booklists.
Three Strike Summer by Skyler Schrempp
Published by Simon and Schuster on August 29, 2023
Genres: Historical Fiction, Labor, Sports
Pages: 336
Reading Level: Grades 6-8
ISBN: 9781534499157
Review Source: School Library Journal
Publisher's Synopsis: Four starred reviews!
“Told in a voice that is so real it reeks of filched peaches, this book is a home run.” —Amy Sarig King, Printz Award–winning author of Dig and The Year We Fell from Space
Sandlot meets Esperanza Rising in this “vividly rendered, emotionally vulnerable” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) middle grade historical novel about a strong-willed girl who finds her voice in a tale of moxie, peaches, and determination to thrive despite the odds.
When the skies dried up, Gloria thought it was temporary. When the dust storms rolled in, she thought they would pass. But now the bank man’s come to take the family farm, and Pa’s decided to up and move to California in search of work. They’ll pick fruit, he says, until they can save up enough money to buy land of their own again.
There are only three rules at the Santa Ana Holdsten Peach Orchard:
No stealing product.
No drunkenness or gambling.
And absolutely no organizing.Well, Gloria Mae Willard isn’t about to organize any peaches, no ma’am. She’s got more on her mind than that. Like the secret, all-boys baseball team she’s desperate to play for, if only they’d give her a chance. Or the way that wages keep going down. The way their company lodgings are dirty and smelly, and everyone seems intent on leaving her out of everything.
But Gloria has never been the type to wait around for permission. If the boys won’t let her play, she’ll find a way to make them. If the people around her are keeping secrets, then she’ll keep a few of her own. And if the boss men at the Santa Ana Holdsten Peach Orchard say she can’t organize peaches, then by golly she’ll organize a whole ball game.
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