Fast Pitch by Nic Stone

The Hook:

Softball is in Shenice’s blood.  Everyone in her family has played baseball—going back to her great granddad who almost went pro.  Shenice plays for the Fulton Firebirds the only all-black team in the league and the only team with more than 3 black kids on the team in all 8 states that make up the Dixie Youth Softball Association.  Shenice feels that every win is historic since she is trying to take her team to the championship—how great would that be to be the first all-black team to win the Championship!! 

But then Shenice learns the reason her great grandpa did not go pro was because he was accused of a crime he said he never committed.  With research she learns of the prejudice of the times her great grandparents grew up in and how racism has affected her own family through the generations.  Will she be able to set the record straight and clear her great grandpa’s name?  Will her team win the championship?  To find out, you’ll have to read Fast Pitch by Nic Stone. 

This book is in our library.  It is also in Sora and Axis 360 as an ebook as well as an audio book.  It is 5 AR points. 

My Thoughts and Recommendations: 

I give this book 4.5 stars.  I very much enjoyed this book for the reasons listed below.  I did think of it after I read it so it stuck with me.  But not as much as a 5-star book but that’s probably because I am an adult and not a middle school student.  I do think middle school students will love it!   

Nic Stone wrote the middle school novel, Clean Getaway.  This book takes one of the minor characters in Clean Getaway, Shenice, and makes her the main character in Fast Pitch.  I loved that Nic Stone did this because it makes you want to read Clean Getaway too and get to know all the characters.  It also makes me excited to see what the next book from Nic Stone will be and which minor character will star.   

It’s definitely okay to read them in any order that you want.  Each book is an entirely different story.  I personally like Fast Pitch better than Clean Getaway so that makes me think that each book will get better and better.   

This is a sports book but I love that it’s a mystery rolled into one and that it deals with historical racism.  It tackles important topics of today in a suspenseful way.  We learn how racism has gone on from generation to generation—from Shenice’s great grandpa being accused of a crime he did not commit and was not allowed to play baseball to Shenice’s own softball team which is one of the only teams with more than 3 Black girls.  I loved that this shows, in a real tangible way, that racism is still around today. 

Nic Stone also has an author’s note in which she says she played softball as a child and experienced racism.  She has a picture of herself and she looks exactly like the front cover of the book. 

I highly recommend this for students who love sports and mysteries in 5th-8th grade.  I think all students will benefit from reading about generational racism.  This book is only 192 pages so I believe even reluctant readers will reach for this one!