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Screaming At The Ump (2014)

by Audrey Vernick(Favorite Author)

3.71 of 5 Votes: 4

ISBN

054425208X (ISBN13: 9780544252080)

languge

English

genre

Middle Grade & Children's

publisher

Clarion Books

review 1: Casey Snowden, the third generation of a family that runs a school for umpires, dreams of being a sports writer. He joins the middle school newspaper staff, convinced he's on his way to stardom. Of course, there are obstacles. The newspaper's tradition is that sixth graders don't write for the paper; they just sell ads. The teacher/advisor enforces that unwritten rule, as does an eighth-grader who has a beef against Casey's dad. There's trouble at home, too, as Casey's parents are divorced and his mom is pushing to see Casey more. But since she was the one who left, Casey has no interest in cooperating.I would have given the book five stars but for a few things. Most importantly, any teacher I know would not stonewall a student who is striving to reach a goal. I guess it w... moreouldn't have served the plot well if instead of blindly upholding tradition, he had instead sat down with Casey and guided him through the makings of a good story. Instead, he just rejects Casey's first effort with offhand comments about what it lacks. Secondly, the story Casey runs with is a bonafide scoop that would make any newspaperman's blood race. What he finally does with the story is disappointing. (Not to mention, it's totally unbelievable that the major league player on whom the plot turns could just disappear after his involvement in a doping scandal.)The plotting is swift, with several subplots that tie together well. For this audience, humor is important; I found the plots and the characters' actions amusing, but the dialog was a little flat. The author misses some great chances at humor; for example, she says Casey's best friend Zeke brings weird things in his school lunches, but then it's just crackers and a candy bar, or a banana and two chocolate chip cookies. No laughs there. And, I was distracted by her habit of mentioning something that has a backstory, but then not giving it until much later. For example, on page 31 Casey calls his mom Mrs. Bob the Baker, but we don't find out why until page 66. For more than thirty pages, I was distracted wondering about his mom and her nickname.All in all, I did like the book, though, and it would certainly satisfy a baseball-loving reader. For my own son, getting out there on the field was more vital to him than reading, so I was willing to put almost any book with a baseball theme into his hands. A story that will keep a reluctant reader happy is okay in my book.
review 2: I don't read a ton of middle grade (or books about sports for that matter), but I was intrigued by the journalism angle in SCREAMING AT THE UMP and would definitely recommend this to budding reporters. Casey has grown up surrounded by baseball because his father runs a school for umpires. But he himself doesn't want to be an ump, or even a player. He wants to write about baseball, and now that he's starting middle school, he'll finally have the chance to be on a newspaper staff. Only when he gets there, he finds out that 6th graders never get to write -- they have to pay their dues by selling ad space. But what if the story of the century just happens to fall in his lap? What if a disgraced former major league player just happens to be at his father's ump school? In the course of pursuing his big break, Casey learns a lot about being objective and the importance of second chances. less

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