Sliding Into Home

Girls can’t play baseball at Hoover Middle School, but Joelle is determined to find a way to play the game she loves.

It’s not fair! Thirteen-year-old Joelle Cunningham is passionate about baseball. When her family moves to the small town of Greendale, Iowa, she quickly discovers that there are strict rules preventing her from playing on the school team.

At Hoover Middle School, only boys play baseball. Girls play softball. Joelle tries to tell everyone they’re not the same sport. But no one is listening. Not Coach Carlyle who doesn’t want her on his team, even though they’re at the bottom of the league. Not Ms. Fenner, the softball coach who wants Joelle to use her big-league swing on the girls’ softball team. Not even Jason, her older brother, who is too busy at college to be of much help.

Through some creative problem-solving and surprising alliances, Joelle finds a solution to her dilemma that brings the disputing sides together…and baseball to the girls of Greendale.

Author Dori Hillestad Butler has created a high-spirited, indomitable character that readers will admire and root for in this story of frustrated ambition and ultimate triumph.