Heat

by Mike Lupica

I picked the book called Heat. This book relates to me because it is about baseball and I like baseball a lot. Heat is about a boy named Miguel but everybody calls him Michael except his brother. Michael’s dad was shot and died because he was trying to help a woman who was being hit by a man. Now Michael is hiding from the people who want to put him in foster care.

Michael played Little League baseball and had a very good arm. He was the best pitcher on his team. One day Michael and his best friend Manny Cabrera were practicing at Macobs Dam Park. A girl appeared on the basketball courts who Michael knew from one of his pick up games. Michael chucked the ball over to her on a bounce and she threw it back on the fly. Michael did the same and then she did it again. Michael and Manny went over to meet her and asked her to play but she had to go. They found out her name was Ellie.

One day soon after this Michael and Manny were watching the Yankees - Michael’s favorite team. It was family night at the ball park. When they showed Michael's hero, El Grande, the pitcher, and his children, Michael noticed that Ellie was one of them! The next day when Michael talks to Ellie he was mean. He is mad because she didn’t tell him that she was El Grande’s daughter. Ellie runs away.

At the next little league game, even though his teams wins, Michael is told that he can’t play anymore. Why? Will he ever play again? Will Ellie ever show up again? Read the book and find out the answers for yourselves.

Olivia B.