LitPick Review
Twelve-year-old Nick Spirakis wants to make something big happen! When Nick’s father was twelve, he immigrated from Greece to America. Now, Nick wants to do something important and exciting, too. But there is one big problem: his father makes Nick spend most of his time working in the family’s “Elegant Shoe Repair and Hat Shop.” Nick's favorite thing to do is play baseball with his friends, but he usually misses part of the game each Saturday because he has to work in the shop until 5 o’clock.
Nick and his friends play ball in a park with a zoo. The right field fence is part of the enclosure of a rhino named Tank. One day the school bully, Pete, purposefully hits the ball into Tank’s pen. When Nick tries to retrieve the ball, he almost gets run over by Tank!
When the owner of the local Mudpuppies baseball team announces a competition to be a Mudpuppy batboy for a day, all the boys start practicing. Nick really wants to win, but ever since his close call with Tank, he’s frozen with fear whenever a fly ball comes his way. Also, the competition is on Saturday. Will Nick even be able to go? Can he overcome his fear and win? Read this great book, The Rhino in Right Field by Stacy DeKeyser, to find out.
Opinion:
I really enjoyed reading The Rhino in Right Field by Stacy DeKeyser. The story was very fast-paced, and I was surprised by several plot twists. It was easy to keep track of the nine main characters, and they all felt realistic to me. The book has a positive message about being proud of your family origin and overcoming your fears. However, Nick does some bad things to get his way, like lying to his parents and spying on his uncle. I highly recommend this book to eight to twelve year olds, especially ones who like and understand baseball.
