“It is 1952, and nearly all the girls 16-year-old Bertha Harding knows dream of getting married, keeping house, and raising children in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan. Bertha dreams of baseball. She reads every story in the sports section, she plays ball with the neighborhood boys--she even writes letters to the pitcher for the Workington Sweet Peas, part of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.
When Bertha's father is accused of being part of the Communist Party by the House Un-American Activities Committee, life comes crashing down on them. Disgraced and shunned, the Hardings move to a small town to start over where the only one who knows them is shy Uncle Matthew. But dreams are hard to kill, and when Bertha gets a chance to try out for the Workington Sweet Peas, she packs her bags for an adventure she'll never forget.”
Series: As of now, no. A stand-alone novel.
Spiritual Content- Church going; Talks about God; 'H's are not capital when referring to God; Bertha wonders if it’s okay to bother God with silly prayers as she heard in a sermon not to do that, but also remembers the Scripture about casting out cares on Him; Bertha’s father believes in God and reads his Bible, but dislikes the socializing and singing part of church so he times it where he avoids those; Mentions of God; Mentions of praying, prayers, & blessings over food; Mentions of churches, church going, sermons, hymns, & Sunday school classes; Mentions of different denominations & a Jewish synagogue; A few mentions of those & events in the Bible; A few mentions of Easter Sunday; A few mentions of blessings; A few mentions of sins; A couple mentions of thanking God; A couple mentions of Bible & Bible reading; A couple mentions of Christians; A mention of getting right with God; A mention of it being said that a birthmark is where an angel kissed the baby;
*Note: A few mentions of reading tea leaves, palm reading, crystal balls, & tarot cards. (in terms of someone not putting much stock in that kind of thing); A couple mentions of ghosts & witches (in terms of types of monsters/scary things); A couple mentions of some people believing toads have a gem in their head that has magical powers; A mention of the green earth that God made (used in the way of the phrase “no way on God’s green earth…”); A mention of an “ungodly” hour; A mention of a bad word being “sinful” (in Flossie’s eyes); A mention of a rumor of a woman being a wicked witch and turning into a spider (a rumor from a group of children); A mention of a haunted house; A mention of a goddess of chaos.
Negative Content- Minor cussing including: a ‘Geeze Louise’, an unfinished ‘hell’, a ‘nuts’, a ‘what in Sam Hill’, two forms of ‘idiot’, two ‘shucks’s, three ‘drat’s, four ‘dumb’s, five ‘darn’s, five ‘shoot’s, six ‘stupid’s, eight ‘heck’s, nine ‘gosh’s, ten ‘golly’s, and twelve forms of ‘doggone’; Mentions of curses & mentions of profanity in books (In one classic book, Flossie thinks that “it was probably the very worst word someone could say other than taking the Lord’s name in vain” but then whispers the word to herself so she can know “what it felt like to say something so wicked” and knows that her Sunday school teacher would be disappointed in her but her curiosity got the better of her; She asks her mother what it means and is told that it means she’s too young to read or say it, so she asks her mother what would happen if she said it and her mother didn’t hear her to which her mother says not to test her; Her mother implies that Flossie is told not to read it, but she continues the book anyway; A bit later, Flossie reads another book with cursing and tries to hide it); Eye rolling; Pain & Injuries (up to semi-detailed); Bertha’s family are accused of being communists (they are not); Flossie is teased, bullied, chased by bullies, & also pushes a bully when she’s mean (up to semi-detailed); Bertha’s father helps her sneak out passed her mother to go try-out for a baseball team (her mother told her to wait to tryouts; Bertha knows that her mother will be livid, but goes anyway with the help of her father); Flossie is excited to receive two quarters for herself & decides not to tell her mother about it; *Major Spoiler* Towards the end, Bertha and Flossie’s father is killed in a car accident; Lots of grief from their family is shown *End of Spoiler*; Many mentions of communism, communists, & Stalinist sympathies (Bertha’s father used to know some and calls them “good people with good intentions” and that they wanted things to be better and had some funny ideas on how to do that); Mentions of the Great Depression & wars; Mentions of vandalism neighborhood boys fighting; Mentions of pain, injuries, & blood/bleeding; Mentions of rumor of a principal paddling naughty children & how the story has grown dramatically (that the paddle has been made to leave welts, a boy peeing himself because of it, etc.); Mentions of bullies & their mean teasing (including Flossie wetting herself from being scared & another group of bullies picking on a girl for her scar); Mentions of a group of children singing a song about hanging a communist (Flossie is scared at one point that they may actually do that to her); Mentions of alcohol, mixed drinks, drinking, & Bertha’s father swearing off of alcohol when he became a father (including a mention that some men can stop at one or two drinks, but he couldn’t so he drinks a lot of coffee now instead; He does have a drink to celebrate something and her mother is upset about it since he promised not to touch it; Bertha recalls when her father drank a lot after the death of a loved one and how that earned him a lot of nights locked out of the house; A mention of a man saying he can drink alcohol because he’s an adult); Mentions of smoking & cigarettes (both Bertha’s father and uncle smoke); Mentions of lies/fibs, lying, & liars; Mentions of gossip & rumors; Mentions of hatred; Mentions of grief (for a son/brother, in a book for a brother, & a couple families for their husband/father leaving them or passing away); Mentions of bathroom humor & using the bathroom (barely-above-not-detailed); A few mentions of being very upset about a death in a book (Of Mice and Men); A few mentions of possibly poisoning others & having to hide the bodies (in a book); A few mentions of slaves & slavery to the Vikings (family history); A few mentions of a father leaving his family; A few mentions of taxidermy; A couple mentions of mobs & gangs; A couple mentions of threats of burning a family’s home down; A couple mentions of Flossie slapping another student for her mean tease; A couple mentions of a female teacher who is rumored to have a drinking problem; A couple mentions of boys excluding girls from their baseball games; A couple mentions of a butcher & skinned animals (barely-above-not-detailed); A couple mentions of jealousy; A mention of a note telling someone to die; A mention of a death in a fire (fictional); A mention of Flossie doing another student’s homework a couple times to become friends with her; A mention of a cow dying after being hit by a baseball;
*Note: Many mentions of books, authors, & fictional characters (including some quotes from books); Many mentions of brand names (Crisco, Levi’s, Tootsie Rolls, Lucky Strike cigarettes, Cracker Jacks, Coke, Charleston Chews, Doublemint gum, Lifebuoy soap, Aqua Velva, Oscar Mayers, Charles Chips, See-Em-Walk dog toy, Mary Janes, Wonder Bread, Buster Browns, Vernor’s, Old Spice, Encyclopedia Britannica, & Merriam-Webster); Mentions of a young girl (who’s implied has a clef lip and palate) wishing she was normal & crying because of people treating her differently; Mentions of movies, actors, & actresses; Mentions of singers & songs; Mentions of car brands; A few mentions of a baby suddenly passing away in the night; A few mentions of a teacher not allowing Flossie to read a book as it’s about war since “books about war were for boys” (so Flossie goes to the library to check it out); A couple mentions of the Boy Scouts; A mention of Girl Scouts; A mention of zombies; A mention of Frankenstein; A mention of Halloween; A mention of Norman Rockwell.
Sexual Content- A not-detailed kiss; A bit of Hand holding, Butterflies, & Nearness (barely-above-not-detailed); Wanting to hold hands (once, barely-above-not-detailed); Noticing (barely-above-not-detailed); Blushes & Winks; Flossie is eleven and wears a full face of makeup & stuffed her shirt with toilet paper to “make up for her lack” and to look older (she is sent to the principal’s office because of it and when she needs a tissue, she grabs one of her “toilet paper bosom” for her tears); An arrogant guy asks a girl if she’s sweet on Bertha since he was turned down for a date with her (no, obviously, neither girl liked his attitude); Mentions of kisses, kissing, married couples kissing, & parents showing affection (barely-above-not-detailed); Mentions of a dance, dates, & dating; A couple mentions of girls making eyes at some boys; A mention of a couple having to get married (implied she’s expecting); A mention of newlyweds needing privacy & the wife turning bright red when it’s mentioned; A mention of seeing a couple kiss (barely-above-not-detailed); A mention of a first kiss; A mention of the k-i-s-s-i-n-g song; A mention of swooning; A mention of a woman being called a ‘broad’; Being friends with a guy & possibly being more someday;
*Note: A guy rudely teases Bertha for playing baseball on a boys’ team (pandering and asks another teammate if it’s because she’s plain and wants to be a man instead of a woman); Mentions of the expectations of a wife and mother (have a clean kitchen, have dinner on the table when her husband wants it, and chasing a toddler while wearing high-heels) & a woman believing that All-American girls are “at their best when living a life of married domesticity”; Mentions of bikinis (one girl at school says her mother will allow her to wear one and Flossie thinks about her mother telling her that she “might as well just sit around in my underwear because it covered more than a bikini would”, so Flossie is jealous about the other girl being allowed to wear one); Mentions of brassieres, strapless ones, & getting a new one to give a girl “a little more shape”; A couple mentions of a strapless dress; A mention of stuffing a bra; A mention of Flossie being teased about her flat chest (from another female student); A mention of a teacher being called “Old Wigglebottom” (her last name is Higginbottom); A mention of some boys wiggling their behinds when batting; A mention of a woman swinging her hips; A mention of Flossie thinking about Gilbert Blythe and getting weak in the knees over him; A mention of a man heckling a female baseball player that she should “pursue a barefoot and pregnant life”.
-Bertha Harding, age 16
-Florence “Flossie” Harding, age 11
1st person P.O.V. of Bertha & Flossie switches between them
Set in 1952 (Epilogue in 1968)
340 pages
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Pre Teens-
New Teens-
Early High School Teens-
Older High School Teens-
My personal Rating-
The ending wrecked me more than I ever expected in a book I thought was mainly about baseball.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s discuss other parts first.
Baseball. It’s the only sport I personally like and it’s a sport I rarely see in Christian Fiction, which is a crying shame, in my opinion. I was instantly interested in this book because of that and it being set in the 1950s since it sounded like I book a would enjoy.
However, this book is more about family than baseball, I would say, in general. The family content and the importance of family in this book was so lovely and heartwarming. They weren’t a perfect family, but they did their best for the others and loved each other a lot. It was so precious. I really enjoyed the characters and writing style so much. I couldn’t help but cheer for Bertha and her baseball dreams and then Flossie is just something else, I’ll say. I really liked both of them and never felt disappointed when the chapter would switch and change point of views.
How did this book feel so nostalgic? Is it the vintage charm? It perfectly felt like the 1950s and added such a neat charm to the story.
I will say that the faith content was light and I think there could have been more naturally added at certain parts throughout the book. The back-cover synopsis gave more than I think it should…it took a bit over hundred pages to get to the accusations and another hundred to get to the adventure. Sometimes I would forget what would be coming and just enjoy the story where it was at, but I did find myself anticipating the adventure and future events at times.
The ending and twist. My heart. I needed that last chapter to go on a little bit longer—just a little bit—because I was sniffing back tears. My heart is aching right now as I sit here after finishing this book, I’ll be honest.
I see why so many of my book friends have raved about this author’s books…this was my first one by her but definitely not my last.
See y’all on Friday with a new review!
*BFCG may (Read the review to see) recommend this book by this author. It does not mean I recommend all the books by this author.
*I received this book for free from the Publisher (Revell) for this honest review.
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