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Safe at Home (Comeback Kids) Paperback – September 3, 2009
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Nick Crandall feels like he doesn't belong anywhere. He doesn't fit in with his new foster parents. They don't know the first thing about sports - and he's not exactly the model student they want him to be. It's only a matter of time until they realize he's not the right kid for them. And Nick certainly doesn't belong playing varsity baseball. He's only twelve years old! His teammates want a catcher their own age. But Nick needs to prove that he belongs - to his parents, to his team, and to himself.
- Print length192 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Grade level3 - 7
- Lexile measure960L
- Dimensions5 x 0.48 x 7.75 inches
- PublisherViking Books for Young Readers
- Publication dateSeptember 3, 2009
- ISBN-109780142414606
- ISBN-13978-0142414606
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“Lupica portrays the action clearly and vividly, with a real sense of the excitement and unpredictable nature of the games. These are worthy additions to collections seeking to draw in middle-grade boys with an enthusiasm for athletics.” –School Library Journal
“These should score big with middle-graders looking for alternatives to Matt Christopher's titles.” –Publisher’s Weekly
“This title is a good choice for reluctant readers with a background in baseball.” –School Library Journal
About the Author
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
More than anything, Nick Crandall’s real family had always been baseball.
He’d always felt that way about the teams he’d played on, since his first T-ball team. And he felt that way about the teams in the majors he followed, usually the ones with the best catchers, because Nick was a catcher, too.
Baseball was the only thing that made Nick feel like he really belonged. There were a lot of reasons why he loved baseball season, but that was the biggest.
Maybe everybody else on junior varsity at the Hayworth School, all the other sixth and seventh-graders on the team, looked at the calendar and thought the school year was coming to an end.
Not Nick.
As far as he was concerned, everything was just beginning.
School baseball was for the spring, and that was his only team in the spring, because Paul and Brenda Crandall had one rule about sports: one team per season. Even that was all right with Nick. He got to play school ball every day except on the weekends, and he could look forward to playing in their town’s summer Little League from the end of June into August.
So when he looked at the calendar, all he could see was baseball, practically all the way until school started again in the fall.
It was the first week of tryouts for JV, even though hardly anybody thought of them as tryout tryouts, because everybody who came out made the team. Some guys did get cut off varsity, made up of eighth- and ninth-graders, depending on how many came out. But even those guys, no matter how old they were, got moved down to JV if they still wanted to play.
Nobody moved up, though.
You didn’t get to play varsity at Hayworth until you were in eighth. Nobody was sure if it was an official written-down rule. But if you played sports at Hayworth, and everybody had to play at least one, you knew that’s how things were done.
Nick didn’t care. No way did he care. He was in no rush to play varsity, anyway. The varsity catcher, Bobby Mazzilli, was graduating with the rest of his class in June. So in Nick’s mind, a mind filled with baseball stuff the way his desk drawers were filled with baseball cards and magazines, next year he had a good shot at being varsity catcher.
That was no sure thing, of course, even though things seemed to be set up just right for him. Because more than anything he knew about baseball, Nick knew this:
There were no sure things in your life.
Product details
- ASIN : 0142414603
- Publisher : Viking Books for Young Readers; Reprint edition (September 3, 2009)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 192 pages
- ISBN-10 : 9780142414606
- ISBN-13 : 978-0142414606
- Reading age : 9 - 12 years, from customers
- Lexile measure : 960L
- Grade level : 3 - 7
- Item Weight : 5.4 ounces
- Dimensions : 5 x 0.48 x 7.75 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #442,486 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
![Mike Lupica](https://cdn.statically.io/img/m.media-amazon.com/images/I/31eVSrMgWtL._SY600_.jpg)
Mike Lupica is one of the most prominent sports writers in America. His longevity at the top of his field is based on his experience and insider's knowledge, coupled with a provocative presentation that takes an uncompromising look at the tumultuous world of professional sports. Today he is a syndicated columnist for the New York Daily News, which includes his popular “Shooting from the Lip” column, which appears every Sunday. He began his newspaper career covering the New York Knicks for the New York Post at age 23. He became the youngest columnist ever at a New York paper with the New York Daily News, which he joined in 1977. For more than 30 years, Lupica has added magazines, novels, sports biographies, other non-fiction books on sports, as well as television to his professional resume. For the past fifteen years, he has been a TV anchor for ESPN's The Sports Reporters. He also hosted his own program, The Mike Lupica Show on ESPN2. In 1987, Lupica launched “The Sporting Life” column in Esquire magazine. He has published articles in other magazines, including Sport, World Tennis, Tennis, Golf Digest, Playboy, Sports Illustrated, ESPN: The Magazine, Men's Journal and Parade. He has received numerous honors, including the 2003 Jim Murray Award from the National Football Foundation. Mike Lupica co-wrote autobiographies with Reggie Jackson and Bill Parcells, collaborated with noted author and screenwriter, William Goldman on Wait Till Next Year, and wrote The Summer of '98, Mad as Hell: How Sports Got Away from the Fans and How We Get It Back and Shooting From the Lip, a collection of columns. In addition, he has written a number of novels, including Dead Air, Extra Credits, Limited Partner, Jump, Full Court Press, Red Zone, Too Far and national bestsellers Wild Pitch and Bump and Run. Dead Air was nominated for the Edgar Allen Poe Award for Best First Mystery and became a CBS television move, “Money, Power, Murder” to which Lupica contributed the teleplay. Over the years he has been a regular on the CBS Morning News, Good Morning America and The MacNeil-Lehrer Newshour. On the radio, he has made frequent appearances on Imus in the Morning since the early 1980s. His previous young adult novels, Travel Team, Heat, Miracle on 49th Street, and the summer hit for 2007, Summer Ball, have shot up the New York Times bestseller list. Lupica is also what he describes as a “serial Little League coach,” a youth basketball coach, and a soccer coach for his four children, three sons and a daughter. He and his family live in Connecticut.
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Top reviews
Top reviews from the United States
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So my advice for readers of this book is to stick with it because it will get interesting near the end.
Basically once you get the first 3/4 read it’s the last 1/4 that is AWESOME like super awesome!
A little bit about the main character...
-name is Mike
-catcher on a baseball team
-Orphan
-Foster parents are not baseball parents
IF YOU JUST WANT TO KNOW THE STORY KEEP READING
SPOILER ALERT
So in the beginning the kid in the book his name is Mike is playing baseball on the JV team and then Mike learns that the catcher from the varsity team got hurt so he’s pulled up to varsity and Mike starts out playing really bad and he’s a really good player so he doesn’t know what’s happening he’s like overthrowing it under throwing it and not good stuff The kids on the team are pretty mean to him. Then Mike’s coach helps him by saying hey Mike can you show me my keys and it’s a perfect throw throw so then Mike starts getting better at throwing. But Mike is a little bit confused because when he was on the JV team he was a perfect catcher perfect thrower. But Mike he’s working on it and he calms down so he begins to be really good thrower and catcher. One of his best friends is the girl across the street named Gracie. My favorite part of the book was when mike’s dad came home and said hey I got a baseball glove and Mike was like I don’t need a baseball glove plus I’m a catcher and that’s the wrong kind. Mike’s dad was like oh no no no it’s not for you it’s for me. (Remember Mike’s dad was never a baseball dad and never played catch with his son so Mike is like wow you got a glove!) Mike was so excited. His dad was really bad like really really bad at throwing and catching but Mike didn’t care he just was glad his dad was out there playing with him. And his dad was like throw it like you mean it!! Mike was kind of babying it because he didn’t want to hurt him. So Mike started throwing it harder. And he would make a perfect throws every time and hit him in the chest like every time. I’m sure it hurt his dad. But his dad kept going because Mike was finally enjoying time with him and that rarely happens. This book makes me feel so happy to hear how Mike develops with his foster mom and foster dad.
Even though I kinda just spoiled the whole book I hope you will still read it
NOT SPOILING
NOT SPOILING
NOT SPOILING
Sorry for how long the review was but thank for reading it.
Have a great day!!
!!!
Lupica is a great writer.
Top reviews from other countries
![](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/S/amazon-avatars-global/9d916eee-624b-4634-9376-abdc753c9fd6._CR0,0,375,375_SX48_.jpg)
Justin's parents are getting a divorce and he's living with his mom because his father's work requires him to travel a lot. His mother wants to move Justin and herself to her home town. There's a lot of drama in this book and I can relate to some of it.
Ben has to get Justin's help to avoid flinching at bat.
I enjoyed the book.