Sue Corbett

The main character is Felix in story Free Baseball, by Sue Corbett. This adventure is about a boy and his love for the game of baseball. Felix is a Cuban boy who crossed borders by boat with his mother at the age of 3. When Felix enters a radio contest and wins two tickets to a local minor league baseball game his journey begins . Felix gets supposedly separated from his babysitter who took him to the game and decides to stowaway on the opposing team bus. He did this because the miracle, the opposing team, had a Cuban player on the team that might be able to tell Felix about his father, a famous baseball player on the Cuban national team that stayed back from crossing borders. Felix called his mom and told her he was staying over a friend’s house. Felix pretends to be the bat boy.

from wikipedia
I loved this book.… (més)

Felix loves baseball. His father is a famous player in Cuba who risked everything to send his wife and infant son to America for a better life. Felix pins his hopes on meeting his dad someday and getting to know him better because his mother won't tell him much. Felix attends his first minor league game but his good time is ruined by his babysitter and her friends. Angrily he ditches the babysitter and sneaks into the locker room where the visiting team mistakes him for the new batboy. He doesn't deny it as this is his opportunity to find out if the Dominican player knows his dad. He stows away on the team bus and the next day happily but cautiously serves as the batboy until his guise is uncovered by a reporter and the team manager. Felix's mother arrives and tells him the whole story of their escape from Cuba and his father will never come to Florida. An entertaining package of sport, history and mystery; Felix is a likable and real character.… (més)

I think this book affected me more as an adult reader than it would have if I were a child, thanks to the nuances of the mother/son relationship. Chilid readers will be more captured by the Irish magic involved. Sort of a "Freaky Friday" with a twist. Through the alternating views of 12-year-old Patrick and his 40-year-old mother Bernadette, readers experience the impact of Bernadette's "disappearance" (she drinks what she believes is wine at her late mother's house and wakes up as her 12-year-old self living again with her mother). Bernadette enjoys being 12 but realizes it will take magic to undo the effect and that she will need to rely on Patrick to help her out. Meanwhile, Patrick as the oldest has to take on more responsibilities at home. When he gets the e-mails from his missing mother and her mysterious directives, he follows through with a level-headed practicality that's very likable.… (més)