An ALA Best Book for Young Adults< br>A Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award Nominee< P>All of Boston has been waiting for the Gold Dust Twins to come to the 1975 Red Sox. It's a Sox fan's dream. Richard Riley Moncrief is a fan who intends to live that dream. Napoleon Charlie Ellis arrives from the island of Dominica. A cricket player, he's more at home in Symphony Hall than Fenway Park. No problem. As long as he's willing to make baseball his life, they will be the next Gold Dust Twins. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

Lynch's (Gypsy Davey; Slot Machine) latest novel is set in 1975 Boston, when the Gold Dust Twins, Fred Lynn and Jim Rice, play for the Red Sox and school bussing has begun. Seventh-grade narrator Richard Riley Moncreif sees the world in terms of the snap, crackle and pop sounds of the baseball hitting his Adirondack. That is, until Napoleon Charlie Ellis arrives at his Catholic school from the Dominican Republic and opens Richard's eyes to another set of rules on the playing field. Lynch's best passages concern Richard's passion for the game, as when he describes Fred Lynn's stroke ("Some people see what I'm talking about in ballet or in the shapes of sculpture. I see it in a flawless, speedy and powerful swing of a baseball bat in pursuit of a ball"). But the chapters do not flow easily between the almost poetic baseball scenes to the building of Richard and Napoleon's rocky friendship. The author introduces several provocative situations that go unexplored, such as Napoleon's offhand comment about his professor/poet father ("We function in our own worlds, even though we live in essentially the same place") and the tension that results from Napoleon being black and more affluent than Richard's white working-class family. But baseball fans will not be disappointed; Lynch's acute understanding of the way a person's passion colors his view of the world results in a credible, sympathetic protagonist, and the novel's denouement is as honest as it is heartbreaking. Ages 10-up. (Aug.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Gr 5-8-This novel contains some of the best sports writing readers will ever find in a YA novel. Seventh-grader Richard Moncrief, a working-class baseball fanatic, befriends an unusual transfer student. Napoleon Charlie Ellis is from Dominica, plays cricket, speaks grammatically perfect English, and is one of the few black students at their Catholic school in Boston during the 1975 school busing controversy. Richard's dream is for the "Gold Dust Twins," rookies Jim Rice and Fred Lynn, to help the Red Sox win the World Series. His other dream is for Napoleon and himself to become the next Gold Dust Twins-with Richard's knowledge of baseball and Napoleon's natural athletic ability, it's inevitable. Unfortunately, he fails to understand or take into account his friend's dreams, which are very different from his own. Supporting characters are well drawn, with Beverly as a strong female classmate and Butch, the main antagonist. Students unfamiliar with the racial tension of the era may find some references hard to understand. Readers probably won't be familiar with members of the 1970s' Boston Red Sox either, but if they love baseball, it won't matter. True sports fans will identify with Richard's vivid descriptions of the game.-Michael McCullough, Byron-Bergen Middle School, Bergen, NY Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information