< b>A New York Times Bestseller< br>A Pulitzer Prize-winning Author< /b>< p>In Summerland, conditions are always ideal for playing baseball. But the small beings who keep things that way are in peril, and they need a hero -- a baseball star, in fact -- to vanquish their foe.< p>An Accelerated Reader® title. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

In his debut novel for young readers, Pulitzer Prize winner Chabon (The Adventures of Kavalier & Clay) hits a high-flying home run, creating a vivid fantasy where baseball is king. Following the death of his mother, 11-year-old Ethan Feld and his father, a designer of lighter-than-air-dirigibles move to Clam Island, Wash. The island is known for its almost constant rain, save for an area on its westernmost tip called Summerland by the locals which "knew a June, July and August that were perfectly dry and sunshiny." In Summerland, Ethan struggles to play baseball for the Ruth's Fluff and Fold Roosters, with dismal results. But here, too, a mystical baseball scout recruits Ethan and escorts him through a gateway to a series of interconnected worlds that are home to magical creatures called ferishers and an evil, shape-changing overlord called Coyote. Ethan and two of his fellow teammates soon accept a mission to save these other worlds (plus the one they live in) from ultimate destruction at Coyote's hand. When his father's well-being is also threatened, Ethan's quest becomes all the more urgent. To succeed, Ethan and his friends must find a way to beat giants, ferishers and others in a series of games where striking out truly has apocalyptic implications. Chabon unspools an elaborate yarn in a style that frequently crackles with color and surprise. He occasionally addresses readers directly, imbuing his tale with the aura of something that has been passed down through the ages. Impressively, the author takes a contemporary smalltown setting and weaves in baseball history, folklore and environmental themes, to both challenge and entertain readers. Images of the icy Winterlands and beasts like the werefox and Taffy the motherly Sasquatch recall C.S. Lewis's Narnia and some of Philip Pullman's creations in His Dark Materials. Devotees of the genre and of America's pastime will find much to cheer here. All ages. (Oct.) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Gr 5 Up-Ethan Feld, a less-than-mediocre Little League player, is recruited by Ringfinger Brown, an old-timer from the Negro Leagues, to play in the ball game of his life-and save the world. Ethan lives on Clam Island, WA, where a place called Summerland exists. It is a link to alternate worlds where fantastic creatures reside, ruled by the trickster Coyote, who has decided that he wants to put an end to the world. Ethan, an unlikely hero, begins his journey accompanied by his friends Jennifer T. Rideout and Thor Wignutt. Along the way, they face many obstacles (with outcomes often determined by baseball games) and are joined by all sorts of beings: a Sasquatch, a talking rat, a tiny giant, a major league ball player, and characters that readers may remember from legends and fairy tales. Readers will identify with Ethan and his motley crew with their insecurities, longings, family problems, and their sometimes clumsy ingenuity. Packed with magic, adventure, myth, and America's favorite pastime, this book will enchant its audience.-Kimberly L. Paone, Elizabeth Public Library, NJ Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Chabon contends that he decided to try his hand at a children's fantasy because he wanted to write something that would interest his three kids, but it's hard not to wonder if he wasn't thinking, too, about the popularity of a certain boy named Potter. Certainly, this sprawling, infinitely complex fantasy, ostensibly written for "all ages," has a few things in common with the Harry Potter books: meticulously created alternative worlds; detail-laden descriptions of imaginary flora and fauna; and a cast of characters, fantastical and otherwise, who possess a bedrock humanity that draws us to them. Unlike Hogwarts Academy, Chabon's fantasy world draws heavily on a distinctly American archetypal framework, supported by two of the most myth-drenched forces in American life, Indians and baseball. The story centers on young Ethan Feld, a reluctant little leaguer whose father, a crackpot inventor and rabid baseball fan, has been snatched by legendary troublemaker Coyote, who hopes to use one of Dad's inventions in his plot to kill the universe. Ethan and his teammate, Jennifer T. Rideout, set out to find Dad, scampering between our world, called the Midling, and several parallel worlds, including Summerland, which is populated by baseball-loving "ferishers" who just happen to have handpicked Ethan as the hero they need to save the universe from Coyote. In the best road-trip tradition, Ethan gathers enough traveling companions, including a morose Sasquatch (think Cowardly Lion), to put together a ball club; good thing, too, because the fate of the universe just might hinge on a nine-inning duel between Ethan's gang and Coyote's all-stars. Committed fantasy buffs are a breed apart, but even they will have to bring their A-games if they expect to digest this ingredient-rich plot. (Certainly, only the most precocious of kids will be able to get around on Chabon's mythic fastball.) Still, there is a good story here, semi-buried beneath the world building; maybe a trimmed-down, three-hour movie will salvage it for the more mundane among us. --Bill Ott From: Syndetics Solutions, Inc. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

An American novelist and short-story writer, Michael Chabon was born in Washington, D.C., in 1963. The son of a pediatrician and a lawyer, Chabon grew up in Columbia, Maryland, and spent his summers with his father in Pittsburgh. Chabon received his B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1985, and went on to get his Master of Fine Arts degree at the University of California at Irvine.

Chabon found success at the age of twenty-four, when William Morrow publishing house offered him $155,000, a near-record sum, for the rights to his first novel The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, which was Chabon's thesis in graduate school.

After Pittsburgh became a national best-seller, Chabon began writing a series of short stories about a little boy dealing with his parents' divorce. The stories, which in part appeared in The New Yorker and G.Q., were bound together in 1991 into a volume titled A Model World And Other Stories. Chabon has also written articles for The New York Times and Vogue.

Chabon lives in Los Angeles.

(Bowker Author Biography) Michael Chabon, the author of The Mysteries of Pittsburgh and Wonder Boys, received his B.A. from the University of Pittsburgh and his M.F.A. from the University of California at Irvine. He lives with his wife and two children in California.

(Publisher Provided) Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

First Base
1 The Worst Ballplayer in the History of Clam Island, Washington	p. 3
2 A Hot Prospect	p. 36
3 A Whistled-up Wind	p. 61
4 The Middling	p. 98
5 Escape	p. 124
Second Base
6 Thor's Crossing	p. 153
7 The Eighteenth Giant Brother	p. 163
8 Taffy	p. 172
9 A Game of Catch	p. 180
10 Mr. Feld in the Winterlands	p. 202
11 The Herald	p. 228
12 The Royal Traitor	p. 236
13 The Housebreakers of Dandelion Hill	p. 251
14 A Mother's Tears	p. 263
15 Grim	p. 273
16 A Rat in the Walls	p. 292
17 The Research of Mr. Feld	p. 302
18 On Three Reubens Field	p. 310
Third Base
19 The Lost Camps	p. 329
20 Rancho Encantado	p. 365
21 Jennifer T. and the Wormhole	p. 381
22 The Bottom-Cat	p. 402
23 The Conquest of Outlandishton	p. 416
24 Applelawn	p. 429
25 A Game of Worlds	p. 455
Home
Epilogue: Life, the World, and Baseball, in the Days After the Flood	p. 477

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