Now that twelve-year-old Anya is old enough to join her fourteen-year-old sister Marina on the fast-pitch softball team things are becoming tense between them: Anya has trouble catching her sister's pitches and resents Marina's criticism and being moved to the outfield, Marina is increasingly obsessed with her role as captain, and angry because Anya does not seem to take the game as seriously as she does--and with an important game coming up the sisters...

Told from three points of view, the Putterman cousins, twins Sammy and Matty, and Becky, have been at odds, but when Hurrican Harvey hits Houston, they soon find that they need each other more than ever.

David Schimpf, a Vietnam veteran, resident of Saginaw, Michigan, retired GM employee, and a softball umpire for 37 years (1984-2021). Achievements: ASA Gold Medal Umpire (2004), National Indicator Fraternity (2004), ASA/USA Elite Umpire (2004), MASA Umpire Award of Excellence (2006), MASA Hall of Fame Inductee (2011, and ASA Region 8 Umpire Award of Excellence (2017). Michigan High School finals (2), NCAA D-1, D-2 and JUCO umpire, 55 MASA state tournaments...

Terry was eight when he was adopted, along with his younger sister, to a childless farm couple in western Minnesota. Although he was bright, curious, and fiercely independent, he suffered from emotional neglect due to being separated from his biological family as a toddler, followed by the three years he spent in an orphanage. Terry quickly learns that farm life is tough, but, over time, the long hours and the hard, physical labor have a rewarding...

"A fiercely personal and startlingly universal essay collection about the mysteries of gender and desire, of identity and class, of the stories we tell and the places we call home."--Publisher's description. "A fiercely personal and startlingly universal essay collection about the mysteries of gender and desire, of identity and class, of the stories we tell and the places we call home. Flyover country, the middle of nowhere, the space between the...

Fast-pitch softball catcher MadCat Campione's love for the sport--and her relationship with her best friends--is strained when her team competes on a national level.

Eighth-grader Jack Lerner relies on pitching fast balls until a young college coach teaches him that throwing the heat may not be the best way to win games.

Probe into the nonverbal elements of the voice: the configurations of pausing, the irregularities of speech, and vocal tone. Tone includes the amplitude (volume), timbre, resonance, and pitch of the voice. How fast you talk, how much you say, and how long you wait to respond all send messages about the message you are about to convey. Discover how much you can—and can’t—tell about a person just from their voice and speech patterns.

"Joe LaBrava is an ex--Secret Service agent who gets mixed up in a South Miami Beach scam involving a redneck former cop, a Cuban hit man who moonlights as a go-go dancer, and a onetime movie queen whose world is part make-believe, part deadly dangerous. This is vintage Leonard: fast-moving, pitch-perfect, and utterly, authentically irresistible"--Cover p. [4].

Explore the ocean's layers from the sunny surface zone to the pitch-black trenches. Learn about the abundant life around coral reefs, how different species adapted to their environment, and why life on the ocean floor depends on the layers above. Additional features include a diagram labeling each of the layers, Fast Facts, a phonetic glossary, an index, an introduction to the author, and further sources for learning.--