Curveball: The Year I Lost my Grip

Jordan Sonnenblick’s newest novel, Curveball: The Year I Lost my Grip is a touching story about athletic Peter Friedman’s challenging freshmen year of high school. After a baseball career-ending injury to his pitching arm, Peter must find a way to admit to his best friend, AJ, that baseball is no longer part of his future no matter how much AJ believes that recuperation and spring training will fix it. Peter’s talented grandfather, a professional photographer who has captured all of his baseball games with his camera, has also begun to act differently – gives Peter his beloved camera equipment, leaves sticky notes labeling everyday items and how to use them, and asks Peter not to mention his peculiar behavior to his mother. With pressure from his mother, Peter takes a photography class and ultimately meets a girl who steals his heart and unintentionally gets them assigned as photographers for the sports section of the high school yearbook. Will honoring his grandfather’s request put his grandfather in jeopardy? How will AJ take the horrible news about Peter’s future in baseball? My students and I love all of Jordan Sonnenblick’s books: Drums, Girls & Dangerous Pie, Notes from the Midnight Driver, Zen and the Art of Faking It, and After Ever After. Recommend this book for 7th/8th grade and up.