This book is based on a true story about a boy named Norm who’s torn between being an artist or being a baseball pitcher. He loves to draw cars and he loves playing baseball with his friends. But his life changes one day when he’s helping in his dad’s store. His hand gets stuck in a meat grinder and has to be amputated. Will he ever be able to do the things he had done with two hands?
Norm’s friends and his parents (especially his mom) make him do things on his own. For example, his mom talked to all of his teachers and told them to do to him as they would do to other students, NO SPECIAL TREATMENT!!! But he really wanted to play on the summer league baseball team. One of his dad’s customers donated to him a right handed baseball glove his son had used.
The night of the hardest game the team had ever played, the coach put him in to pitch. They were down by ten runs. Can Norm pull the team out of the slump? Sure, he’s an inspirational player, but is he a baller?
This is the best book I’ve read in months, so I give it a 5 star rating. I don’t think I’ve ever been so excited to hear my teacher say that it’s time to read in class. I like it so much because I have a passion for books that are a mix of fiction and nonfiction. To think that a young boy actually lost his hand and had to figure out how to do the things he loves with one hand and a stub is encouraging. No matter how big and troubling my problems seem, there’s always someone with one that I can’t even imagine.
