Playing the Field

by Phil Bildner

Overview

All Darcy wants is to play on the baseball team, to hear her name announced, "Now batting, Darcy Miller," to play the field. Is that so much to ask? Unfortunately, it might be. In a few short months, Darcy Miller goes from typical senior in high school to candidate for Jerry Springer. Her mom has started dating Darcy's principal, the very principal whose son Darcy happened to have started a huge flirt-fest with, now brought to a screeching halt. When she decides to let her mom go to bat (so to speak) for her to play on the baseball team, Darcy thinks things are starting to look up. After all, Principal Basset caves and decides to let her play. But he has two conditions that shake up her entire game: She must pretend to be a lesbian (WHAT?) and she must join the GSA, the Gay-Straight Alliance (WHAT? WHAT?), the president of which happens to be her best friend — make that her ex-best friend, Josh. Okay, Darcy's senior year might seem complicated at first. It's not. It's insurmountably, unforgettably, and — most of the time — hilariously complicated.

But if anyone can handle it, it's Darcy. She'll do anything just to play the field.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781481421720
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers
Publication date:	12/14/2013
Pages:	192
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.20(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	14 - 18 Years

About the Author

Phil Bildner is a former New York City public school teacher who lives in Newburgh, New York. He spends much of his year visiting schools and libraries around the country and world. He is the author of over twenty books including the middle grade novel A Whole New Ballgame and picture books Marvelous Cornelius, The Soccer Fence, The Hallelujah Flight, and Twenty-One Elephants. Along with Loren Long, he is the coauthor of the New York Times bestselling Sluggers series. Visit him online at PhilBildner.com.

What People are Saying About This

Tracy Mack

"Phil Bildner's screwball comedy sings with wit and originality and a refreshingly frank and funny exploration of bias and discrimination against gays. Like Darcy Miller's magical pitching arm, it sinks a fastball straight into your heart."
—author of Birdland

Pete Hautman

"Insightful, provocative, and laugh-out-loud funny. . . . An inside-out look at high school sports."
—National Book Award winner for Godless

Editorial Reviews

"Insightful, provocative, and laugh-out-loud funny. . . . An inside-out look at high school sports."

— Pete Hautman, National Book Award winner for Godless

"Phil Bildner's screwball comedy sings with wit and originality and a refreshingly frank and funny exploration of bias and discrimination against gays. Like Darcy Miller's magical pitching arm, it sinks a fastball straight into your heart."

— Tracy Mack, author of Birdland

From the Publisher

"Insightful, provocative, and laugh-out-loud funny. . . . An inside-out look at high school sports."
—National Book Award winner for Godless

Pete Hautman

Gr 8 Up-Darcy Miller is a softball star frustrated with her less-than-stellar high school team. Wanting to make better use of her talents, she tries to convince the principal that she could take the boys' baseball team to the championships if only she were given the chance. However, Mr. Basset is less than thrilled with the idea until his son, Brandon, Darcy's long-term crush, tells him that Darcy is a lesbian. She plays along with the ruse, showing little concern for the consequences that pretending to be gay could have on her social life. Why being a lesbian makes one eligible to play boys' baseball is not addressed. In exchange for getting the opportunity to try out, the principal forces Darcy to join the Gay Straight Alliance. At this point the plot becomes even more preposterous. The GSA president, Josh, is Darcy's ex-best friend and fellow admirer of Brandon. When Josh gets wind of Darcy's plan to be a "closeted straight," he vows to expose her, but not before teaching her a poorly executed lesson on tolerance. The anticlimactic resolution to this Shakespearean-farce-gone-bland ends with Brandon saving the day and getting the girl, while Darcy becomes captain of the baseball team, with no repercussions for her actions. Flat characterizations, dated slang, and wholly unbelievable scenarios prevent this novel from being anything close to a homerun.-Michelle Roberts, Merrick Library, NY Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

School Library Journal

Implausible characterizations and motivations run through this high-school senior's first-person narration of a feud, a crush and making the boys' baseball team. Darcy, a stellar pitcher-hitter-shortstop, has spent three glum years relegated to the (losing) girls' softball team. The school principal-who's dating Darcy's mother, to Darcy's horror-hears some information from his son (on whom Darcy and ex-best friend Josh both have mad crushes): Supposedly Darcy's a lesbian. This is false but inexplicably convinces the principal to allow Darcy onto the baseball team. A vendetta between Josh and Darcy involves their crush object and the school's Gay-Straight Alliance. Darcy's consistent cockiness and perfect play-"I fielded each one effortlessly (as usual)"-make her goal achievements hard to care about. Bildner relies on commentary like, "My mouth literally dropped" and "I visibly gasped" to force a sense of urgency. Too improbable for realism, not sharp enough for farce and simply unconvincing. (Fiction. YA)

Kirkus Reviews