TeenLit Book Reviews

The main character in Some Kind of Pride is Ruth DiMarco. Ruth is an eleven-year-old who has always dreamt of playing major league baseball, which is a major league dream, especially for a girl. She, as well as her brothers, were named after famous baseball players, her name coming from Babe Ruth. And she definitely has the talent to live up to the name; she is by far the best shortstop her small town has ever seen. Ruth's mother dies when she was young, and she lives with her father, a famous sports writer, and two brothers, both of whom love baseball. Her best friend Ellie proves faithful as being the little league scorekeeper and faithfully goes to all practices and also has big thoughts for an eleven year old as she has already announced herself as a feminist. Ruth also finds a friend in Ross, a writer for Sports Illustrated, who learns a lot from this eleven-year-old prodigy Ruth loves baseball, but when she overhears her father remarking her talent was wasted on a girl she begins to doubt herself. How could a girl ever make it to the major leagues? Her immense talent however soon attracts Sports Illustrated and a writer comes to interview her for a story. Throughout the book Ruth is trying to discover how she can be both a baseball player and a women. She learns more about her mother, who was the first female firefighter, and she learns what being a feminist really is, what she really wants, and who she is without baseball. Some Kind of Pride was a book about a young girl defining herself. The characters were pretty well defined for such a short book. Ruth was sometimes unclear in he thoughts, but I loved Ellie, who was truly a best friend to Ruth. The sports writer for Sports Illustrated and her brothers we also well developed characters. I didn't especially like the way her parents were described or how they developed in the story. The plot was good and it could have been drawn out much more. I did enjoy how her mothers role, even though she was dead she played am important role in he story. This story will definitely be inspiring to girls who want to accomplish something. You find yourself really wanting Ruth to go all the way with her dream. This book would be great for younger readers, especially girls, because it's short but will also hold their attention and teach them a valuable lesson on what feminism really is. "'All this time maybe I should have been wishing I knew how to play like a girl.'" -Ross, Sports Illustrated Reporter Rating: 3 Middle School/5th grade age