You Throw Like A Girl

You Throw Like A Girl

Juvenile fiction
"It was the first day of summer vacation.
Mom called it the Summer of Girls.
My nine-month-old sister, Ava, called it, 'wah, wah, WAAAAAH!'
And I called it the Summer without Dad.
But the truth was, no matter what you called it, this summer was
going to stink."
Gabby, narrator of Rachel Alpine's You Throw Like A Girl, is en
route to her grandmother's house, an eight hour drive away, with her
mother snd baby sister. Her father has just departed on an overseas
deployment. She's promised to be strong so her mom won't be upset.
She's had to leave her friends and softball team.
Gabby and her father share a passion for baseball. She's
promised him she will join the softball team in her new town and pitch
their way to a championship. There's only one problem. Due to lack
of interest, there's no softball team that summer. Unless she wants
to sit it out she must assume a boy persona to play baseball.
Gabby has mistakenly signed up for the local beauty pageant,
much to the delight of her pageant winner mother who would love for
her to follow in her high heel steps. Coaching Gabby seems to take
her mind off her missing husband, so Gabby feels dropping out is a non
option.
But how can Gabby balance both identities in a really small
town? What will happen if her ruse is discovered?
On a personal note, yesterday after church Eugene invited me to go
shopping with him. I picked out a package of glitter gel pens and a
bag of Lindor truffles for me and a toy mouse for Joey. Eugene paid
for them and then got us subs for supper.
The new toy brought out the little scientist in Joey cat. When he
batted it and it lit up and made a noise he looked delighted. Then he
narrowed his eyes and tried again. And again. And again. From
different angles. Then he looked up at me very proud as if to say, "I
made that happen."
A great big shout out goes out to all who turned out in solidarity to
protest the violence at (and the whole concept of) the white supremacy
march.
jules hathaway


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