Soar by Joan Bauer

• Genre: Sports Fiction 
• Grade Level: 4th - 6th
• Reading Level: 3.6
• Length: 304 pages (6 hours)
• Publisher: Viking  (January 5, 2016)
• My Rating: 5 out of 4
• Division 1 or Crossover

I loved this book!  It had so much humor, compassion, passion, and hope.  It is about a 12 year old boy named Jeremiah who was abandoned as a baby but adopted by the single man who found him in the break room at work.  Jeremiah gets sick and ends up having to have a heart transplant. He can no longer play baseball, the game he loves. Walt, his father, who is a computer expert and consultant have to move to Ohio. While they are there, Jeremiah discovers a town that loves baseball too. But then a tragedy happens and it looks like no one will play the game anymore.  Jeremiah decides to volunteer as a coach for the middle school team and he coaches the underdogs into believing in the game again. 

This book is so funny at times. I just wanted to stop and write down the great one liners as well as the inspirational sayings sprinkled through out the book.  Sometimes you just have to stop and think about what is written before you continue reading.  The book is easy to read and I could hardly put it down.  A lot of lessons are learned in this novel. This is the kind of positive message book that we need more of. I highly recommend it. Boys should love it as well as girls.  I also think it would be a great classroom read aloud.