The Rhino in Right Field

It's the spring of 1948 and the weather is perfect for baseball. All 12-year-old Nick Spirakis really wants is "one lousy Saturday off" to participate in the local baseball league's batboy contest and possibly win "Mudpuppy for a day." Nick is fed up with having to obey his Greek immigrant father's every demand: "He makes me work in the shop every Saturday. He makes me go to Greek school every Tuesday. He talks about being American, but he wants me to be exactly like him."
 
Truth be told, Nick's lack of weekend freedom is not the only obstacle in his path to batboy glory. He also has a bad habit of freezing up every time a fly ball comes toward him, due to an unfortunate experience with a 2,580-pound rhino in his own team's outfield. (There's a zoo in their small Wisconsin city's park, and players must chase the occasional errant ball into cages.) And now there's a friendly new kid in town with an amazing throwing arm--unfortunately, she's a girl, which makes Nick uncomfortable and a bit resentful. In spite of the odds against him, though, Nick is determined to get to that contest, and maybe even win it.
 
The Rhino in Right Field is charmingly funny, like an up-to-date (but still set in the 1940s) Homer Price or Henry Huggins. Boys are "fellas" and frozen custard is the sweet treat of choice. In her author's note, Stacy DeKeyser (The Brixen Witch; One Witch at a Time) writes that Nick's character was modeled after her father, who grew up dodging animals and fly balls in Milwaukee's Washington Park Zoo. --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor
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