NO CREAM PUFFS (May 2008, Wendy Lamb Books/Random House) is the story of 12-year-old Madison Mitchell who becomes the first girl in Michigan to play baseball on an all-boys' little league team in the 1970s. It's a funny yet poignant look at what it was like to be a star athlete at a time when there were little sporting opportunities for girls. Not only does Madison have to worry about people who question whether she, or any girl, should be allowed to play little league, but she also has to deal with her own growing insecurities. What will her friends think about her in a uniform? Will the boy she likes still be interested if she strikes him out? What does it mean to be a trendsetter? And finally, how will she ever make sense of all of these new rules she inadvertently sets in place?

REVIEWS

"Baseball provides fertile ground for exploring cultural and personal issues in this satisfying novel set in the summer of 1980."
 – Kirkus

"Every one of these first-rate recent titles for middle and high school students not only makes absorbing, sometimes pulse-pounding reading, but also invites readers to think about the value of teamwork, determination, and setting goals as tools for coping with doubts and other personal challenges…"
 – John Peters and Marilyn Taniguchi, School Library Journal

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