Gold Dust [Hardcover]

Chris Lynch (Author)

Book Description

Age Level: 10 and up

If I ran things, nobody would have names. We would just have batting averages. Then there would be no misunderstandings.

All of Boston has been waiting for the arrival of Fred Lynn and Jim Rice to the 1975 Red Sox. The papers call them the Gold Dust Twins, the best pair of rookies ever to come to one team together. It is a Sox fan's dream.

Richard Riley Moncrief is that fan. And he intends to live that dream, in the stands and on the field. All he needs is his partner. . .

Napoleon Charlie Ellis arrives from the island of Dominica--and a world Richard will never know. Napoleon plays cricket, never says ain't, and is more at home in Symphony Hall than Fenway Park.

No problem. As long as Napoleon is willing to quit reading the newspapers, listen to Richard, and make baseball his life, the two of them will go on to greatness together on the field. They will be the next Gold Dust Twins.

Simple as black and white.

Except maybe Napoleon doesn't happen to share Richard's passion. Maybe he has a dream of his own.

And maybe black and white is not that simple.

2001 Notable Children's Books (ALA), 2001 Best Books for Young Adults (ALA), Children's Books 2000-NY Public Lib., and Bulletin Blue Ribbon Best of 2000 Award

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"'Don't make things more complicated than they should be' would be my philosophy if I had one." The year is 1975 and that's single-minded Richard Riley Moncrief talking, a Boston seventh grader too focused on his one true love--baseball, especially the Red Sox--to even contemplate that anything else in the universe might have significance. That endearing, maniacal obsession equips Richard with all the philosophy and metaphor he needs to navigate the insular world of St. Colmcille's parochial school, his working-class neighborhood, and all the baseball-related holy sites (the Northeastern U. batting cages, Fenway Park) in between. That is, until busing begins in Boston, racial tensions rise, and a polished, young Dominican émigré named Napoleon Charlie Ellis (who happens to be a bang-up cricket player) enrolls at St. Colmcille's.

The other major event in Richard's life is the arrival of touted rookies Fred Lynn and Jim Rice--the Gold Dust Twins--to the Sox roster. Not long after the two boys find themselves magnetically drawn together, Richard cooks up a new obsession: he will reform this cricket player, and the two of them will fulfill their destiny as the next Gold Dust Twins.

Chris Lynch's convincing sensitivity to a difficult age and topic--along with his clear love of the game--combine to make Gold Dust simply superb, a touching, subtle, and insightful book that comes across as clean as the crack of a bat. (Ages 9 to 12) --Paul Hughes

From Publishers Weekly

Lynch's (Gypsy Davey; Slot Machine) latest novel is set in 1975 Boston, when the Gold Dust Twins, Fred Lynn and Jim Rice, play for the Red Sox and school bussing has begun. Seventh-grade narrator Richard Riley Moncreif sees the world in terms of the snap, crackle and pop sounds of the baseball hitting his Adirondack. That is, until Napoleon Charlie Ellis arrives at his Catholic school from the Dominican Republic and opens Richard's eyes to another set of rules on the playing field. Lynch's best passages concern Richard's passion for the game, as when he describes Fred Lynn's stroke ("Some people see what I'm talking about in ballet or in the shapes of sculpture . I see it in a flawless, speedy and powerful swing of a baseball bat in pursuit of a ball"). But the chapters do not flow easily between the almost poetic baseball scenes to the building of Richard and Napoleon's rocky friendship. The author introduces several provocative situations that go unexplored, such as Napoleon's offhand comment about his professor/poet father ("We function in our own worlds, even though we live in essentially the same place") and the tension that results from Napoleon being black and more affluent than Richard's white working-class family. But baseball fans will not be disappointed; Lynch's acute understanding of the way a person's passion colors his view of the world results in a credible, sympathetic protagonist, and the novel's denouement is as honest as it is heartbreaking. Ages 10-up. (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 10 and up
  
• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers; 1st edition (August 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006028174X
• ISBN-13: 978-0060281748
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,894,638 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Review for Gold Dust, February 20, 2001

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Gold Dust (Hardcover)

The book I read was "Gold Dust" by Chris Lynch. What drew my attention to it was that it was based on a kid who was obsessed with baseball. I love baseball, so i figured it was a goods book to read. Richard Riley Moncrief lives in Boston and is going into seventh grade. He loves everything about baseball and his favorite team is the Red Sox. The year that Richard enters seventh grade , a new boy moves to town. He is from Dominica and his name is Napoleon Charlie Ellis. The only sport he knew how to play was cricket. THroughout the story, Richard teaches his new best friend, Napoleon, how to play baseball and get rid of his old cricket habits. They go to the batting cages to work on their skills. They also play around in the schoolyard and go to Fenway Park a lot. If you're wondering how the term "Gold Dust" comes in, it all starts out with two Red Sox, Fred Lynn and Jim Rice. Their nicknames are the gold dust twins, which encourages the two baseball loving boys to change their nicknames to the gold dust twins. I really liked this book and I would give it 4 stars. It was well written, and Lynch does a good job of describing Richard and Napoleon's experiences when they are playing baseball together. He talks about how the crack of the bat feels, and many other things that baseball related people will know. At first, I wasn't liking the book because it moved slowly, but once I got into it, I couldn't put it down. I would definately reccomend this book to anyone who likes baseball. This book is suitable for all ages.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars LIB 805 review by Julie Dalton, July 22, 2001

By 

Julie A. Dalton (Richmond, KY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Gold Dust (Hardcover)

Even though this is another coming-of-age book I like the style and the setting in which it is written. The author writes the book from a first person point-of-view, just the way you would think a 12 year old boy would think and talk. The main characters are well described and round characters. To cause conflict and to further the plot, there are a few flat characters who antagonize and help the main character Richard Riley Moncrief to be dynamic and see the situation that Napolean Charlie Ellis is in. Napolean Charlie Ellis, however, is fairly static, the only ways in which he changes is the fact that he develops a real friendship with Richard and is willing to play and enjoy baseball. Richard, on the other hand, undergoes an extremely drastic charcter change. He goes from being closed and simple-minded to being able to think for and stand-up for himself and begins to realize how much race and status quo play in his life and community. He also, for the first time, develops a meaningful friendship that involves feeling for someone else and having someone challenge him to think.

Overall this was an interesting and well-written book. It would be a great book to use with middle-school aged children to urge them to be their own person, think for themselves, and not listen to peer pressure or take other's thoughts and feelings as the truth.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful book, May 22, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Gold Dust (Hardcover)

I bought this book as a Christmas present for my 10-yr old son. He was just beginning to get interested in reading. He read it in one sitting. A beautiful story about two young friends that had my son's smile lit up for days!