Hard Hit [Hardcover]

Ann Turner (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2006

As the pitcher on his HS team, Mark lives and breathes baseball. Sure, there's pressure from his coach and his dad, who both push him hard, but it's nothing that time with his buddy, Eddie, or with his crush, Diane, can't diffuse. But all that changes when Mark's dad is diagnosed with cancer, and everything Mark has ever believed in--love, God, and baseball--is called into question.This profoundly affecting novel in verse traces the physical and emotional journey of a boy in crisis, and all the requisite emotions--anger, denial, fear, bargaining, sadness, & acceptance--that accompany loss.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 8 Up–As in Learning to Swim (Scholastic, 2000), Turner addresses an intense subject in lyrical poetry. Mike, 16, has the perfect life–star baseball player, cute girlfriend, and loyal best friend–until the phone call that turns his life upside down. His father has pancreatic cancer. While his friends continue to live their lives, time stands still for Mike. His dad suffers through and begins the wasting away that cancer causes. A short period of remission brings a brief period of celebration. In the end, however, Mike finds that his bargains with God and his attempts to get along better with his sister are all for naught. His father dies and he must find a way to go on with his life. Teens who have experienced serious illness and/or death in their family or with close friends will relate to Turners profound novel that traces the journey of one young man through the stages of grief and recovery. National help lines, addresses, and Web sites are included for readers who need them.–Kathryn Childs, Morris Mid/High School, OK
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Gr. 7-10. Tenth-grader Mark Warren is a golden boy: good friends, a gorgeous girlfriend, and an awesome pitching arm, an arm that his dad has cultivated since Mark was small. Yet all turns gray and meaningless when Mark learns that his father has pancreatic cancer. In a carefully crafted, free-verse narrative, the teen tells of his struggle with faith, hope, and disillusionment as his family watches his father slip away--and the inevitable terror and guilt of those still living. It's a hard, sad, beautifully written book, spare yet with surprisingly well-developed characters. Unlike longer, more complex novels that build layers of emotion through description and events, Turner employs poetry to paint the reality of gradual loss, and the language conveys the absence of all the family has known and its emptiness without its central figure. A short bibliography of resources for children whose parents have died rounds out this special book. Frances Bradburn
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Scholastic Press (February 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0439296803
• ISBN-13: 978-0439296809
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #838,132 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born in a small town in Western Massachusetts to creative parents who always encouraged my writing and painting. I went to Bates College, majored in English, and spent a wonderful year abroad in Oxford, England, giving me a taste for neat Scotch, Evensong, and very old churches and buildings. I've been married long enough to break all records and have two grown children. I am especially drawn to telling stories about outsiders, rebellious girls, and people who don't fit in--as I didn't growing up. I was always a bit too loud, too passionate, moved too fast, made up too many stories, and thought that life moved just a tad too slowly for me. I love to cook, garden, swim, pet my wild Jack Russell terrier, talk to friends and my "kids," and laugh at my husband's wild, original stories. I also actually answer letters and emails sent to me by fans, and when I do school visits, I tell people--"Don't ever let anyone tell you you can't do it!"

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tackles the tough questions of coping with death and life's changes, August 12, 2006

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hard Hit (Hardcover)

Ann Turner's novel Hard Hit presents Mark, who has an enviable life as the star pitcher in school, with a new girlfriend, best friend and decent family. When his father is diagnosed with cancer, Mark's world is shattered and everything he takes for granted or believes in is questioned. Hard Hit tackles the tough questions of coping with death and life's changes.