Customer Reviews

High Heat

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I liked this book because it was a great book. I play baseball so I thought it would be a good book to read.
Shane Hunter is a great relief pitcher at Shorelake High School in Seattle. At one of his games, these two guys come a take Shane's dad away. He was caught for money laundering. Shane's dad commits suicide and they have to move away to a new house that is a lot smaller. Shane gets caught stealing beer with his friends and for his punishment, he has to do community service and get counseling for a year. For his community service, he gets to clean up a baseball field. He does a great job on the field. The next year, Shane goes to Whitman High School and plays baseball there. His team has an okay season. During that year, Shane hits a kid named Reese Robertson in the head and sends him to the hospital. Shane doesn't pitch as well for the rest of the year and Reese doesn't play as well as he used to be able to. The next year, Shane plays on the baseball team again and they have a great season and make it into the playoffs. A guy on Shane's team, Kim Seung, gets a full scholarship to USC. A scout from the University of Portland is looking at Shane to see if he wants to recruit him. In the playoffs, Whitman faces the Shorelake team. The game comes down to the last pitch and it is Shane against Reese. Will Shane strike out Reese and win the game for his team? Or will Reese get a hit and win the game for his team? Read the book and find out.
I think that sports readers would like this book because it is a great baseball book and it keeps you interested. Also, realistic fiction readers would like this book too because the things that happen in this book could really happen in real life.

This book starts out straight away with controversy and conflict. Shane Hunter and his family are very well off through his father's company. They live in an extremely nice home and go to a expensive school. Shane Hunter's father commits sucicide sending him into a depression. Immediately, like most kids he turns to a new lifestyle. They have to sell there house and give up everything and go to a new school. He even gives up baseball, his true love in life. When he gets arrested and has to do community service he works with a guy who helps him get back on track. At his new school he joins the baseball team and is one of the star players. After many great outings he starts to struggle. One of the most exciting moments is when he comes face to face with his old team that used to play for. He has to face the kid who basically replaced his life (Reese). He beans the kid in the face head on. He starts to lose everything and struggle again and consisders his old lifestyles. When Shane gets it together he gets back to himself and lets baseball help him through it. When time passes his guilt sets in. To help himself he starts out by trying to help the kid he hits (Reese). Time passes and they start to become friends but Reese isn't the same. He can't play anymore. It comes down to a fierce head to head battle and Shane has to face Reese again for the win.

Shane Hunter, a Sophomore and star closer for Shorelake High School - a private school near Seattle - seems to have it all, that is until his father is arrested for money laundering and later commits suicide. His mother is forced to sell the house and move the family into public housing. Shane falls in with the wrong crowd and is arrested for shoplifting at a local convenience store. He is put on probation fixing up a baseball field at a Boys' and Girls' Club. There he meets Cornelius Grandison, the baseball coach at his high school Shane later discovers. Coach Grandison becomes a father figure to Shane.

Carl Deuker has created another winner. You'll think you're sitting in the front row with a box of Crackerjacks and a Coke as Shane mows them down in the last inning, and you'll feel the emotions right along with Shane during the roller coaster ride his life takes. Good baseball books are in short supply for teens, so don't let this one slip past.

High Heat
By: Carl Dueker

It all started when sixteen-year-old Shane Hunter's dad was caught in a drug deal. Shane had it all, big house, a lot of friends, the richest school in his area, and the best baseball team in the state. But then, something happens causing him to lose all of that and even make him quit the one thing that he loves and has never ever thought about quitting before.
What I liked about this book was that as soon as I picked it up I could instantly connect to Shane. Anyone who is a true baseball fan can connect to this book. Carl Dueker does an amazing job drawing the reader into the book. I read the first couple pages and I couldn't put the book down. Every minute there was a different scene shocking me. It kept me guessing and I think that's the kind of book that every reader wants to read.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is a baseball fanatic, and anyone who has had something going great and everything going their way, when boom it all just goes down the drain.

Max M.

Shane Hunter, a sophomore at Shorelake High School had it all; money, great friends and baseball. One day, his perfect world changes when Shane's father is arrested for money laundering and commits suicide. Shane's family must move to the "other" side of town that Shane despises. Shane has a difficult time adjusting to his new life and gets arrested for stealing and his punishment is repairing a local baseball diamond. This brings back memories of his old life, and Shane is faced with the decision of whether or not he should join the team and continue playing the game his father taught him. Will fear of failure overpower him or will he step up to the plate? Read this book and find out!
I enjoyed this book for many reasons. Mainly because it's about baseball and baseball is my favorite sport. But the book has more to offer, it deals with how a teenager copes with the suicide of a parent.
It also tells how Shane struggled when he had to move and change schools. Whether you're a baseball fan or not this is a book you won't want to put down until you finish it.

Shane Hunter lives a privileged life. He has a great house, a great family, and goes to a great school. On top of that he is the best closing pitcher for baseball anyone has seen in high school in a long time. But that all changes when the police show up to arrest his father.

Shane's life changes quickly and dramatically. He resents his new life and starts to fall into bad habits with bad people. But there is still hope for Shane. He has a strong group of people trying to help him, he just needs to learn to let them.

Baseball plays a very major role in the story and I really don't know much about it. That may have been one of the reasons I did not rate this as highly as I may have. Also, there were times Shane came across a bit wrong to me. Not incorrect wrong, but there was just something off in the way he behaved that didn't quite flow with the story.

Othewise, this was a great story of dealing with life.

3/5

I have read many baseball books and many book about pichers but I have never come across anything like this one. Since I am a picher and a closer myself I admire the way he can capture the excitment and heartbreak of those two unique postions. The need to block out all noise and concentrate just on the next pich, the exsileration of blowing a heater by someone and the heartbreak when you don't concentrate and he hits it out of the park.
It also does a very good job at making the main person belivable. Unlike in Mike Lupica's Heat the picher isn't 12 years old and throw 80 miles an hour but he is still very good, he's just human and he makes mistakes.
This is not, however, a book for anyone under about 13 because Deuker does a very good job of creating real problems off the baseball dimond as well as on it.
This was, by far, the best baseball book I have ever read, very highly recomended.

Have you ever though how it would feel to have your world turned upside down? Shane Hunter seems to be on top of the world as a star pitcher for his rich and sophisticated high school baseball team. Suddenly, his luxurious and happy life changes and not for the best. A very unfortunate tragedy occurs that affects his school and family life in such a way that he is not sure if he wants to or even can pitch again. Can Shane make the necessary adjustments to save his life and love for the game? Read High Heat to find out about what happens and if he survives.

High Heat is written by Carl Deuker. Carl Deuker, helps to make baseball filled with emotion, intensity and players' feelings. He does quite a nice job with his other books as well like "Night Hoops" and "Devil's Court." The pace of this book is just right to keep the reader hooked and interested. He also describes it well enough so it seems like it is really happening to a person.

High Heat is an exciting story of a star high school baseball player who loves winning. The story will draw in anyone interested in sports and especially baseball. Other books such as "Night Hoops," and "Devil's Court" are also very compelling, and I think you will love those as much as this one.

R. P.

With HIGH HEAT, Carl Deuker again shows a steady hand with plot as he tells the tale of Shane Hunter, a kid who loses his father early on in the book and fights personal turmoil on the baseball diamond as a star closer. This melodramatic start soon takes a back seat to more pedestrian tribulations, however, as Shane's mother and sister Marian are left with little money and must move with Shane to city housing. The jolt is even bigger for our protagonist, who leaves a posh private school's winning team for a struggling city school's losing one.

This YA title is an excellent choice for parents and teachers of middle school boys who are reluctant readers -- if they are sports fans at least and baseball fans especially. Yes, there is a lot of game description and yes, people who are bored by baseball should steer clear. Other than that, it's a clear case of, "What's not to like?"

The best part of the novel is Deuker's deft handling of psychological issues. When fireballing closer Shane beans hot-hitting Reese Robertson, the very kid who moved into Shane's old mansion, there are two casualties. The incident puts Robertson in the hospital, but another headcase (Shane) is left untreated. The fallout of it all is a great pitcher who loses his ability to throw strikes and a great hitter who loses his ability to hit line drives.

The road to recovery becomes the heart of the book, and it's a book with heart, indeed. For its target audience, HIGH HEAT goes right over the heart of the plate. And in Coach Grandison, Deuker gives readers one of those irresistible mentor types that make great sports books for teens worth the money. Highly recommended.

Shane Hunter is the star pitcher of his baseball team at Shorelake. When his father commits apparent suicide, he starts to get nervous when he's pitching and he blows every game he's in. Shane and his family have to move to a new house because they couldn't pay for the house they were living in after his father committed suicide. Shane decides to quit pitching after he hits a kid in the head with one of his pitches. When the summer ends he doesn't know if he wants to pitch or play the outfield. He decides he's going to pitch again after the summer. When Shane hears that there's going to be scouts at the games, he starts to get nervous and blows games for his team.
I liked the part when Shane was striking out all of the batters because it showed how good of a pitcher he was. I disliked the part when Shane decided to stop pitching because he loves to play baseball.
This book has a lot of action in it. I would recommend this book to anyone who likes to read about baseball. This book is good for people who like books with a lot of action.