The Year Mom Won the Pennant

Has your mom ever coached a baseball team or won a pennant? Probably not. But in the book The Year Mom Won the Pennant by Matt Christopher, Nicky’s mom does both of these. She also discovers that coaching the Thunderballs isn’t as easy as it looks. Find out why when you read this great book.

The main characters in the story are Nick, Nick’s mom and dad, and the other members of Nick’s team, called the Thunderballs.

The plot centers around the Thunderballs and the fact that they don’t have a coach. Nick mentions this problem at the dinner table. So Nick’s mom volunteers for this job, and it ends up that the Thunderballs are in a heart-pounding race for the pennant.

I believe that the theme or message of this story is that women can do things as well as men can. That’s a great message for both boys and girls to learn.

The only weak part of this book is that the opening isn’t all that interesting. The story doesn’t really get good until Nick’s mom volunteers to be his coach. Things certainly picked up after that, and the story kept me reading all the way up to the end. The author’s ending was ok, but I wish there had been one more chapter telling what happened after the big game.

The best part of the story was the description. I could easily imagine what everyone looked like and picture what was happening, especially the baseball games. For this reason, I would recommend this book, The Year Mom Won the Pennant, to everyone.