Another amazing middle grades novel from Nic Stone. This book tells the story of a middle school girl who is a softball start and playing on an all black softball team in the south. The novel shows the racism that her and her teammates face and the pressure to do well as black girls in a sport that is primarily dominated by white girls. During her quest to be softball champions she realizes that her great grandfather missed out on his potential baseball career due to racism and being falsely accused. She goes on journey to figure out what happened and to clear his name. It reads at times like a mystery and is very engaging. If you read her other middle grade novel, Clean Getaway, it briefly includes the main character Scoob in the story which is a great touch for those who loved that book. I highly recommend it to middle grades audiences. It teaches a lot of history without seeming like it is lecturing, incorporates sports and is modern and engaging for young readers.

Love this one. Another fabulous read by Nic Stone. I love how she integrates history into a modern story. You can feel the emotions like you are there with them. Also in this story at times I felt like is was on the field with these girls in real time. Just amazing

Fast Pitch was a real homerun for me. I liked it even more than Nic Stone's other middle grade novel, Clean Getaway. The main character, Shenice, is competing on her all black softball team for a spot in the fast pitch softball championship. However, her focus as team captain is being compromised by a family issue. As a baseball lover, it was right in my wheelhouse. But, if you are not a huge sports fan the book still offers amazing characters, competition, a bit of mystery, and some social injustice to draw your interest. Thank you to NetGalley for allowing me to read an eARC of this upcoming book for my honest opinion. I can't wait for it to come out!

I enjoyed reading this book and I know my students will too. It captured what it was like being a middle school student and the suspense kept me reading.

Shenice comes from a long life of "bat ball" players. She stands on the shoulders of her dad, her PopPop, and her Great-Grampy JonJon.As the captain of her softball team, she is ready to lead them all the way to the state playoffs...that is until she meets her great Uncle Jack. He charges Shenice with clearing her Great-Grampy's name and reputation.

Shenice struggles with the demands of her team, her family, and her new mission to restore greatness to her great grandfather, whose baseball career was derailed by some very suspicious activities. Can she handle prejudice on top of everything else?

One of my favorite parts of this book was Shenice's team discussing the Confederate flag and how seeing it impacted them. This conversation was very well done.

Meet Shenice on the diamond on August 31st to find out if she can knock this one out of the park!

Favorite Quotes:
- "Moments like these, I want to check a calendar to see what century we're in. Certainly doesn't feel like the twenty-first."
- "No clue why some boys can't handle the idea of non-boys being good at anything athletic."

Shenice "Lightning" Lockwood is a catcher for the first all-Black team in her fast pitch softball league. At tweelve, she understands that "batball" as her brother calls it, is in her blood. Her father played baseball, her grandfather played, and her great-grandfather, JonJon Lockwood, was actually a star in the Negro League back in the 1940's, but left amidst scandal and never played in the MLB.

This story goes a little wonky after finding out about JonJon and there is a mystery to solve, although Shenice's softball practices and games are mentioned in passing. I expected a bit more sports action because of the title. Parts of this story were pretty unbelievable. For example, I'm supposed to believe that Shenice's family has lived in their house for ages (Shenice for her whole life) and she didn't ever go into the grandpa's bedroom and had no idea that the house had an attic. A 12 year old never snooping? I don't think so.

Sports themed books are not typically my jam but there is so much more going on in these pages and the tool for telling them, baseball, just really works. [There was history (Juneteenth is mentioned, Dixie states and pro-slavery elements are mentioned, and this would be a great introduction to the Negro American League). There is a family mystery that is solved by Shenice and her friends (kinda Scooby Doo meets Nancy Drew). Loved the friendships in this book and that Scoob from Clean Getaway is one of Shenice’s best friends (could have done without the love interest angle, can’t they just be friends?!). In true Nic Stone’s fashion, the book explores racism as told through Shenice’s experience (her response to seeing confederate flags at a baseball game was really incredibly written) and her family history. Loved that they were reading Monster by Walter Dean Myers in class. This book is best for ages 8-12, so nothing goes too deep and everything is wrapped up in the end, which makes for a really quick read. One thing I wondered is why the parents waited so long to introduce Shenice to her uncle. That didn’t make sense to me because the family was so about Family.

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Shenice "Lightning" Lockwood is a catcher and team captain for the Dixie Youth Softball Association fastpitch softball team, the Fulton Firebirds. They are the first all-Black team in the league, which is a big deal since they live in Georgia. Shenice's father played ball but was sidelined with an injury, her grandfather played ball, and even her great grandfather played. "Jumpin'" JonJon Lockwood was kicked out of the Atlanta Black Crackers team in the Negro Southern League in the 1940s for reasons that Shenice's family doesn't quite know. The one person who does know is great uncle Jack, JonJon's brother, who is in a nursing facility and very ill. Shenice visits, and gets a lot of information from him after her father finally lets her see some of JonJon's artifacts after her team does very well in a competition. Tired of dealing with the ingrained racism in her sport and hostility on the field, Shenice is very interested in finding out what happened to her great grandfather. Investigating sometimes gets her in trouble, as when she is injured while investigating a run down house where she thinks Jack hid some things, and she still has her ball season to worry about.
Strengths: It's always good to see girls in sports, and the dynamics of a team sport are even more interesting. Add some historical information about baseball, and this is a book that will be very popular. This is also on trend with dealing with a number of racial issues, and again, bringing in issues from the past helps to highlight how far our society has NOT come. This is a good length with a fantastic cover and will be hugely popular with my students.
Weaknesses: Just one ridiculously picky historical thought: A package, hidden in 1946, is covered in the kind of plastic wrap used to cover leftovers. This wouldn't have been available at that time, although perhaps the box was covered later. The plastic is depicted later as having hardened; the roll of plastic wrap someone foolishly gave me for my first apartment didn't harden-- but after 15 years got all slimy and stuck to itself. Middle grade readers are never going to pick this up, but I would have preferred that the box have not been covered, or had been wrapped in paper.
What I really think: Fans of Johnson's The Parker Inheritance will enjoy this mixture of sports and history, and it's a great starting point for students who might get interested in researching more about the Negro Leagues.

Shenice Lockwood is so close to the softball championships. As team captain and catcher of an all black team, she hopes that she can reach victory with her team. When a visit with a relative reveals family secrets, she begins to dig into her family’s past. Will she be able to keep focus for the game?

Like Stone’s other novel, Clean Getaway, this is a fast paced middle grade story that talks about racism in the south, both in context of today and the past. Shenice is a fun character to root for, both as an athlete and an intelligent kid. This will appeal to sports fans and historical fiction readers alike.

I loved this book. I read it in two days. It had so much to keep me intrigued. Softball games, a mystery, family dynamics, and friendship were all brought together to make a great story.
My favorite part was going on the journey with Shenice as she dealt with racism. Racism in the past and the present. The author did a great job making it age-appropriate for a middle schooler to read.
Do yourself a favor, sit back and enjoy the game.

Nic Stone jumped into the sports themed books for middle grade with a fierceness that shouts "NIC STONE". Fast Pitch was incredible. The fast pitch softball story of "Lightning" and her family history of baseball. From the Negro Leagues to just missing the Major Leagues because of a busted knee. There was history, mystery, intrigue, friendships, dealing with racism, triumph, failure, loss and family all wrapped into a story about baseball. Stone did an incredible job of dealing with tough topics like racism, family and death within a story line that stays age appropriate.

An absolutely excellent addition to the girls sports genre!! Shenice is a great main character, a great niece, and a great softball captain. Everyone should read this one!

"Fast Pitch" was so fun and engaging. There were so many elements to the book that made me keep picking it up throughout the day and compelled me to finish it so quickly. First of all, there was an irresistible mystery winding its way throughout the story. Secondly, Shenice is such a likeable character I just didn't want to stop reading about her or her friends or her visits to Uncle Jack's. Lastly, the history revolving around the Negro Baseball League was so interesting.

This book is a great addition to the available books for middle school readers. There is a dearth of high quality sports oriented books that successfully integrate sports with family and friend issues. The fact that the main character is a black female softball player with a loving two parent family is another great aspect of this book. There are plenty of books that present troubled teens with dysfunctional families. This one is refreshingly different.

Stone does an excellent job developing characters so that they seem believable and real. There is a good bit of teen slang, etc. that I found a bit over the top,, but middle grade readers will probably like. Adding in the mystery aspect “(what happened to disgrace her great-grandfather?” provided nice tension and emphasized the main character’s family heritage.

I think this book will appeal to thoughtful middle school girls who love sports.

Nic Stone certainly knows how to write a book that readers will enjoy. In Fast Pitch, Shenice Lockwood is a softball player who is trying to lead her team to victory and solve a family mystery at the same time. She is the team captain, and her team could use the trophy and the money that comes with the Fastpitch World Series. Baseball and softball is important to her family. She learns, with the help of her Uncle Jack, that a family member was set up for a crime that led him to leave the game of baseball. Shenice wants to solve this mystery, but it also distracts her from her goal of winning the title. This book is full of action and realistic characters. You can't help but cheer for Shenice and her family and team. Readers will be able to empathize with Shenice's internal conflict throughout the book.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

BLAZE UP!
You do not want to miss this fast pitch, lightning of a MG novel. First off, I love that Scoob is in the story (Clean Getaway) and Mr. Bonner from RCA.
Secondly, the bad ass girl power, the history, the ability be brave in the face of bigots - powerful stuff. Nic can write, but even more than that she can tell a damn good story. Obsessed with the softball/baseball background and even more in love with Uncle Jack and the mystery behind her Great-Grampy JonJon’s inability to get into the MLB and stripped of all his records (even though it was his to be in)

Nic Stone has done it again. First thank you to Random House and NetGalley for the Advanced Reader's copy. I really enjoyed this story. I am super excited to share a female black athlete protagonist with my students. Shenice is the perfect heroine in this story of love, belonging, social justice and loss. As the captain of her all black softball team set in the deep south, Spencer learns secrets about her family that uproot her life and concentration on the subject at hand, winning the district championship when the other teams look nothing like hers. I loved how Nic Stone weaved in the story of Clean Getaway with this one. Another Middle grade success for one of of my favorite authors. This novel will definitely be apart of my 5th grade book club for next year.

“Being twelve is hard.”
🥎
Shenice Lockwood has batball (aka softball aka baseball) in her blood. Her father played baseball, and his father too. As team captain Shenice has her eyes on prize of winning the Fast Pitch World Series, and being the first all-Black team to do so. Add the $10,000 prize money to the mix and nothing is getting in her way—until a suspicious family crime is revealed when Shenice meets her Uncle Jack for the first time. On the hunt for a missing item, Shenice is off her game as she hopes to uncover a decades-old mystery.
🥎
Nic Stone is a goddess of the written word. Middle grade, young adult, she can do it all! Fans of Clean Getaway will absolutely love this follow up (Scoob is back as Shenice’s crush 🥰). Stone does so many things in 240 pages: shows Black girl magic on the softball field, discusses racism, prejudice and Black history in way similar to Clean Getaway and perfect for the MG age group, and shares the power of family, friends and being there for those you love. Fast Pitch is a home run! TY Netgalley for this ARC. Grab your copy 8.31!

I truly love Nic Stone and her writing...her books simply make me happy. She's an incredible writer in both her 14+ age books for teens and then her middle grade work. I loved her MG debut Clean Getaway, so when I saw she had another one coming out I clicked the button to request an ARC immediately.

FAST PITCH is a short and fast paced little story about a girl and her all black female softball team on the cusp to make it to the championship, when she discovers a secret about a relative in her family and begins digging into the past with help of her friends on the team. It had a lot of humor and heart to the story, and even though I personally didn't get all the softball references, kids are going to love this one. Nic also so eloquently tackles racism and discrimination in baseball while making it age appropriate. Really adored this book!

Thank you, NetGalley and the publishers for giving me a DRC of this book.

This book is about Shenice Lockwood and her softball team. Shenice is trying to balance winning with her team and figuring out the family secret her Uncle Jack tells her about. I love that this book has a female black athlete as its protagonist and the way it is tied into Clean Getway, Nic's other MG novel. Readers of Jason Reynold's Track Series would love this book as well as any student who is interesting in mysteries or social justice. Shenice and her teammates are witty and the relationship Shenice develops with her Great Uncle Jack is heartwarming. I definitely recommend this book and will be purchasing it for my classroom library.