Des O'Leary

An engaging novel about a multi-cultural group of students in detention at their South Auckland high school. When the teachers discover that the Manawahe Junior Boys Team have gone AWOL after being reminded about permission slips and the $20 season fee, and another schools softball team are only 20 minutes away, the detention students are hurriedly pressganged into service. They have never played softball, with one of them asking what it is, but it will get them out of detention and so despite much grumbling tag along. They are all very diverse characters, most are endearing, some have no other ambition than to embrace the gangsta lifestyle, others want to work hard to better themselves and make their struggling families proud. Their ethnicities range from Samoan, Tongan, Māori, Indian Fijian and Vietnamese, and all are affected to some degree by poverty, overcrowding, physical abuse, gang fights and drugs. They are still figuring out how life works, will the team sport of softball bring them together, or just highlight their differences and lead to more fights? A helpful glossary at the end rounds out this humorous and thought-provoking book that could be a great class read-aloud. My favourite characters were Sione and Redemption who were facing very different responsibilities and struggles, characters with which many teens will be able to empathise as they too try to find their place in the world. Des O’Leary’s experience teaching and coaching softball for many years at Aorere College in South Auckland brings authenticity to this important story, an authenticity that shines through, and would have been lost if attempted by another author without his experience. Well done.… (meer)