Rooting for Rafael Rosales

January 30, 2017
Rafael Rosales is an 11-year-old aspiring baseball player from the Dominican Republic, whose dedication to the sport and dream of playing for an American team occupy his every moment. Nine years later, 12-year-old Maya, a passionate environmentalist, sees Rafael playing (badly) as a prospect for the Minnesota Twins and quickly declares him her favorite player. She’s drawn to the tenacious underdog, believing that, if he can succeed, anyone can. Bijou, a Dominican girl with connections to both Rafael and Maya, provides a thread that ties their stories together, through correspondence, allowing Maya to see her own privilege and better understand Rafael’s roots. Moving between Rafael’s childhood and Maya’s present, Scaletta (The Winter of the Robots) weaves a powerful story of two children whose realities seem entirely dissimilar but, in truth, converge in significant ways, namely in their desire to excel and make a difference. The character of Rafael feels somewhat underdeveloped compared to that of Maya, but his persistence and work ethic make it easy to understand why she rallies behind him. Readers will, too. Ages 9–12. Agent: Tina Wexler, ICM.

Starred review from February 15, 2017
A young man grows up in the Dominican Republic with ambitions to play baseball while a young girl in Minnesota finds the world both bigger and more encouraging when she becomes his fan. Brown-skinned Rafael falls in love with baseball in his hometown of San Pedro de Macoris. He plays in the neighborhood with a sock-wrapped stone for a ball and a stick for a bat and later in the nearby campo. Scaletta offers glimpses of the risks that baseball can bring in the Dominican Republic, where boys and struggling families hitch wagons to far-off stars. Twelve-year-old Maya's white, middle-class Twin Cities family includes teen sister Grace, an aspiring sports writer. When Rafael, now grown, kindly autographs Grace's ball at a spring-training game, Maya finds herself watching him closely and cheering him on, finding solace and connection in baseball. Maya worries about the health of the planet. Her summer project to grow a patch of prairie in her backyard to attract and shelter pollinators--bees--is painfully derailed by an insecticide made by her father's company. Scaletta deftly weaves worry, optimism, and determination together in Rafael's struggle to succeed and Maya's grappling with love for her father. The tight focus on the emotional lives of his protagonists in these connecting narratives inspires genuine feeling for each. Full of heart and hope. (Fiction. 9-13)

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April 1, 2017
Gr 5-8-This middle grade novel alternates between past and present to tell the stories of two young people. Rafael is a struggling Minor League Baseball player when 12-year-old Maya first sees him. He's the only ballplayer who will sign her sister's scorecard, and Maya impulsively decides she's going to root for him. Flashbacks follow Rafael's youth in the Dominican Republic. Rafael and his best friend Juan play streetball and dream of reaching baseball's Major Leagues. Juan's older brother Hugo seems to have the best chance; as Juan says: -When he gets signed, my family never needs to worry again.- Rafael's big-league ambitions are tempered by his parents' concerns and his awareness that -there are one million boys the teams can choose from.- Meanwhile, in Minneapolis, Maya worries about the environment, reads her sister's blog, and babysits a local toddler. She is alarmed to learn that the company her father works for makes an insecticide that is toxic to bees; in response, she plants a garden with native wildflowers. Rafael and Maya are intriguing characters, and Scaletta sensitively limns their concerns and circumstances. Credibility-straining plot twists, including Maya writing a post on her sister's blog that goes viral, and an email friendship with one of Rafael's friends, bring Rafael and Maya together. Readers will root for both protagonists, but there's a little too much going on here, with a few too many coincidences. VERDICT This lacks the humor of Audrey Vernick's Screaming at the Ump or the high drama of Paul Volponi's Game Seven, but thoughtful readers who enjoy compelling characters and learning about how baseball is played in other countries may appreciate this title.-Marilyn Taniguchi, Beverly Hills Public Library, CA

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2017
Grades 5-7 Scaletta introduces two intertwined stories. First, meet Rafael, a boy growing up in the Dominican Republic with a passion for baseball. Eight years later, meet Maya, a girl who's concerned about the environment, especially the declining bee population. It's Maya's sister who blogs about baseball, but when Maya watches (a now-grown) Rafael play in a minor-league game, she becomes his fan. The result is two separate books that strain, at times, to be one. Both, however, are thoughtfully written and plenty engaging. The hardship of growing up poor in a Dominican neighborhood, with baseball one of the few ways out, is vividly portrayed. (Though Scaletta is American, the notes explain his research.) Maya's story is more purposeful, as she comes up against her father's job at an agribusiness company, and must decide how much she can compromise her beliefs. The two main characters finally meet, but now that Maya knows Rafael, another ethical issue arises that she must considerand one not fully resolved by book's end. There is lots to discuss here.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2017
Scaletta deftly weaves together the stories of Rafael, a young Dominican boy desperately committed to playing American Major League Baseball someday, and twelve-year-old Minnesotan girl Maya, who's desperately committed to saving the environment. He convincingly writes about these disparate subjects, peopling the novel with sympathetic, three-dimensional characters. Excellent sports writing, an appreciation of the natural world, and provocative ethical dilemmas add richness.

(Copyright 2017 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)