The Girl Who Threw Butterflies

February 24, 2009
Cochrane (Sport) revisits the baseball diamond in this unhurried novel about a girl with a mean knuckleball ("Molly loved watching one of her knuckleballs in flight, but what she felt was not self-admiration at all, just simple curiosity. What was this one going to do?"). Dealing with her father's death in a car accident six months prior and her mother's subsequent zombie-like disinterest in life, Molly hopes that playing on the eighth-grade boys' baseball team will keep her connected to her dad. Molly is bolstered by her free-spirited friend, Celia (who steals every scene she's in), and Lonnie, a kindhearted, artistically inclined catcher. Cochrane offers poignant flashbacks of father-daughter bonding, realistic mother-daughter squabbling and some nail-biting moments on the pitcher's mound, but some readers may find the story's pace sluggish. Still, Cochrane's honest, quiet prose should find fans, as Molly finally pitches a winning game, earns the respect of her teammates and symbolically "lets go" of her need to understand her dad's death. Ages 10-up.

March 1, 2009
Gr 5-9-In this sensitive sports novel, a thoughtful eighth grader works through the grief she feels over her father's death. In the months following his car accident, Molly's comfortable life has been turned upside down and her mother has become a stranger. Molly and her father had always been close; as they played catch together, he passed along his love of baseball and much of his philosophy of life as well. A loyal fan of lovable losers like the Chicago Cubs, he taught Molly to throw a knuckleball, a pitch that flutters like a butterfly. He told her: "You don't aim a butterfly. You release it." Molly finds comfort in her memories and decides to try out for the boys' baseball team. She meets some resistance from her teammates, but with the help of a sympathetic coach and friends, she earns a spot on the team. In Molly, Cochrane crafts an awkward yet engaging heroine whose perceptions and interactions with family, friends, and supporting characters ring true. Crisply written sports action balances the internal drama. Suggest this well-written character study to readers who enjoyed Kristi Roberts's My Thirteenth Season (Holt, 2005) and Karen Day's No Cream Puffs (Random, 2008).Marilyn Taniguchi, Beverly Hills Public Library, CA

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

March 15, 2009
Grades 6-9 Molly thinks that girls softball is just baseball translated into a foreign language, so she tries out for the boys baseball team. She can throw a wicked knuckleball, which floats and bobs like a butterfly (hence the title), and this skill, coupled with her intelligent baseball sense, earns her a spot on the team, thanks in part to a coach who is a patient and caring teacher.There isthe initial expected harassment from some of her male teammates and an important game sequence during the last inning of this novel, but what transpires in between is an honest, sometimes humorous, and emotionally moving account of one girls adjustment to the death of her baseball-loving father and her relationship with her mother, of whom Molly thinks, I love you and all that, but right now everything about you bothers me. Throw in a friendship with her catcher that heads in the direction of romance, and this title becomesa sure winner with middle-school girls, whether they are sports fans or not.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)