A High Five for Glenn Burke

Silas is twelve years old. He's in sixth grade.  He plays center field for his Little League team, the Renegades.

He's an outstanding baseball player, his athletic performance heightened by the total focus and determination he brings to the game.  ("... when I'm out in center, it's where hits go to die.")  He's the team leader, and the most popular player among his teammates.

Silas has loving parents who are enthusiastic about his playing, without being the stereotypical scary parents screaming in the stands.  As his mother assures him,

"Every time you're out there, Silas, you're playing like it could be the very last time you ever get to play.  Baseball needs more players like that.  The world needs more people like that -- people who are passionate and energized.  It's an indescribable feeling for a mother to see such passion and energy in her son.  Don't ever lose that."

Silas has an excellent coach, one who can relate to a 12-year-old on the boy's level, who can guide and reassure him when needed, and who realizes that Silas has as much to teach his coach about baseball strategy as the coach has to share with him.

And Silas has a best friend, a girl his age who is as funny and crazy in her own way as Silas is in his.

But Silas is secretly gay.  And he has just given a report to his English class about an outstanding major league player in the 1970s, Glenn Burke, the man who (seriously) invented the "high five."  But a player who was traded away by the Dodgers when a magazine revealed that he was gay, who was insulted by the Oakland A's manager, and who was finally sent down to the minors.  He ended up on the streets, and died of AIDS.

Silas didn't tell the class about Burke's career -- just that he was a great player who had invented the high five.  But Burke's disastrous career preys on Silas's mind, and on his ambitions for a career in baseball.

A High Five for Glenn Burke, by Phil Bildner, is a book suitable for middle school readers.  It was reviewed favorably in the New York Times Book Review.   The book is well written, although it's not "great literature," nor intended to be.  But it's an enjoyable read for all ages, often very funny and moving, with a wealth of information about good baseball strategy.

Silas does make one mistake, a little lie that blows up in his face.  But he's a sixth grader -- let's give him some slack.  He feels totally mortified and embarrassed.  But his coach, with some backup from Silas's best friend and his team mates, helps Silas view the mistake as a learning experience.

His coach tells him to look forward to his future baseball career:

"You're going to meet so many people on this journey, Silas. People who will love you and celebrate you, and the impact you're going to have on them will be extraordinary. ... That's happening already. You've impacted me."

This is a book for middle schoolers.  In an understated way, it offers many wise lessons to kids of all kinds on the brink of adolescence.  And because it's aimed at a younger age group, we can trust that, in the end, all's well that ends well.  And with a great coach, loving parents, and good friends and team mates, it does end very well for young Silas.