Game Seven

by Paul Volponi

Overview

A fastball of a book by Paul Volponi—an author who knows sports and suspense!

Julio Ramirez Jr. lives in the shadow of his famous father. Not just because Julio Senior is a pitcher for the Miami Marlins and famous for his scorching fastball, but because he defected from Cuba, leaving Julio and his sister and mother branded as the family of a traitor. Now sixteen, Julio has dreams of playing shortstop for Cuba's national team—until he's given the opportunity to sail to the U.S. Can he abandon his family, just like his Papi did? Is freedom worth the perilous journey and risking prison if he's caught? Will his Papi be waiting for him on the other shore—or, with the Marlins in the World Series against the Yankees, has Julio Senior forgotten all about his son?

"An entertaining tale of baseball, family and loyalty."—Kirkus Reviews

“Volponi once again delivers top-notch sports fare coupled with a deeper story of family and fidelity. . . Readers will identify with Julio as he juggles dreams, bitterness, and family loyalties in this lyrical, spare novel.”—Booklist
 
“A poignant story. . . this is a must-read for any teen who not only loves stories about sports but also enjoys reading about families.”—VOYA

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780142424292
Publisher:	Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication date:	03/01/2016
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	397,547
Product dimensions:	5.56(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.74(d)
Lexile:	HL770L (what's this?)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Paul Volponi (www.paulvolponibooks.com) is a writer, journalist, and teacher. He has taught incarcerated teens to write on Rikers Island and he taught adolescents in a drug-treatment program in New York City.

Read an Excerpt

From his chair, Uncle Ramon kicked his shoes off and dug his feet deep into the sand.
“Your papi was able to get a sum of money into Cuba through a Canadian turista,” he said, as the smell of sword­fish filtered through the salty air. “That money was given to Gabriel.”
A minute later, they were gone with their steak.
(Continues…)

---

Excerpted from "Game Seven"
by .
Copyright © 2016 Paul Volponi.
Excerpted by permission of Penguin Young Readers Group.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Praise for Game Seven:

"An entertaining tale of baseball, family and loyalty." —Kirkus

Praise for The Final Four by Paul Volponi:
 
“A triple-overtime game keeps readers on the edge of their seats.” —BCCB, starred review
 
“This gritty, realistic, and riveting novel deserves the wide audience it will no doubt attract.” —School Library Journal, starred review 
 
“Volponi nails it when it counts in this dynamic story.” —Booklist, starred review
 
"Volponi, a multiple award-winning author, keeps the tension high from the first to last page ... The Final Four is definitely a winner." —VOYA, starred review

"Volponi's latest combines in-the-moment action, basketball history and the points of view of four college ballplayers with very different lives ... No story or character is simple." —Kirkus Reviews
 
"The Final Four does a terrific job of capturing the emotion of March Madness.” —Mike Krzyzewski, Head Coach, Men's Basketball, Duke University
 
“This is a great story about how one sport can transcend different experiences, backgrounds, and beliefs, and unite in a desire to succeed.” —Jim Calhoun, Head Coach, Men's Basketball, University of Connecticut (2010 National Champions)
 
“It was inspirational to a coach and full of lessons to children of many ages.” —Jamie Dixon, Head Coach, Men's Basketball, University of Pittsburgh  
 
“A rocket ride of a plot that rips you into the story from the first line.” —Paul Griffin, author of Stay With Me
 
“Paul Volponi delivers a high-octane basketball story fans will cheer for.” —Tim Green, author of Deep Zone, a Football Genius novel

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Game Seven:

"An entertaining tale of baseball, family and loyalty."—Kirkus Reviews

“Volponi once again delivers top-notch sports fare coupled with a deeper story of family and fidelity. . . Readers will identify with Julio as he juggles dreams, bitterness, and family loyalties in this lyrical, spare novel.”—Booklist
 
“A poignant story. . . this is a must-read for any teen who not only loves stories about sports but also enjoys reading about families.”—VOYA

Praise for The Final Four by Paul Volponi:

"A triple-overtime game keeps readers on the edge of their seats.”—BCCB, starred review

“This gritty, realistic, and riveting novel deserves the wide audience it will no doubt attract.”—School Library Journal, starred review

"Volponi nails it when it counts in this dynamic story.”—Booklist, starred review

"Volponi, a multiple award-winning author, keeps the tension high from the first to last page ... The Final Four is definitely a winner."—VOYA, starred review

"Volponi's latest combines in-the-moment action, basketball history and the points of view of four college ballplayers with very different lives ... No story or character is simple."—Kirkus Reviews

"The Final Four does a terrific job of capturing the emotion of March Madness.”—Mike Krzyzewski, Head Coach, Men's Basketball, Duke University

“This is a great story about how one sport can transcend different experiences, backgrounds, and beliefs, and unite in a desire to succeed.” —Jim Calhoun, Head Coach, Men's Basketball, University of Connecticut (2010 National Champions)

“It was inspirational to a coach and full of lessons to children of many ages.”—Jamie Dixon, Head Coach, Men's Basketball, University of Pittsburgh

"A rocket ride of a plot that rips you into the story from the first line.”—Paul Griffin, author of Stay With Me

“Paul Volponi delivers a high-octane basketball story fans will cheer for.”—Tim Green, author of Deep Zone, a Football Genius novel

From the Publisher

05/01/2015
Gr 6–9—Julio Ramirez, Jr., son of a former Cuban national baseball hero known as El Fuego, is an outstanding player in his own right. He dreams of making the Cuban national junior team, but is viewed with suspicion because of his father's defection to the United States several years before. Julio's feelings toward his father are conflicted: he is proud of the older man's success in the American major leagues, but feels abandoned, as he, his sister, and his mother remain in poverty in Cuba while El Fuego enjoys the benefits of his multimillion dollar contract with the Florida Marlins. Unbeknownst to Julio, his father has made arrangements for him, his uncle, and his cousin to escape the island with the help of a guide named Gabriel. By means of a retrofitted '59 Buick, the four make the harrowing journey from Cuba to Miami, even as El Fuego is playing a starring role in the World Series. Arriving in the U.S., the group is put up in a luxury apartment, but much to Julio's disappointment, his father does not make an appearance. In a turn of events that stretches credulity, Julio is spirited into the Marlins's clubhouse by an ESPN reporter just before the beginning of the final game of the Series. He and his father discuss family issues as the game progresses. While their reunion is moving and appropriately equivocal, sports-savvy youngsters may find the prospect of a teenager chatting up his dad in the bullpen during game seven of the World Series a little difficult to swallow. VERDICT With its short chapters and simple vocabulary, the novel moves along briskly and would be a good fit for reluctant readers with a taste for baseball and adventure.—Richard Luzer, Fair Haven Union High School, VT

School Library Journal

2014-12-22
Sixteen-year-old Julio Ramirez Jr. dreams of being a junior Nacional and playing for Cuba against the best young players around the world.Baseball is "practically a religion" in Cuba, and Julio's father was like a Cuban god, an all-star pitcher for the Cuban National Team. Now, having defected, he's a star for the Miami Marlins. But instead of pride, Julio feels resentment toward his father for abandoning his family to a life of poverty while he, the great El Fuego, lives the high life in Miami with his multimillion-dollar contract. Moreover, Julio's baseball dreams may not come true: How can he be trusted to leave the country when his father defected; won't he do the same? So Julio defects too, and in a tense and slightly comic scene, he drives to Florida in a green '59 Buick that's been converted into a boat. Julio's reconciliation with his father is handled deftly in its poignant awkwardness, and baseball action is appropriately exciting, though the notion that Julio is allowed to hang out with his father during Game 7 of the World Series is seriously implausible. Volponi wisely shies away from a tidy, inspirational ending but does leave room for hope for reconciliation. An entertaining tale of baseball, family and loyalty. (Fiction. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews