Curveball

The Year I Lost My Grip

By: Jordan Sonnenblick

Narrated by: Luke Daniels

There’s nothing All Star pitcher Peter Friedman loves more than baseball. It’s his life. He breathes baseball, dreams about it, and works his tail off to be great. Most kids are nervous about starting high school, but Pete’s amazing arm is going to make his life pretty easy. When you’re the star, girls, popularity, and all-around stud status are sure to follow. But Pete’s freshman year doesn’t turn out as planned. A pitching accident over the summer ruins his arm. If he can’t play baseball, what is he supposed to do? If he isn’t the star pitcher, then who is he? Pete’s best friend and pitching partner, AJ, doesn’t believe Pete - he tells him he’ll be back to his normal self by spring training. To make matters more complicated, there’s something going on with Pete’s grampa - he’s acting weird and keeps forgetting important things, and Pete’s mother doesn’t want to talk about it.

The only person Pete can confide in is Angelika, the amazingly cute girl in his photography class who might like Pete as much as he likes her... only Angie doesn’t know if she can date someone who can’t be honest with himself, or with the people he’s closest to.

©2012 Jordan Sonnenblick (P)2012 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Delightful!

Where does Curveball rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

This is one of my favorites.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Curveball?

I loved the descriptions of the photography in the book. I think it would be hard, as a writer, to bring a strong image of a photograph to life in a book, but I could see each and every one very vividly. Same with the sports descriptions, and I'm not much of a sports fan.

Have you listened to any of Luke Daniels’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I think this is the first one I've heard, and he was great. The performance of Peter's grandfather was very moving.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

The whole thing was very well-structured. Peter's struggles with losing baseball, and his struggle with his grandfather's secret were very heart-tugging.

Any additional comments?

Give it a listen!

Great book

This book is such a heartwarming book ❤️I loved it definitely recommend I loved it

Excellent

I really enjoyed this book. The reader was great and the story was a excellent. A captivating story about a boys struggles with growing up.

The best book ive ever read (SPOILER ALERT)

I usually don't like books reading them and all, but when I was listening/reading this book it was really exciting. I love how Peter is a really good kid and sensitive, which I can relate to. The thing is I really want to see more of what happens after his grampa dies, and more about AJ and Elaina, and my favorite couple in the book which is Peter and Angelika. I would love to read a sequel to this book of what happens next or something. I would recommend this book to everyone I know if I was able to. Everyone reading this review, I recommend you read this. My favorite book yet. This book sometimes gets me in my feelings.

A Wonderful Book!

Wow- this book wasn’t what I thought it was gonna be (in a good way-it was so much more). I first heard about it on a website that listed good books for baseball fans to read. This version is performed by my favorite narrator Luke Daniels. Even though it would be perfect for young teens and teenagers, it’s also a great read (or listen) for adults. The main character Peter is struggling at a young age with the knowledge that his baseball career is over before it had a chance to even really begin. He’s also dealing with the fact that his grandfather is slowly losing his memory. And that is something that is hard for someone to accept at ANY age. The author has a great way with words and the epilogue pretty much caused me to start sobbing in the middle of my living room. This was the first novel that I’ve read (listened to) by this author but I plan to find some others.

Great but content may not be great for some kids!!

Story is great!! Love it!! Just warning some people: this book refers to sexual relations between the two main characters and may not be great for smaller children