Thoughts before reading:
I had never read or even seen this book before this project. My local library growing up must not have had a copy. I've always had zero interest in sports though, so I think kid me would have still skipped this one. Never read any of the books that had to do with the Krushers, so this will all be new. All I remember about them is the obvious: Kristy was the coach and formed the team herself, and Karen was on it.
I was trying to figure out who all the kids pictured here are, but I got pretty stuck. My best guess is that the front row from the left is David Michael, Hannie, and Andrew. Middle is Matt, Jackie, and Laurel Kuhn? Back row is Linny, Buddy and Karen.
The basics:
Kristy's been helping Karen, Andrew, David Michael, and some neighborhood kids play softball. None of them are good enough, or in some cases old enough, for little league, but they all like to play and long to be part of a team. One of the kids mentions an 8th grader in the neighborhood, Bart Taylor, who has started his own team. Kristy walks over to his house to meet him and see if some of the kids could join. He tells her it's really full already, so she decides to start her own team and accept any kid that wants to play. Bart is also really cute, and Kristy starts crushing on him.
Twenty kids end up being interested in joining Kristy's new team. Watson helps her get organized, also excited about the project. Together they decide that the goal will be to help the kids with her coaching and to just have fun. None of the kids have ever been on a team before, so they are beyond excited and help out by making t-shirts and picking a team name: Kristy's Krushers.
Meanwhile, Kristy is still thinking about Bart. She takes Shannon (her puppy, book #11) out for a walk, hoping to run into him. She does, and they discuss their teams again, ultimately deciding to have a game. Up until this point, the Krushers have just had practices and played against themselves. Bart's Bashers are a little older, but have never gotten to play a real game either.
Leading up to the game, the Bashers show up at one of the Krushers practices and make fun of the kids. While Bart is seemingly not paying attention, they insult Matt, make fun of Jackie, and tease another kid for being overweight. Kristy gets nervous because she notices that they are older than her team on average and seem more put together. Despite this, she refuses to resort to spying on their practices, and loses some respect for Bart for not controlling his team's bad behavior.
On game day, Kristy is super nervous and keyed up. It doesn't help that her pitcher, Nicky Pike, is sick and can't play. The Krushers are determined though, and they play a great game. At one point Jackie is embarrassed after striking out and pretends to be hurt, but quickly comes around. The final score is 16-11 Bashers, but the Krushers tried hard and are proud. Kristy walks home with Bart and they decide to be friends.
Timeline:
First run through 8th grade still, but not sure what time of year.
My thoughts:
This is yet another book with a really misleading title, because it's not really about Jackie at all. He's just one of many kids on the team, not getting special attention or extra coaching. Kristy doesn't form the team with him in mind or anything either. The only difference between him and the other 19 kids was that Kristy kept singling him out in her mind when she thought about the team. She would notice that he was the only messy one, or repeatedly think about what a walking disaster he was. I thought that was kind of messed up of her. Even though it was only in her head, the point of the team was to include everyone. Plus, think about how hurt Jackie would be if he knew what his coach really thought about him. He isn't even the worst player on the team, by any means.
I couldn't believe that Kristy never called Bart out on the way his team acted at her practice session. I kept on waiting for a conversation between them that never came. Since when does Kristy not speak her mind? It's not because of her crush either, thankfully, because she loses some respect for Bart afterwards and her crush seems to fade quite a bit. I was really glad for that at least, but I still can't believe she didn't call him out more on controlling his team. The scene where they were teasing the Krushers was actually really brutal. Matt Braddock, who is deaf (see #16) was called a dummy repeatedly, an overweight boy named Jake Kuhn was called a fatso, and they heckled almost every player, even the really young ones. There was an awesome moment where Haley Braddock told the boy who was calling Matt names that she would rearrange his face if he didn't stop. She was a total badass, while Kristy was doing nothing about any of it.
I was also disappointed in Kristy for getting negative about her own team on game day. It seems to go away once she reaches the game and is around all the kids, who are trying so hard, but still. She's been teaching them that winning isn't important, and then she gets down about them not being very good. She even fat shames poor Jake Kuhn in her thoughts. Pretty low, I thought. She shouldn't be a coach if she can't keep perspective on what matters, especially with such little kids. As she kept pointing out in the book, the average age of her players is 5.8. These are very young children, and this experience will shape their futures in team activities.
Otherwise this book wasn't bad, if a little boring. It really was all about softball, which still isn't my thing. Even the babysitting chapters all had to do with it, because apparently only one theme can go on at a time. I definitely would not have liked this when I was a kid either. However, I did enjoy finally reading about the origin of the Krushers team, since they last the series and are mentioned quite a bit, even in the Little Sisters books.
Misc:
*The recap in this book says that the big difference between Mal and Jessi is that Mal is white and Jessi is black?? Yikes, how dated, and so not a good thing to be telling little kids!
*Watson only has his kids 6 days out of the month (every other weekend, friday evening to sunday evening), yet he is constantly getting babysitters for them during that time.
*Kristy does have a crush on Bart, thinks he's cute, and gives it quite a bit of thought in here. I'd remembered it being more one sided: him crushing on her, and her never being sure.
*Very loose teeth freak Kristy out? How random.
*Bart has a rottweiler named Twinkle, I thought that was funny.
*I love that there's a 2 1/2 year old (Gabbie Perkins) on the team that plays with a wiffle ball. That's too cute.
*Aside from the problems I had with Kristy in here, what she's doing for these kids with this team is really nice. She does deserve more credit.
*It was nice how excited Watson was about the team too. He even took an afternoon off work to watch a practice. Also seems like he and Kristy are getting closer.
*For those interested in lists and facts, here's all the kids who end up on the Krushers:
*Gabbie Perkins, 2 1/2
*Jamie Newton, 4
*Nina Marshall, 4
*Andrew Brewer, 4
*Suzi Barrett, 4
*Myriah Perkins, 5
*Claire Pike, 5
*Patsy Kuhn, 5
*Laurel Kuhn, 6
*Karen Brewer, 6
*Max Delany, 6
*Buddy Barrett, 7
*David Michael Thomas, 7
*Hannie Papadakis, 7
*Matt Braddock, 7
*Jackie Rodowsky, 7
*Margo Pike, 7
*Nicky Pike, 8
*Jake Kuhn, 8
*Linny Papadakis, 8
Books mentioned:
None
My rating:
3 stars, very average BSC book in every way
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