teen fiction--baseball coming of age/18 y.o. woman making history and finding her (snarky) voice (main character's dad died in Afghanistan; one of her bffs happens to be dark-skinned/needing crutches/wheelchair, her other bff happens to be gay. Lots of realistic insider baseball details, so this should go over well with kids who pay attention to that stuff. If you don't follow baseball you can still find this interesting, but it helps to be at least a casual fan in order to understand what the characters are doing and talking about most of the time. ( )

Jill just became the first woman drafted to Major League Baseball—and she’s only 18. Signed on with the Pittsburgh Pirates before she starts college, she tries to balance the fame, pressure, scrutiny, and her love for the game during her first season on the road.

A Season of Daring Greatly is about an 18 year old who is the first girl drafted to play professional baseball. Jill loves pitching but is uncertain about everything else: the media scrutiny, the pressure to be a role model, the antagonism from those who want the sport to remain a boys-only club, and the realities of daily life as a professional ballplayer.

I have no interest in baseball or, for that matter, any professional sport, so in some respects this novel was not a logical choice. Especially as it assumes one knows more about baseball than I actually do! However, I picked it up because I enjoyed White’s The President’s Daughter series. I really like the way White captures her protagonist’s smart, acerbic sense of humour and the details of her daily life, and A Season of Daring Greatly explores similar ground to my favourite from that series, Long May She Reign: leaving home, building new friendships and finding one’s place in a new community, and dealing with unwanted media attention.

I read this in an afternoon and would have happily read more. It didn’t make me care about baseball, but it made me care about Jill and about seeing her succeed.
It was also interesting seeing what the rhythms and routines of life as a professional sportsperson can be like.

“I think people have been missing the point for weeks now,” she said. Years, even. “I don’t actually represent all women. I’m one athlete with, you know a certain skill set, and whether I end up succeeding is going to be a combination of all sorts of factors, and gender really doesn’t have anything to do with it. [...] the fact that I was terrible out there tonight has nothing to do with what any other female player might do on some different night.” ( )

Ellen Emerson White has a number of well-written young adult novels to her credit. This book is no exception, although unlike many of them, this is not a tearjerker.

When the story opens, Jill Cafferty is a high school senior and outstanding pitcher, head and shoulders above the other players on the field. She has a baseball scholarship to Stanford and a lot of interest from scouts. If she is chosen in the upcoming draft and accepts the offer, she will be the first-ever female professional baseball player. But does she really want to be a ground-breaker? Or would she rather just go to college and play Division I ball? When she is picked in an early round, she pass up the chance. The journalistic attention is overwhelming, and the realities of professional ball aren't much easier. Nor is navigating adulthood as an 18-year-old away from home for the first time. Pushback from fans--and teammates--who don't think a woman has any place in their game doesn't help. Nor does the fact that she is no longer the best on the field but merely average. But she perseveres.

Jill is an appealing character, well-rounded and believable. The supporting cast is also strong. The book ends somewhat abruptly but in a good place.

Recommended, especially for baseball fans. ( )