The All American

" "Mam hadn't tucked me in for years. But she did that Friday night because, I suppose she felt bad for me. A whole bunch of gals were going to Judd Field for Sweet Peas tryouts the next morning, and she'd decided that I wouldn't be one of them. "You'll get your chance love," she said sitting on the edge of the bed. "There's a lot of life ahead of you. Don't be in too great a hurry to grow up." She kissed me on the forehead-tenderness that very nearly made me start crying-and told me to sleep well. I waited until she turned off the light and closed the door behind her to put my ball glove under my pillow for good luck." Bertha and her sister and brother and family enjoyed an all-American life together. But during the early 1950's her father an author of a lot of great American novels has come up on the rolls of being a communist. But he is not one and neither is her English-born mother. One day someone destroys their property and author father, William S. Harding of 364 Aurelius Avenue, Bonaventure Park, MI. packs up his family and leaves behind the American dream forever. The movers come later, and they move to the home of his bachelor grocery-store owner brother somewhere out in the country where he now perceives as a safer place in his own country.

But his teenagers want a normal life, and also own some dreams. Bertha, born during a time when other young girls dream of owning the prime electric mixer and baking the perfect cake while wearing pearls, high heels and a perfectly ironed skirt and shirt just for their husband alone - dreams of playing baseball as a prime member of the exclusive Sweet Peas baseball team, a girls-only professional ball team of females ages 15 - 21 who must also behave using the highest standard of professional excellence whether being watched or not both behind-the-scenes and during game time at all times. And especially while pitching, catching and home-running. The uniforms although altered to be for a young woman and therefore more tailored to a feminine trim and a dress and not pants, swim before Bertha's eyes as visions of sugar canes at holiday time. But when the first tryout comes, Bertha does not make the cut. Her sister dreams of becoming an actress and at first does not get the roles she wants. Her father still writes away although his office space reduced at his brother's house, it is one of the things that each person of the family tries to do to keep morale up and keep going.

While the family tries to adjust to a whole new town and while life won't ever be the same again, the whole country is undergoing adjustments that cusp that of the Harding family. The only one that seems unaffected by the upheaval is the family cat. However, the two Harding sisters adjust pretty well and seem to experience more transition than turmoil. The two offer as much enjoyment of curiosity and exploration as does our book author here, Susie Finkbeiner. Finkbeiner has certainly done her research and while the book unfolds to spin a tale of two sisters describing life as the days pass by although much unvague realism comes forth, the book has made a way to us as a form of joy and fiction prose. Because the book truly is a comfortable read, one may forget that many of the events described by newspaper clippings spread out throughout the book were realities for a lot of people. Families' hours became a differently-thinked hour-by-hour Hallmark film.

But the Hardings tried their best to make life as usual as possible. They shared and wrote letters to some of the friends they had had to leave behind in their prior dream life and community. In short, they adjust. But through an attitude of wonder and adventure slowly find that this new life has different challenges than the other world that they had come to know as home. Mam, the mother of the children, becomes a mother who stays back from drama as she seems to instead enjoy being the subtle wind-beneath-the-wings of her children. Will the family members be able to maintain their newfound stability when later, Mam changes her mind and understands the importance of her daughter to obtain her travel-dream of becoming an honored member of the 'All-American' all-girls baseball team? Based on the empathetic way of hearing from these two teenage sisters who share back-and-forth stories from their viewpoint and the careful handling of the writing I think the book falls easily also into the young adult genre and would be a good historical aspect for teenagers to also gain some understanding of and be able learn from enjoyably. "While there was no team called the Workington Sweet Peas in the AAGPBI, (and as a matter of fact, no city called Workington in the State of Michigan), there were teams like the Grand Rapids Chicks, the Kalamazoo Lassies and the Racine Belles (to name a few). These teams featured players from all over the Midwest, girls who played every bit as well as their male counterparts. The eleven years of the AAGPBL, (1943-1954) made a difference in women's athletics that girls around the world enjoy to this day."