Review – A Season of Miracles

A Season of Miracles
by Rusty Whitener
Kregel Publications
269 pages

Looking back on the 1971 Little League season, Zack Ross relives the summer that changed his life…

Gunning for the championship is all that matters until twelve-year-old Zack meets Rafer, a boy whose differences make him an outcast but whose abilities on the baseball field make him the key to victory.

Admired for his contribution to the team, Rafer turns everyone’s expectations upside down, bestowing a gift to Zack and his teammates that forces them to think—is there more to life than winning or losing? And what is this thing called grace?

MY REVIEW:

Reading this book I think I expected a “typical” baseball or sports book about how young boys learn life lessons through sports. What I got instead turned out to be one of my favorite books of the year.

Interlaced with the baseball theme is a story about young boys and fathers and God. The neighborhood boys from the Robins Little League team meet to practice in a field one day and see another boy their age, Rafer, sitting with his back to a tree watching them. Rafer is “touched” and sees and processes the world differently than the other boys do. But interestingly enough Rafer is able to teach lessons to the boys and adults around him, even if unintended.

This book is small, only 269 pages, and what I thought would be a very fast read took a little longer than I anticipated because of the thoughts presented within. Sometimes I would come across the thoughts and stop and ponder them a while and savor some of the lessons to be had.

I honestly think this book can be enjoyed by anyone, whether a baseball fan or not. And fortunately for us all this book is in the preproduction stage of becoming a movie.

 

** Thank you to CFBA for sending me a copy of this book to review.