In Fast Pitch, by Nic Stone, 12-year-old Shenice Lockwood is captain of a softball team: the Fulton Firebirds. It’s the first all-Black team in Georgia’s Dixie Youth Softball Association.
Shenice is determined to take her team to the championship. But she loses focus after discovering a family secret. Years ago, Shenice’s great-grandfather JonJon was accused of theft and kicked out of his baseball league. Her great-uncle insists JonJon was framed. Can Shenice unravel her family history and still lead her team to victory?
Like Shenice, Stone played softball as a kid. She told TFK she wrote Fast Pitch because she “never saw books about Black girls playing sports” when she was growing up. She wanted that to be different for kids today.
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