Sliding Home

Miguel, who loves baseball, plays on the Blue’s team, but, unlike most of his teammates, Miguel has big responsibilities at home. Newly immigrated to Canada, Miguel and his family are barely making ends meet financially. With his father still in El Salvador and in danger, Miguel and his mother are working hard to save enough money to rescue his father. Miguel babysits regularly for his sister and other small children in the neighbourhood to help with finances. He also acts as an interpreter for his mother and tries to help her with the legal paperwork that needs to be filed. Miguel carries a heavy load. Although Miguel’s age is not mentioned in the book, he must be 12 or 13-years-old.

Whenever possible, Miguel plays baseball with his team, but he doesn’t always feel like he fits in. His equipment is old and tattered, and he can’t afford to replace it. He’s the only player who must work odd jobs to help his family, and he is the only team player who doesn’t get to go to an away three-day tournament. His family simply can’t afford it, nor can Miguel afford to miss work and not bring money into the household. Life is difficult for Miguel, and fitting in and finding time to play baseball come second to supporting his family. Although Miguel feels he doesn’t belong, as he gets to know his teammates better, he comes to realize that they want to help in any way they can. The team comes up with a great way to support Miguel and his family.

Told in the third person, this story centres around baseball and the exciting actions of the game. Sliding Home is part of Lorimer’s “Sports Stories” collection, books for reluctant readers that feature lots of action-packed reading using limited vocabulary to make the story accessible for all. True to form, this story describes many play-by-play events in various baseball games, something which young sports fans will enjoy reading. It also gives good descriptions, not just during games but also in practices, showing the kinds of things baseball players do to be fit and in good shape for their games. In addition, the story follows Miguel and his family as they navigate their new Canadian way of life and the frustrations they face with language and legalese barriers as they work to get Miguel’s father out of a bad situation in El Salvador.

Sliding Home incorporates many diverse characters including Miguel and his family. It also has a minor character who is gay. Although this is not a feature of the story, it is a good way to include and show diversity within the story. As well, there is a lunch swapping scene which highlights the various ethnic foods students might bring for lunch. This is another way to show cultural diversity. The author does a good job of highlighting Miguel and other new Canadians’ situations and reasons for coming to Canada. It is done in such a way that readers will learn more about cultural diversity and hopefully become more accepting and understanding of new Canadians as they read and learn about various cultures and their struggles in settling in Canada. It would have been helpful to have a glossary of words and terms used in the story which were from other languages. Although the meaning of most I was able to glean from the context, some left me wondering. All in all, Sliding Home is a good read for young sports fans.