Plunked

When a young slugger gets hit by a pitch, he needs more than practice to get back his game.

Jack Mogens thinks he's got it all figured out: He has his batting routine down, and now that he's in sixth grade, he has a lock on a starting spot in Little League. (Well, almost. Okay, not really. It's a two-man race, though, so he has a shot.) And if he can manage to have a not-totally-embarrassing conversation with Katie, his team's killer shortstop, he'll be golden. But when a powerful stray pitch turns his world upside down, Jack discovers it's going to take more than a love of baseball to get back his game.

Michael Northrop is the New York Times bestselling author of the middle-grade adventure series TombQuest. He is also the author of On Thin Ice; Trapped, an Indie Next List selection; Plunked, a New York Public Library 100 Titles for Reading and Sharing selection and an NPR Backseat Book Club pick; and other titles. An editor at Sports Illustrated Kids for many years, he now writes full-time from his home in New York City. Learn more at michaelnorthrop.net.