This is a story of Coyote and his ultimate defeat. At least his defeat this time. A lovely blend of Norse and Native American mythology, shaped into their own story to bring the world of the Fay to our world. It has much to do with baseball, and revels in the details of description and plot. The main hero crew, three children and the various characters they meet, are interesting and up to the challenge of Coyote, whether they know it or not. ( )

While a kid's story at heart, it's well written, creative and filled with surprises.. Pretty long though for a sort of fairy tale in the world of baseball.. Good read overall. ( )

Good YA fiction based on baseball, Norse myths, American folklore, and Indian myths, etc. Good but kind of long. ( )

I must be getting too old for children's books. I enjoyed reading all of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials and all of J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series. Summerland just never grabbed me. Yes there was lots of imagination and even crafting of a story with characters popping up long after we thought we were done with them. But how this was going to end was all too obvious and predictable. Baseball is everywhere in this story. Players, ballparks, fans, statistics, bats, balls, mitts, even cleats are the constant focus. Yes there is magic and fantastical creatures and tons of obnoxious odors but they are secondary to baseball. Whenever we reach an impasse a baseball game is proposed and our fearless band of woebegottens always prevail against all odds. And the boy whose quest is to rescue his brilliant inventor father and the rest of the world in the process of course goes hitless in game after game. So we wait breathless for the final all or nothing game and his game winning homerun. Ta da. Who would have guessed....everyone. ( )

Finding a book like this makes me glad that I still like dip into children's literature. It is clever, imaginative, well written (it IS Michael Chabon after all) and all the other things that go into making a good story to read and savor.

Read it. Share it with a book-loving young person. ( )