A NOVEL TO SHARE ON A SUMMER'S DAY

If you share your world with a young adult, there is perhaps no better novel in recent years to read together than Frank Nappi's The Legend of Mickey Tussler. The story of a young man fighting autism who lands a spot on the Milwaukee Brewers team in 1948, Tussler is crack read. This is not specifically a young adult novel, but like books with a very straightforward plot and a handle on people, this one will win over kids and parents alike. Read it together one summer, between ball games and on a family vacation. (more)

Ron Kaplan's Baseball Bookshelf Review of The Legend Of Mickey Tussler by Frank Nappi. St. Martin’s Press

II don’t ordinarily read baseball fiction aimed at the young adult demographic. Most are simply rehashes of the same story: young athlete, usually a star, faces adversity in the form of another player on his own team or a health crises or another at-home situation; learns valuable lessons, yada-yada-yada; and comes away victorious on the field and off.

The Legend of Mickey Tussler is a different kettle of fish. (more)

Frank Nappi (Echoes from the Infantry) has produced a knowledgeable yet unsentimental book starring an autistic teenager with a fearsome fastball. (more)
                                                                              
  ~Publishers Weekly, February '08

The Legend of Mickey Tussler, written by Frank Nappi, is in part a baseball book. But, it also is a novel about the cruelty and kindness people are capable of demonstrating, and the challenges of dealing with autism, before the term was even known.

Milwaukee baseball fans will find it particularly entertaining since Mickey is a rookie with the Brewers of the American Association in the 1940s.(more)

Most Milwaukeeans aren't familiar with the Milwaukee Brewers ... the old Milwaukee Brewers, that is, the American Association Brewers, a feisty little baseball team which inhabited a ramshackle all-wooden ballpark at 8th and Chambers Streets from 1902 to 1952...(more)