Description

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Narrated by twelve-year-old Cato, this intense and evocative story of racial unrest in prewar North Carolina ends with a dramatic match between white and Black little league teams.

1935. Twelve-year-old Cato wants nothing more than to play baseball, perfect his pitch, and meet Mr. Satchel Paige––the best pitcher in Negro League baseball. But when he and his teammates “trespass” on their town’s whites-only baseball field for a practice, the resulting racial outrage burns like a brushfire through the entire community, threatening Cato, his family, and every one of his friends.

There’s only one way this can end without violence: It has to be settled on the mound, between the white team and the Black. Winner takes all.  

Written in first person with a rich, convincing voice, Warrior on the Mound is about the experience of segregation; about the tinderbox environment of the prewar South; about having a dream; about injustice, and, finally, about dialogue.

Back matter includes an author's note, historical background, biographical information about Negro League players, and more.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

About the Author

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Sandra W. Headen, a former teacher and researcher at Chapel Hill, is a full-time writer. Her historical middle-grade novel, WARRIOR ON THE MOUND, was awarded SCBWI’s On-the-Verge/Emerging Voices Award for writers from underrepresented groups; in addition, her short story PAPA'S GIFTS (The Carolina Quarterly, March 2019) was awarded the Jones African-American Literary Award by the North Carolina Writers’ Network.