Pete’s Rose

Pete Morgan loves baseball. After a game, he suddenly realizes that he has lost his glove; someone has taken it! That sets off a series of events that will teach him a valuable lesson. Pete decides to do odd jobs to earn money and buy himself a new glove—but that might take him years. When the team loses a ball in Old Man Blodgett’s yard, though, everything changes. At first, Pete thinks that Blodgett is just a crazy old man. But when another ball breaks the roof of the old man’s greenhouse, Pete finds himself having to work for Blodgett in his rose garden to pay for the glass. As the summer passes, Pete finds himself learning more and more about roses—and beginning to feel empathy and respect for Blodgett. Meanwhile, he also deals with a bullying teammate and discovers exactly where his lost glove went. In this novel for middle readers, a young baseball player spends a summer helping a lonely elderly neighbor in his rose garden and learns important life lessons along the way.