Skyler Schrempp

Three Strike Summer

Dust Bowl refugee Gloria Mae Willard is more than ready for new horizons. Weeks of traveling have brought her, her ma, her pa, and her older sister, Jessamyn, to the Santa Ana Holdsten Peach Orchard in sunny green California. But California is a bust. It is dirty, the wages are low, and the bosses are always talking mean. There is one bright spot, though; the secret, all-boys baseball team that Glo -- who has the best pitch on this side of the Ricky Mountains -- is dying to play on. The only problem? They won't let her on. But Gloria's never been good at waiting around for permission. If the boys won't let her play, she'll find a way to make them. If the people around her are keeping secrets, then she'll keep a few of her own. And if the boss men at the Santa Ana Holdsten Peach Orchard say she's not allowed to organize peaches, then by golly she'll organize a whole ball game.

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books (Simon and Schuster)
Publication Date: August 30, 2022
ISBN: 9781534499140

"Gloria Willard is one of a kind—she won my whole heart and her story will stay with me for a long time. Touching, informative, and edge-of-your-seat, this novel about a family traveling west during the Dust Bowl is a captivating must-read. Told in a voice that is so real it reeks of filched peaches, this book is a home run."
—Amy Sarig King, Michael L. Printz Award winning author of Dig and The Year We Fell From Space

"Skyler Schrempp’s debut novel is as fiery-fast and dead on-target as one of Gloria Mae's fastballs. In a Depression Era Dust Bowl setting so well rendered you can feel the dust gritting in your clothes, the dangers in Three Strike Summer—environmental disaster, worker exploitation, and the power of the wealthy to rig the system—will feel keenly relevant to modern readers. Gloria’s quest to pitch on the orchard’s secret baseball team is one we root for (heck yeah!) but as Gloria would tell you, it turns out a true win is about more than that. It is about a whole team (and community) standing up and sticking together. A heart-felt, wallop-packing, winner of a novel kids will find both inspiring and empowering."

— Linda Urban, award winning author of A Crooked Kind of Perfect

Available for order:

WOMEN AND CHILDREN FIRST | BOOKSHOP

Skyler Schrempp writes books and makes theatre in her hometown of Chicago. She lives in an old drafty house with her husband Kyle, her daughter Elowen, and a black cat named Masha. She got her undergrad at Hampshire College and has an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts. When she’s not writing, you can find her making jam from the berries that grow in her backyard or building a fire in her fireplace (depending on the season). You can visit her at www.skylerschrempp.com.

Find her on TikTok @skylerschrempp

www.skylerschrempp.com

Tags: Middle Grade, Historical Fiction