Note: I received this book as an advanced reader copy. I would like to thank NetGalley, Holiday House, and Sandra W. Headen for the opportunity. What follows is my unbiased review.

Warrior on the Mound is set in 1939, in the Jim Crow, pre-World War II, pre-Civil Rights south. It’s an important context to know as things are on the brink of changing, but much of the south is still mired in the racism that has existed since the Civil War. It’s also a terrific coming-of-age story of a child born into this world on the brink of turning into an adult.

Cato Jones lives in a small town outside of Wilmington, North Carolina. His dream is to one day play baseball for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro League. It’s something of a family tradition. Cato’s father, Moses, played for them, and his uncle, Isaac, is currently playing for them. The town is strictly segregated, and his team plays on a poorly-kept field behind their one-room schoolhouse while there is a brand-new field for the white team in town.

Curiosity gets the better of the black boys one afternoon, and they find their way to the whites-only field and practice a bit there. They push their luck and someone spots them. Luke Blackburn is a local store owner and the one who built the field. Cato doesn’t know why, but his store is one the black families in town will go out of their way to bypass. His son, Trace, lies about the damage Cato and his team did to the field, and Cato must work off the damage at Luke’s store.

However, things are not as they seem. Cato’s mother died giving birth to his sister, Hope, and the two of them live with their grandparents. Moses also died, and Cato knows it was something bad, but no one will talk about it. Somehow, Luke was involved with Moses’ death. Cato is confused, then, when it is Luke who proposes a baseball game between the black and white teams.

Warrior on the Mound is written for middle school readers. However, as nearly the exact opposite of the audience it was written for, I loved it. It has heavy topics of racism and violence and the discrimination blacks who lived in the south suffered with. Cato grows in the days these events takes place. He learns that sometimes the better path is a non-confrontational one, and you can still get your point across. He learns that people are often much more than they seem on the surface, and sometimes you don’t know everything when you think you do.

There’s also plenty about race relations in the south at this time. Many of the adults want things to change, but things that have happened in the past have beat them down to the point that they just accept it. It the boys Cato’s age who will be changing things, and there are seeds planted in this story.

All of this is set against the brilliant backdrop of a love of baseball. Cato is a star pitcher, and likely would have gotten more attention had he been white. He dreams of meeting and playing alongside the famous Satchel Paige, while Trace admires Dizzy Dean and doesn’t think any black player could top him.

Anyone who loved baseball will like Warrior on the Mound. I think it does well showing what life was like in the Jim Crow south of the time. I felt the struggles Cato and his friends were going through and the characters were complex and well-rounded. I had some questions while reading, such as where the money for all the food talked about came from. Adults tend to analyze things more while kids tend to accept more at face value. This is a minor nit-pick, though in what is otherwise a terrific story.