Playing for Pride

A New Sport with New Rules — Can Laurie Come Through for Her Team?

A New Sport with New Rules —
Can Laurie Come Through for Her Team?

With the girls’ softball season about to start, fifth-grader Laurie Bird Preston can’t decide what to do. Her friends are trying out for the team, but Laurie knows she’s no softball player — basketball is her sport. She helped lead her middle school’s girls’ basketball team to a state championship just a few weeks earlier. What fun will she have playing a sport she’s no good at and might not even like? But with patience, practice — and help form her friends and an eccentric old woman with a mysterious past — Laurie might just learn that she doesn’t have to be the best player to be part of the team.