" I am not a sports person so a book about baseball has to be pretty good to hold my attention. Mudville turned out to be more than just a book about baseball. Sure baseball was featured throughout the book, but the main story was really about the relationships between the characters...and between the towns of Moundville and Sinister Bend. We really get a good look at the characters of Roy and Sturgis and Roy's dad in this book and how they interact with each other. They all have their faults and their good points, but in the end they are family and they come together as family. I thought their journey through the book was very real to life. Sturgis is the troubled kid who wants to fit in but fights back and resists his new family. Roy has always know a loving father, even if he has had an absent mother. He is fairly secure in who he is and that has shaped him and his interactions just as Sturgis's background has shaped him. Roy's father is a decent man just trying to make the best of every situation. Sure he doesn't always do the greatest job but you know he is trying. And then you have the towns and the rivalry and the curse and the GAME. It all makes for a fun book that the kids really enjoyed. "
— Angie, 1/21/2014