Gives a brief biography of Will Weaver, author of young adult fiction, and a detailed review of Weaver's "Striking Out" and its sequel "Farm Team." Explains that the two novels focus on a young adult's family life and his aspiration to excel as a baseball player on the middle school team. (TB)

Discusses the life and writing career of the popular author of adolescent literature, Gary Paulsen. Considers each of Paulsen's novels individually as literary works and the entire corpus as artistic achievement. (HB)