It’s difficult to resist the temptation to lace this review of Calgarian Gregory Roberts’ debut YA novel with baseball slang. It’s such an integral part of his story that each chapter begins with a relevant baseball phrase and its definition. Even the title comes from baseball jargon: chin music is a knockdown pitch that passes close to the batter’s jaw.

Roberts’ protagonist, Brook Gunderson, is a pitcher for his Lethbridge, Alberta, high school baseball team, the Mustangs. His teammate and best friend, Jason “Jiggle-Me” Parker, is a prankster who pulls Gunderson into a number of nerve-wracking schemes, usually involving revenge against their arch-nemesis, pitcher Luke Fabro from the rival team. Certain plot elements always seem to crop up in a baseball story, such as the aforementioned team rivalry, an injury that may end a sports career and, of course, the requisite bottom-of-the-ninth, bases-loaded climax. Even Brook admits he’s seen the latter situation before: “It was like I was living in a baseball movie.”

But even within the confines of the baseball genre, the author has managed to create a highly readable and entertaining tale. The quirky characters and believable teen dialogue, along with compelling subplots, such as Brook’s brother’s drug abuse and Brook’s growing attraction to his teammate Sonya, add interest beyond the sports theme. The intelligent first-person narrator effectively pulls readers into the largely lighthearted story, providing plenty of laugh-out-loud moments and occasional touches of poignancy.

This is the type of book that sports fans will seek out, but it will also appeal to a cross-section of junior-high readers, including unathletic kids, because it touches upon many aspects of young adult life. And so, I give in to temptation: on his first swing, Roberts has hit himself a four-bagger.