The Girl Who Threw Butterflies

A few short months. That’s how long it’s been since Molly’s father died in the car accident. Molly and her mom don’t talk about it. In fact, Molly knows all that her mom wants to hear is that everything is fine – 8th grade is fine, Molly’s friends are fine, Molly is fine. Molly’s mom doesn’t want to know that Molly is tired of being known as Miss Difficulty Overcome – identified only by surviving her father’s death. Molly’s mom certainly doesn’t want to know that Molly’s not going to be on the softball team this year. It’s not softball, it’s baseball that Molly and her dad connected over – practicing the butterfly pitch, a perfect knuckleball, over and over again in their backyard, spending hours watching show more games and discussing stats. So, almost without realizing it, it’s baseball that Molly decides to try out for, not softball. Of course, there’s no girl’s baseball team and before Molly knows it, it’s sure not her father’s death that’s being talked about. After all, whoever heard of a girl pitching for a boys’ baseball team?

I'm always surprised by how much I enjoy sports stories since I don't play sports much myself. The baseball part of this was excellent, but I could have used more play-by-play throughout the book; I loved when Cochrane talked about what drills they were doing at practice and how the coach focused on how much mental toughness and focus is required. I also really liked that Molly wasn't great all the time. She has a good knuckleball, but it doesn't work every time and she has to work hard and practice to make it better and get it working more consistently.

I thought the grief work was handled pretty well, I particularly resonate with Molly's desire to not have her father's death be the only defining thing about her, but the ending left me a little unsastified because a few things seemed too neat. The biggest plot point I noticed this with was Molly's mom wanting to move away from Buffalo and then at the end that desire just seems to have evaporated. I get that we're not seeing Molly's mom's grief process and it would be a complicated decision, but it just felt a little unrealistic to me that Molly's mom figured out Molly would be unhappy moving and "poof" they're not moving.

The other thing that I was disappointed about is really a problem with my expectations - I went into the book thinking we would be getting a whole season of baseball games and instead it ended after the first one. I also went into this thinking it might be a good gift for my travel softball playing 6th grade niece, but with the way some of the softball girls are depicted I think I'm going to give this one a pass.

Listened to Recorded Books audio edition narrated by Maria Cabezas. Cabezas didn't do anything outright terrible with her narration, but it felt a little too flat and it was hard to distinguish Molly's voice from her friend Celia's sometimes. I wonder how much more I would have liked the book if I had read it instead of listening to it and will not be recommending the audio to others. show less

As eighth grader Molly Williams struggles to come to terms with the recent death of her father, killed in a car accident a number of months before, and to deal with her distant mother, who seems to be going through the motions of life on autopilot, she finds in baseball - her father's passion, and her own - something that gives her a sense of community and allows her to feel connected once again to her dad. Her talent for throwing "butterflies" (AKA knuckleballs) wins her a spot on the boys' baseball team, which brings its own series of challenges, as well as an unexpected new friendship.

Chosen as our January selection in The Children's Fiction Book Club to which I belong, Mick Cochrane's The Girl Who Threw Butterflies is an engaging show more tale of a young girl and her home and school life. The cast of characters, from Molly herself to her group of friends - Molly's best friend Celia, with her fierce independence and pet projects, her new friend and teammate Lonnie, with his penchant for turning everything into art - is well drawn. I appreciated the fact that the heroine confronts real issues - the loss of her father, being the only girl on a boys' sports team - and that those issues bring problems, without those problems overwhelming the narrative. I also appreciated the author's evident love for and knowledge of baseball. I don't know that I connected as deeply with the story as some other readers seem to have done, but I did appreciate it, both as a narrative of childhood loss, and as a children's sports novel. Recommended to middle grade readers who have themselves experienced such a loss, and to those looking for engaging sports stories. show less

Life is as unpredictable as a knuckleball. Molly learns that the hard way — her father has just died in a mysterious car accident. Her mother is in that ”distant, ticked-off, unreachable place.” Molly is left to navigate on her own the morass of 8th grade and grief. And the one thing that she knows can help her the most is BASEBALL.

Remembering the long afternoons playing baseball with her father, mastering the art of throwing a knuckleball, Molly decides to try out for the baseball team — the boy’s baseball team: “‘You don’t just aim a butterfly,’ her father used to say. ‘You release it.’ ” He told her that the knuckleball isn’t just a pitch but an attitude toward life, a way of being in the world — a show more philosophy…

In Mick Cochrane’s The Girl Who Threw Butterflies, the characters are so well-drawn, the descriptions of baseball make me want tickets to the World Series and drew me into the magic of the game, and the rich metaphors and story brilliantly capture the transitions and struggles in the life of an 8th grader. For example, from her father “Molly understood that keeping score was a kind of storytelling, an almost magical translation of loud and dusty events in the world — a stolen base, an around-the-horn double play, a triple — into pencil marks, a kind of secret code, numbers and lines and shapes, like cuneiform or hieroglyphics, the handiwork of some ancient scribe.” From the baseball team Molly discovers that as the pitcher, if there’s a runner on first base, it’s her responsibility to talk to the shortstop and second baseman. It’s her job to call out who should take a bunt if the first and third basmen are both charging it. If Coach Morales touches his forearm, it means steal a base. If he touches the bill of his cap, it means bunt. Molly loves this entire system of wordless communication.

She wonders if she could apply this system to the rest of her life, like when her locker is defaced, or when she’s sitting across the table from her mother at dinner. She would love to try and communicate some of their dinner conversations using signs. But then again there are many nights when she doesn’t see how she possibly could, because half the time she doesn’t even know what she wants to get across.

Even the signs and scorebook don’t show just how nervous a pitcher is, or how exuberant a teammate is when he clears the plate with a double, with all the attendant whistling and cheering. Or how terrible Molly feels if her knuckler has gone completely wild. “You’re cruising along one minute, feeling like you can do no wrong. Life is good, all’s right with the world. And then all of a sudden, for no apparent reason, things change.” Baseball = 8th grade = life. show less

Well written story of how a girl buck the odds and keeps her father's memory alive by using the knuckleball he taught her to become a pitcher on the school baseball team. Aided by her super smart best friend and the quiet boy, Lonnie, who becomes her personal catcher, she finds the strength to let go of lingering grief over her father's unexpected death, as well as the chauvinistic attitude of some team mates. I really like the characters and the way this story ends.

Recommended Ages: Gr. 4-8

Plot Summary: Molly, still grieving after losing her dad in a car accident, decides she doesn't want to play girls softball this spring. Instead, she's going to try out for the baseball team, using the pitching skills her dad taught her in their backyard. Tryouts are scary, but she makes a friend in Lonnie, her new personal catcher. She doesn't face too much wrath for being a girl on a boys team in a boys sport, but she handles the chatter well. This coming of age novel is about her connecting with her father after his death, how she and her mother are changed after his death, and her friendships, especially with a new boy.

Setting: Buffalo, NY

Characters:
Molly - 8th grader, good student, played baseball with her show more dad, still grieving and confused after her dad died 6 months ago, was on softball team but tries out for baseball team, usually knows what to say to her mom to avoid her worrying, but sometimes starts fights with her on purpose
Celia - Molly's best friend, full of ideas, easy to talk to, was supportive in the right way after Molly's dad died, has five siblings
Mrs. Williams - intensive care pediatric nurse, used to cook with Molly, now they order in and she looks at catalogs blankly, wants to move back to Milwaukee where she grew up, doesn't like sports but tries to be relatively understanding when she finds out Molly joined the baseball team instead of softball, shows up to her first games which is unusual
Peter J Williams - Molly's dad, worked for newspaper but wrote captions and headlines, drove on the highway all the time, but one time lost control of his car crashed and died, Molly suspected he was depressed and did it on purpose and when she finally talks to her mom about it she trashes that idea, taught Molly how to pitch knuckleballs
Mr. Morales - social studies teacher and baseball coach
Lonnie House - also an outsider on the baseball team, becomes Molly's personal catcher and friend, artist who makes the threat on Molly's locker into a silly mural, dad left him and his mom and is now remarried with a young child which makes Lonnie really sad because he feels like he was abandoned after his dad had a mid-life crisis and left them, sad to see his dad at his game with his new family
Coach V - second coach for the team, older, has thin mustache
Mr. Niedermeyer - vice principal who catches Lonnie making the graffiti threat into a mural, gives him a warning
Rybaks - family that lives next door, Molly babysits for them and when she checks on Caitlin she sees her mom in the kitchen next door
Eli Krause - good runner, ok hitter, on team, little with red hair
Desmond Davis - friends with James, has special handshake with James, on team, African-American
James Castle - friends with Desmond, invites Molly to learn special handshake with Desmond, on team, African-American
Mario Coppola - friends with Lloyd, on team
Lloyd Coleman - friends with Mario, on team

Recurring Themes: Zen, baseball, grief, family, friends, car crash, knuckleball, Babe Ruth, Amelia Earhardt, Jackie Mitchell, strectching

Controversial Issues:
pg 61 "because baseball was 'too strenuous for a woman.' What a load of crap."
pg 113 Molly asks her mom whether her father might have committed suicide "was his accident not an accident?"

Personal Thoughts: Well-written. I liked how the main characters each had their believable quirks, like Lonnie with the art, Mrs. Williams with her catalogs. The author also did a good job of showing the reader what was happening instead of telling us. I liked the way he reflected back on a situation instead of starting at the beginning of practice, for example, but this may make it a little more difficult for struggling readers to comprehend.

Genre: realistic fiction, drama, sports, VERY little romance (maybe one sentence)

Pacing: medium
Characters: lots, some of the smaller characters blend together but the majors characters have good character development
Frame:
Storyline:

Activity: show less

Molly is an eighth grader who recently lost her father in a car accident. When he was alive, her dad played catch and watched baseball with her. He also taught her some pitching fundamentals, including how to throw a knuckleball (AKA The Butterfly Pitch). Rather than try out for softball the spring after he dies, Molly decides to try out for the baseball team. The boys baseball team.

This book really resonates with me. My dad and I bonded over the Chicago Cubs and APBA when I was a kid. We also used to play catch in the backyard (football in the fall, softball in the spring). He never taught me to pitch, but he did teach me to really understand and love the game. We had a lot of other things in common, but sports was a big one. He was show more also a journalist, as was Molly's dad. My dad died five years ago. I still miss and think about him constantly, especially in April, when baseball season starts. show less

Wordy and not subtle. Everything had to be said clearly and repeatedly so that the point was made. (Like I just did.)

The knuckleball wasn't just a pitch. It was an attitude toward life; it was a way of being in the world. It was a philosophy." You see, with all the showing that is also being done in the novel, one of those three sentences would have been sufficient for the telling.

What Cochrane should have done to fill up the pages was do more with the characters of Molly's mom and her best friend. They were interesting, but we only saw their surfaces. The whole novel was about surfaces; I never really felt anything in my heart."