When vandals deface the Harmony Point sign, the town does indeed seem to become the "arm pit" of the region. The baseball team hasn't won a game in two seasons and the town itself is falling into disrepair. But when the new postmaster becomes the ball coach, Clay and the rest of the Terriers finally seem to stand a chance of winning a game. Until they overhear a bureaucrat from the city say that the post office will close unless the "numbers" work out. The team begins "Operation Tennis Elbow" - a letter writing campaign designed to generate enough mail to keep the post office - and its postmaster - in town (and coaching their baseball team). And along the way, they learn the power of the pen in effecting positive changes in their community.
Natalie Hyde
is the author of more than a dozen works of nonfiction. She has contributed titles to a variety of educational series including Live It: Fairness and Live It: Courage. This is her first novel. Natalie lives in Cambridge, Ontario.
"Saving Armpit is a heartwarming story, with funny extra textual components in between the chapters in the form of mail or email correspondence that the kids solicit (fudge recipes, summer camp advertisements, heritage organizations, emails). There's also plenty of action and sports lingo on the baseball diamond to draw in a young readership who loves or could be interested in baseball (with a glossary of sports terms at the back, which helped me immensely)."
— CM Magazine
"This book would be a terrific read-aloud for students to learn about citizenship, community service, and collaboration. Sportsmanship and hard work, respect for coaches are also valuable lessons within the story."
— School Library Journal starred review
"Saving Arm Pit is a delightful middle grade chapter book about dramatic adventure in baseball teams written especially to appeal to readers age 9 and up. Complete with a special glossary of baseball terms, information about baseball rules at web sites, and interest-piquing forms, letters, publicity advances, and journalism ephemera, Saving Arm Pit is an irresistible automatic page turner for kids. It's also just a lot of fun."
— Midwest Book Review