Heart of a Champion

Originally published in 1993, Heart of a Champion is a young adult novel written by award-winning author Carl Deuker, whose work is primarily about sports and intended for young adult readers. The novel is the first-person narrative of a California boy, Seth, whose father died prematurely, leaving a huge void. Seth befriends Jimmy, whose love of baseball quickly becomes Seth’s passion as well. After the death of his friend after an alcohol-induced car crash, Seth writes the memoir as a way of coping.

Carl Deuker was raised in the southern Bay Area near San Francisco, where the novel is set, and is an avid sports fan and writer. Heart of a Champion was named ALA Best Book for Young Adults, an ALA Best Book for Reluctant Readers, a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age, and Pennsylvania Young Reader’s Choice Book of the Year. It was also named Book of the Year in Pennsylvania, Nebraska, and Tennessee. Reader should be aware that the book deals openly with serious issues, including teenage drinking, alcoholism, domestic abuse, and death.

In 2007, the book was re-released in a paperback version, upon which this summary is based.