Twelve-year-old House Jacksonstar pitcher and team captain of the Aurora County All-Starshas been sidelined for a whole sorry year with a broken elbow. Hes finally ready to play, but wouldnt you know that the teams only game of the year has been scheduled for the exact same time as the towns200th-anniversary pageant. Now House must face the pageants director, full-of-herself Frances Shotz (his nemesis and perpetrator of the elbow break), and get his team out of this mess. Theres also the matter of a mysterious old recluse who has died and left House a wheezy old dog named Eudora Weltyand a puzzling book of poetry by someone named Walt Whitman. Through the long, hot month of June, House makes surprising and valuable discoveries about family, friendship, poetry . . . and baseball.