Songs for the Offseason

It’s the summer before his senior year, and Dustin can’t wait to take a special trip to Japan with his high school baseball team. His plans are quickly dashed by the sudden death of his similarly athletic cousin. As someone focused on fitness, Dustin is deeply shaken by this loss. While attending his very first funeral, Dustin meets Andrea, the new stepdaughter of a distant relative, who seems to have a playlist for every occasion. At first, Dustin dislikes her. But as the summer continues, death seems to be stalking them both. More funerals crop up, one after another, challenging Dustin’s sense of stability. Andrea is there at every gathering, each with its own flair and antics from quirky family members, trying to find meaning in the madness alongside Dustin. As they reflect on life, death, and music, they learn to embrace the weird ways people cope—and find a path forward.

Readers will empathize with Dustin as he navigates through a summer filled with funerals that force him to contemplate death. At the first funeral, Dustin meets Andrea, and the two quickly become funeral buddies who support each other through this difficult time. As they attend each funeral, the two friends watch family members who cope with death in different ways, such as listening to music, drowning grief with alcohol, and relying on religion. While every reader may not relate to Dustin’s struggle to understand death, they will likely sympathize with his disappointment in losing out on his dream to go to Japan and his conflicting emotions regarding Andrea.

Dustin and Andrea’s relationship helps highlight different coping strategies. The two often discuss what happens after death and frequently contemplate religion. Through it all, Dustin realizes that “people / deal with / these things / in their own ways.” Even though Dustin can’t explain what will happen when he dies, Andrea helps him realize that “each name / and face / and moment / felt written / in the core / of all / that ever / was and / would be.” The story concludes with a hopeful tone because Dustin and Andrea realize that their relationship will help them navigate through difficult times.

Dustin’s journey begins and ends with his cousin, Jack’s, funeral. Jack’s death is shocking because he was young and athletic, and no one—including himself—knew he had a heart disease called cardiomyopathy. While he questions why Jack died, Dustin finds a way to honor his cousin. Because Jack loved baseball, Dustin organizes a baseball game and donates the proceeds to “different / heart associations, including one / for cardiomyopathy / in youth.” The book concludes with the baseball game, which allows Dustin and others to honor Jack and cope with his death.

As part of the West 44 collection, Songs for the Offseason is specifically aimed at teens with an interest in reading a short, high-interest novel. The story’s straightforward plot, easy vocabulary, and interesting protagonist make Songs for the Offseason a good fit for struggling and reluctant readers. According to the publisher, “West 44 is an exciting platform for new, authentic voices and gripping stories. Our books ensure that every reader is able to both get lost in a book and find themselves on its pages.”

Although Dustin clearly loves baseball, Songs for the Offseason includes only one short scene with play-by-play action. This may disappoint sports-loving readers. The rest of the story focuses on a string of funerals that Dustin and Andrea attend. While the book doesn’t feel like a baseball book, Songs for the Offseason will help readers who are dealing with grief understand that everyone copes with death differently, and that’s okay.

Readers looking for a book that focuses on sports should read Centerville by Jeff Rud and Above All Else by Jeff Ross. If you’d like to explore the topic of grief through another person’s perspective, read Rain is Not My Indian Name by Cynthia Leitich Smith and Always Isn’t Forever by J.C. Cervantes.

 Sexual Content

• At a baseball game, a girl “greeted her / boyfriend / with a kiss.”
• Dustin’s cousin, Steve, talks about his new stepsister. Steve says, “And if you want / to get with / my stepsister, / that’s fine, man. / She’s hot.” Dustin scolds Steve and tells him to “show some / respect.”
• Dustin compares Andrea to her mom. Andrea gets angry and says, “I’ll be sure / to think of / how sorry / I am for you / while we’re / making out.”
• Dustin’s dad falls to the floor and is taken to the hospital. While there, Andrea shows up to comfort Dustin. “She kissed me / on the cheek. / It sparked / against / my skin / like some / strange spell.” Dustin’s mom interrupts them.
• After a baseball game, Andrea runs up to Dustin and “brought her lips / up to mine.” Later, they kiss again. Dustin describes, “our mouths / sank together, I felt the light / within us / spreading out / into the shadows. . . I kissed her again.”

Violence

• Dustin doesn’t drink alcohol because of his family. While at a bar, Dustin’s family gets drunk and, “My Uncle Greg / popped / my Uncle Fred / in the face / with a bat. [Dustin] heard/ a sharp crack / as it struck / his jaw.” Fred’s tooth falls into a glass of ale. When he tries to get the tooth out of the glass, it “burst. / Shattered / over / his fingers, / slicking them / up a bit.” Dustin’s mom takes Fred to the hospital.

Drugs and Alcohol

• Dustin’s uncle died of lung cancer. The uncle used chewing tobacco and cigarettes. While in the hospital, the uncle was “strung up / to a machine. / But he still kept blowing / smoke / in my face.”
• After attending a funeral, Dustin’s family “got loaded / on cheap beers / and shots of / whiskey.”
• After a funeral, Dustin’s dad was “drinking / his way out of / sadness.”
• Dustin tries chewing tobacco. Afterwards, he “started / dry-heaving, / but / nothing / came out. It was like / the demon / who controlled / the universe / was inside of me now.”

Language

• None

Supernatural

• One of Andrea’s relatives is a medium. “Someone who / claimed to speak / with the dead.”
• At a funeral for Andrea’s relative, another medium says that “the woman / had gone into / the Great Light.”

Spiritual Content

• Dustin goes to a funeral for his cousin at a church that reminded him of a megachurch because “it had the same / slick vibes.”
• During the funeral, the pastor doesn’t talk about the deceased but gives a sermon. The pastor asks, “If you died / today, /do you know / where you / would go?” The sermon is one page.
• After the sermon, Dustin is upset. He says, “If we all / matter to God, the preacher could’ve / at least acted / like Jack / was a person. / Not just a talking point.”
• At the funeral, Dustin meets Andrea, who says she doesn’t believe in God, but she prays anyway. Andrea says, “I figure, whatever religion / I don’t believe in / is probably / the true one.”
• Dustin’s father’s family “only went to church / on Christmas / and Easter. / They weren’t / big believers.”
• Dustin goes to pay respect to a man whose family is Jewish. “They were now / sitting shiva. / This meant / they were mourning / for seven days.”
• Before Dustin leaves the dead man’s house, he and his friend say “a special prayer / before leaving / the house of mourning. / I felt calmer / after saying it.”
• Andrea’s mom changes her religion to match that of her current boyfriend. Andrea also follows the man’s religion. Andrea says, “I don’t pretend / to be all-in. / If her latest god / knows everything, / there’s no point / in trying to / trick it.”
• Andrea thinks the universe “was probably built / by an evil demon / who feasted / on our pain.”
• Dustin’s grandmother dies. She had “raised / her sons Lutheran. . . She didn’t want / a service / in a church. / She’d lost her faith / after her husband / died. . .”