Susie Wilde (Children's Literature)
In Summerland, Michael Chabon mixes the symbolism of baseball and the myths of many cultures. His hero, young Ethan Feld, is in transition. His mother dead, Ethan and his inventor father are newly arrived in Summerland, Washington. Summerland is a magical place where the sun always shines and baseball is big. Ethan is not good at baseball. He learns under pressure when he enters a parallel world with a feisty teammate, Jennifer T. He must outplay the trickster, Coyote, to save his father and the world. There are brilliant lines and the classic good and evil theme works well. The dialogue, especially Coyote's, sparkles and defines character wonderfully. But Chabon's 500-page book feels as if it was written by a man restrained by reality for too many years. There is an appearance by every magical creature you can imagine. There are ghosts, giants, tall-tale heroes, ferishers (Native American fey folk), goblins, a Sasquatch, werebeasts, changelings, and more! Each character comes with explanations as complicated as a baseball manual. Their legends mix with Chabon's reinventions in a mishmash of magic. Chabon's razzle dazzle and excess references overwhelm rather than convince. 2002, Hyperion, $22.95. Ages 10 up.

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, September 1, 2002 (Vol. 70, No. 17))
Well, we got no choice, an' that's a fact. The Rade has showed up, years before we ever done expected them, and yer about ten years shy o' half-cooked, but we got no choice. There ain't no time ta go looking for another champion. I guess ya'll hafta do." Thus is 11-year-old Ethan Feld, the worst ballplayer in the history of the game, drafted by the Home Run King of three worlds to forestall the end of the world at Ragged Rock. Ragged Rock is not a place but a moment-the last out of the bottom of the ninth-and the Rade is the combined hordes of Coyote, the Changer, who is bent on poisoning the four great branches of the World Tree. After the death of his mother, however, Ethan hasn't much faith in his ability to be anybody's hero, but when his Zeppelin-designer father is kidnapped by Coyote to engineer Ragged Rock, he takes up a baseball-bat-sized chunk of the World Tree and joins the cause. Plaiting together elements from Scandinavian and Native American mythology, American legend, and world literature, Pulitzer-winner Chabon (The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, 2000, etc.), writing for young people for the first time, constructs a uniquely American fantasy peopled by were-animals, sasquatches, giants, and ferishers-fairies who look like nothing so much as 18-inch-high storybook Indians-and fueled by a healthy reverence for the Great American Game. As catcher and slugger for Big Chief Cinquefoil's Traveling Shadowtails All-Star Baseball Club, Ethan is joined by Clam Island teammates Jennifer T. Rideout and Thor Wignutt, and an assortment of otherworldly supporters. Together they barnstorm across the Summerlands until, at Diamond Green, they meet Coyote and his team of Hobbledehoys, for one last, great game. The sprawling, vigorous narrative pulls out all the stops, gleefully reveling in the wonders it produces at every turn, from the magically ever-sunny corner of drizzly Clam Island to the varied denizens of the Summerlands. This raucous, exhilarating, joyful, and, above all, fun offering displays an enormous respect for the tradition of great fantasies that come before it, from Irving, Baum, and Nesbit, to Lewis, Tolkien, and Pullman, while confidently taking its place beside them. 2002, Hyperion, $22.95. Category: Fiction. Ages 10 up. Starred Review. © 2002 Kirkus Reviews/VNU eMedia, Inc. All rights reserved.

Janice M. Del Negro (The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, January 2003 (Vol. 56, No. 5))
Though most of Clam Island has the foggy, rainy weather expected on a small island in Puget Sound, the westernmost tip, a place the locals call Summerland, is an exception--until one summer it rains on Summerland, and the natural order of the known universes goes awry. That summer, eleven-year-old Ethan Feld, the worst player on the Roosters baseball team, is recruited by Ringfinger Brown. Brown is not a baseball scout, he’s a hero scout, and Ethan is his choice for preventing Coyote, a.k.a. the Changer, from destroying the Lodgepole (the great Tree that holds the universes) and bringing on Ragged Rock, the end of the world. A skeptical Ethan and company (a hodgepodge band consisting of one girl pitcher, one fairy chieftain, one female Sasquatch, one rebellious fairy princess, one changeling, one miniature giant, one thieving wererat, and one almost-washed-up Cuban baseball star) race across magical boundaries and into parallel worlds to stop the Changer (here personified as Coyote, but representing cultural tricksters from Loki to Lucifer) from poisoning the well that feeds the Tree that holds the universes. Encounters with giants, fairies, and figures from American tall tales result in battle by baseball, as the motley crew turns into a team that can beat even Coyote and his band of demon players. Chabon borrows freely from Native American mythology, American tall tales, and Celtic folklore. The lyrical images of summer and baseball are reminiscent of early Ray Bradbury; the mythic images of good and evil are straight out of Norse mythology, from Ragged Rock/Ragnarok to the Lodgepole/Yggdrasil to Coyote/Loki. The opening meanders, but Chabon’s pace picks up to a decent lope about a quarter of the way through. The trick to this novel is to enjoy the journey (at nearly 500 pages this no short trip); those readers who aren’t in a hurry will do just that. Review Code: R -- Recommended. (c) Copyright 2003, The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. 2002, Miramax/Hyperion, 500p, $22.95. Grades 6-10.

Horn Book (The Horn Book Guide, Spring 2003)
When Ethan's father is abducted as part of Coyote's plan to bring about the end of the world, the eleven-year-old and two friends set off to save him. The group "scampers" through four connected worlds, meeting some uniquely American fantasy figures and playing baseball with the inhabitants of the Summerlands. Despite a convoluted plot, this is an ultimately satisfying fantasy filled with colorful characters and magic. Category: Intermediate Fiction. 2002, Hyperion, 500pp, $22.95. Ages 9 to 12. Rating: 2: Superior, well above average.

David Goodale (VOYA, February 2003 (Vol. 25, No. 6))
Ethan Feld, "the worst baseball player in the history of the game," is the chosen one. To save his world, known as the Midling, and many other parallel worlds such as Summerland, Ethan must defeat the trickster Coyote. Coyote kidnaps Ethan's father as part of his plan to annihilate the universe, and Ethan travels the worlds in search of his father. With the help of his little league teammate, Jennifer T. Rideout, Ethan assembles enough allies for a baseball team that must face Coyote's team of demons, the Hobbledehoys, in a game that will determine whether or not the universe survives. Chabon, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (Random House, 2000/VOYA August 2001), draws from Native American mythology to create a fantasy world that rivals Tolkien's Middle-Earth in complexity. No doubt Chabon also had the Harry Potter craze in mind when he wrote the book, as the works of J. K. Rowling are also set in an alternate world populated by a plethora of fantastic creatures. The book is beautifully written, but few teen readers will be able to--or want to--navigate their way through Chabon's labyrinth of worlds. This book might be recommended for libraries that serve intense fantasy buffs between grades ten and twelve. Even those libraries, however, might frequently find the book sitting on the shelves in the teen section. VOYA CODES: 4Q 2P S A/YA (Better than most, marred only by occasional lapses; For the YA with a special interest in the subject; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12; Adult-marketed book recommended for Young Adults). 2002, Hyperion/Disney, 512p, $22.95. Ages 15 to Adult.