7 Days at the Hot Corner

by Terry Trueman

In baseball, fielding your position at third base is tricky—that's why third is called "the hot corner." You have to be aware that anything can happen at any time. This should be the best year of Scott's It's his last season of varsity ball, his team is about to go to the city championship, and a pro career is on the line. Instead, everything he always counted on comes crashing down at the same time, and his whole life is like one blazing hot corner—full of deadly line drives and crazy "bad hops." Scott can't believe the awful stuff coming his way, but it's time to find out whether he has what it takes to play the hot corner—on the baseball diamond and off it.

Genres: Young Adult, Sports, Friendship, Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Gay, LGBT

160 pages, Hardcover

First published February 27, 2007

Reviews

[Cody Bohlmann · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is alright. I picked up this book because I thought it was going to be about playing baseball. Though there were baseball games in the book, they never described them like I thought they would. The book was mostly about gay people and aids. The main character has a friend and he tells him that he is gay and he may have aids. The main character freaks out and goes and takes an aids test but he can't get results for a full week. He gets mega butthurt and decides to not be nice to his friend because he is gay. At the end of the book the main character wins the baseball tournament and accepts his friend even though he is gay. I feel like if this book was made into a movie it wouldn't be that good. There is no action and it is very repetitive. I would've liked this book better if there was more baseball action.

[CadenS · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book a lot. It was with great detail and explained a lot about baseball. It explain how being a baseball player is hard. It explained what it was like to play third base and how it is harder than people think. I wish the book ended in a championship. They could have ended it better but everybody makes errors. I wonder what class they are for baseball. Why could his team not win cause of one error. Why is his team down in the dumps after the game they had made it to the championship and had a chance to win. I liked the part where he makes a great play and him and his team get excited about and they almost comeback and win.

[Morgan Brough · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought it was a different type of book to read. Sports books are what I like to read and this was one of them, but I didn't think I would have liked a novel.
A guy named Scott is a varsity baseball player that need to get a test done for his baseball game. He has to go through various days to get something he needs for the game. It worries him and he needs to help his friends.

[Ms.Virgin · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a quick read and dealt with serious topics that should be discussed more often. At times it was hard for me to like the main character because of his cliched reaction to his friend's news. But he does redeem himself by the end of the story.

[Aidan Hartell · Rating 4 out of 5]

7 Days In The Hot Corner by Terry Trueman is a very well written realistic fiction book. In this book the main character is Scott Latimer. Scott plays varsity baseball for Thompson High School. He ends up winning the championship game in the end. Scott loves baseball and it is his favorite sport and activity to do. Scott’s best friend is Travis, but when Travis reveals that he is gay, the friendship starts shifting. Scott’s parents are divorced and he is used to always depending on Travis’s parents as almost second parents. Travis got kicked out of his house because of him being gay. His mom didn’t want him spreading the sexualality to his brother. Since Travis got kicked out, he is now living with Scott. A girl in the school Travis and Scott go to, made a letter to go out to everyone in the school to tell them that somebody is gay and got kicked out of his home because of it. In the letter it mentions, that the guy is having a hard time and to help him if you can. Travis does not play baseball and is shorter than Scott. He is not very talkative but can get very angry quickly. Travis was very shy about him being gay but did get it out when he was at Scott’s house one day. In the middle of the story, Travis never really talked to Scott because Scott reacted badly to the fact that his best friend was gay and he never knew it. Travis changed throughout the story by being not friendly with Scott to being friendly with him. On the other hand, Scott is tall and is always nervous about things. In the beginning of the story, he got an AIDS test and he was always mentioning throughout the book if he would get AIDS or not. He thought about it everywhere always mentioning in the book that if he would get AIDS or not. He thought about this everywhere even baseball. Scott is also not talkative but speaks in his head a lot. Scott is a very nice character but did offend Travis to the point that he wouldn’t talk to anybody for a while. Throughout the story, Scott has been trying to hide Travis’s secret so nobody would make fun of Travis and himself for being his friend. Scott changes throughout the book by becoming Travis’s friend at the end again. This is because in the middle of the story, Travis was against Scott for being mad at him for being gay. The main conflict is that Travis is gay and Scott needs to keep that secret from getting out. In the middle of the book, some kids get in a fight because a mean kid thinks another kids was the gay guy in the letter. Scott saw that fight happen and was worried that something like that would not happen to Travis. This conflict is internal because Scott needs to lie to keep his friend from trouble. This conflict is character vs. self because of Scott needing to struggle with keeping the secret. The theme for this book is to never judge a person by their sexualality. This is because in the book, Scott always thought that because Travis was gay that he shouldn’t hang out or do anything with him. The tone of this book was acceptance and the mood was sad because I felt bad for Travis. The word choice is captivating because I wanted to find out what happened to Travis. The writing style is very descriptive towards the feelings of the two characters, Travis and Scott. One thing the author did well was making the days in the chapters very clear. I knew when a knew chapter was going to start because the author mentioned Scott waking up and going to bed. Every day was one chapter and there were seven days. One thing that I don’t think the author did well on was the ending. The ending stopped at a cliffhanger and I really wanted to read what was going to happen next. This book was really good and I would give it four stars. I would recommend it for anyone who likes drama and baseball because of the vocabulary.

[Tyler Bowman · Rating 5 out of 5]

7 Days at the Hot Corner is about a varsity baseball player for Thompson High School. The main character in the book is Scott latimer. In there beginning of the book, Travis, who is Scott’s best friend, reveals to Scott that he is gay. After that point, the friendship started changing. Once he reveals to his parents he is gay, Travis got kicked out of his house. And he is now living with Scott and his parents. At the beginning. Of the book, Scott got an AIDS test and always talked about if he would get aids throughout the book. He had to wait seven days for the test to come back, it was the longest seven days of his life. During that time, Scott had a hard time understanding his friendship with Travis, his own life and the assumptions he made. He got this test because Travis bled all over him in the beginning of the book. Sometime in the middle of the book, two kids get In a fight in the student parking lot because a mean kid thinks that the kid in a letter wrote about Travis was a different kid. This is a a type of character vs character conflict because it is two people having a conflict with each other. during my reading, there was some moments when I was happy, dad, confused, angry, calm and a whole bunch of different emotions. It made me feel a little bad because a mean kid beat another kid up because he thought he was gay. That kid should be able to have feelings toward whoever he wants. Another time I was anxious was when Scott got the test for AIDS because I didn't know what was going to happen when he got the test back. I definitely recommend reading this book because it showed ways of friends to put differences aside.

[LOGAN]

I personally enjoyed reading this book because u learned so much about him like how baseball is his refuge.i picked this book because it was a book about sports and the cover art drew me to pick this book up and to read it .This book was really intense throughout the book because his good friends told him that he was gay and he thought his friends might think he is gay too. He is scared to lose all of his friends.

This book is about a boy named scott. He plays baseball. I give this book a overall 8/10 because in like the first 20 pages all he talked about was going to the clinic and it kinda drawed me away from the story until they actually got back to baseball. Besides that it is still a great book.highly recommend.

The story title is actually given off of the position he plays 3rd base ´¨the hot corner¨ they call it the hot corner because the 3rd baseman has to throw the ball very fast aka hot to the 1st base. And his life is a hot corner with all of these intense and surprising things that happen that you will learn when u read the story.


There is a lot of personal stuff that you will learn in the story about Scott's personal life. It is a very interesting story and will keep u on your toes the whole story.And just wait until u get to the ending u wont be mad at the ending it will shock u and rock your boat i think it's time that you go pick up this book and go read.

[Natalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Baseball is Scott's life. He plays third base, the hot corner, and loves it. Baseball has always been his refuge.

Then his best friend tells him he's gay. And Scott is turned upside down. He's worried what everyone will think of him, being friends with Travis. And he worries he has HIV, since Travis bled all over him six months prior.

Scott heads to a clinic to get tested, his entire future in doubt. He's afraid everyone will know and think he's gay too.

He has to wait seven days for the test results, the seven longest days of his life. In those seven days, Scott struggles to understand his friendship with Travis, his life, assumptions, and win the State Championship ball game.

A very short book that focuses on gays, HIV, baseball, divorce, and friendship. Good and interesting.

[Hank Greenlee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very intense and entertaining. The novel is set off between Scott a baseball star, and his friend Travis getting kicked out of the house. Struggled to keep his mind off of Travis because his parents kicked him out because he was gay. What I found that was really interesting was that Scott tries to clear his mind off the whole Travis situation. I really liked this book alot because it comes out to a great ending. I love reading baseball novels about people. Most parts in the book are very engaging tio learn more and to keep reading because it becomes so intense. I would for sure read the book again and also read another book about the basic setting and theme of the book.

[Monica Caldicott]

Read p. 1: “Third base, defense : varsity baseball team."

Events in Scott’s life have made him feel he’s at 3rd base – the hot corner – every day.
His best friend Travis Adams
An appointment at the County Health Dept.
His team in the city playoffs
Getting scouted by major league ball teams

So the question is – can Scott take the heat or will he give up and duck the line drive that life is tossing his way?

[Danny Nelson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I remember reading this when I in middle school (years ago now).
And truly it was a book that I couldn't put down.
It's not about baseball but the struggle a young man goes through when faced with potentially contracting a life long disease from his gay friend's blood.
This isn't for everyone and I picked it up on a whim all those years ago, and it has stuck with me.
The book portrays a fairly accurate reaction a highschool boy would have when faced with a life changing disease.

[Casle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scott finds out that his best friend is gay, gets an AIDs test (touched his friend’s bloody nose) and spends the next 7 days figuring out his life, his friendship, his parents, his future and the true importance of baseball in the grand scheme of things.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall, sound extended metaphor and realistic characters. At first, it felt like it didn't hold up over time, but it redeemed itself in the middle and had a strong ending that better reflects my impression of today's youth (having one in my house).

[Trigger Warning Database]

Trigger & Content Warnings:

Homomisia
Bullying

[Tyson · Rating 5 out of 5]

i really like this book i will for sure be looking in to this author more

[Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Personally I enjoyed reading 7 Days at the Hot Corner very much. I decided to read the novel because it was about baseball. I didn’t know it was going to teach me a lot of life lessons too. I started enjoying the book right away because I can relate to the main character. Scott and I both share an extreme love for the game of baseball. We both have divorced parents as well. I got interested in the book at the beginning because it explained Scott in the hospital getting tested for HIV. He had 7 days until the results would come back and in those seven days was the Baseball Championship Tournament. I really wanted to know why he wanted the test. I also wanted to know what news the test would bring back, so I was excited to continue reading. Scott was a senior playing on the varsity baseball team, which is also a similarity we share. He was worried that he got AIDS from having his best friend’s blood on him. His best friend Travis was discovered to be homosexual so that’s what gave Scott a bunch of worries. I was focusing on Scott’s attitude towards Travis and it wasn’t good. Scott wasn’t treating Travis like a best friend or giving him the time of day after finding out he was gay. Scott got worried when there was an article written in the high school newspaper. The newspaper article was about Travis being gay and getting kicked out of his home. He has been living with Scott for 6 months but the newspaper didn’t have anybody’s name. Scott was glad Travis didn’t include any names but he was still worried people would find out. Scott really changed towards Travis and he wouldn’t accept him at first. I enjoyed how Scott had to learn the hard way to accept his best friend. There were many fears Scott had. He was deathly afraid of Matt Tompkins. Even though Matt was a fellow teammate of Scott they never got along. Scott feared that Matt would beat him or Travis up. Scott realized how much he cared about Travis after a few events. Scott rushed to a school fight thinking Travis was getting pounded and instead it was someone else. Scott was threatened by Matt, so Scott tried anything he could to try and warn Travis about him. I thought it was crazy that Scott and Travis used to do everything together and talk all the time but the one thing changed everything. It was nerve racking when Scott couldn’t get a hold of Travis. Scott was trying so hard to make sure Travis didn’t talk or go near Matt. I thought it was crazy that Scott was going through a championship tournament and a personal crisis at the same time. I thought Travis said it best at the argument earlier in the book, “Scott, you live a fantasy life with your baseball”. Scott did only worry about baseball for the most part, but all of the fears of Travis being in danger made Scott a better friend. I absolutely loved the end of the story. The last game went in the bottom of the 9th and the score was 5-5. The game was the championship game and Scott’s team would have a perfect record if they won. The winning run was on first base and Matt Tompkins was up. Scott was on deck so he really thought he would bat and get the winning hit. Matt ended up hitting a bomb of a home run and they won. I was surprised that Scott didn’t get to hit but they still won it all. Scott watched Matt in all the glory, but then saw Travis approach by Matt. Scott got scared and watched closely to make sure Matt wasn’t going to swing. Instead Matt and Travis jumped up and down and celebrated together. I was surprised because Matt seemed mad about Travis being gay. Scott told Travis how surprised he was and that he was trying to warn him about Matt for a couple days. Travis let Scott know that gays can be baseball players too. At that moment I was in shock I thought there was no way Matt could be a homosexual because his character was portrayed as a big frightening guy. The book ended with Travis and Scott going back to normal and Scott made the Major Leagues.He was drafted to the Minnesota Twins and his stresses about college were over. I really enjoyed the novel because Scott learned tons of lessons from the game of baseball that ties into life.I definitely recommend this novel for baseball fans or anyone who wants to learn some life lessons. Life is just like a baseball game because things can change at any moment and adjustments have to be made.

[Richie Partington · Rating 5 out of 5]

28 November 2006 7 DAYS AT THE HOT CORNER by Terry Trueman, Harper Tempest, February 2007, ISBN: 0-06-057494-1; Libr. ISBN: 0-06-057495-X

Imagine if you were suddenly witness to an accident, and the victim was potentially going to bleed to death, and you didn't have rubber gloves. Would you be willing to get that person's blood on your hands in order to save his or her life, or would your reaction be to stand helplessly by, for fear that you might contract AIDS from all that blood?

Do you have a problem with hugging a friend or relative who you know is gay?

Neither of these scenarios is specifically a conflict encountered in 7 DAYS AT THE HOT CORNER, but both are potential discussion questions that come to my mind while reflecting upon Terry Trueman's story of a high school third baseman who has previously thought that he knew just about everything there was to know about bad hops.

Scott Latimer is approaching the end of his senior year in high school. Scott is first and foremost a baseball player, and he considers the next few days to be pivotal to his future. Having closed out the regular season with an impressive and unprecedented consecutive win streak, his high school team is heading into a tournament at which there could well be the scouts watching who could make Scott's dreams of being drafted out of high school by a major league team come true.

But just hours before the first tournament game we meet Scott Latimer waiting in a funky orange vinyl chair in a public health clinic where he has secretly gone to get an HIV test. Travis, Scott's best friend since second grade has been kicked out of his parents' house and, for the time being, has come to live with Scott and his dad. Scott had no idea what caused the rift between Travis's parents and his best friend until Travis hands him the latest issue of the school paper with an article about an anonymous student who discusses why he is "coming out." And when this all begins sinking in, Scott suddenly recalls the incident six months earlier when Travis was bleeding profusely and Scott, without hesitation, got Travis's blood all over himself in the process of making sure that Travis didn't have significant injuries.

So now, when Scott feels that he should be focused on the most important baseball games of his baseball-obsessed life, he instead has to expend thought and emotion on how his best friend for the last decade could possibly be gay, and whether or not Scott himself might, in his own words, "be a dead man."
It sure doesn't help that Scott will have to wait for the next week until the results of the blood test are received by the clinic.

" 'Say you're the fag,' Floyd says.
" 'You're the fag!' a voice comes from the ground off to my left. It isn't Travis's voice but it's familiar. For a second I can't quite place it, but then the kid who has spoken gets up and I see that it's Zeke Willhelm.
"I ask the kid next to me, 'What's going on?'
" 'Every time that big guy hits that little guy, the big guy says, "Say you're the fag," and the little guy gives him the finger and says, "You're the fag." Then the big guy hits him again.' "

Meanwhile, the mystery of who the gay student at the high school might be is causing the sort of "witch hunt" around school that had me recalling that old episode of The Twilight Zone called "The Monsters are Due on Maple Street," a dark tale where all the neighbors begin accusing each other, amidst a rising spiral of violence, for a series of eerie, inexplicable occurrences.

7 DAYS AT THE HOT CORNER is topical, thought-provoking and, most of all, an absorbing read.

Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.com
BudNotBuddy@aol.com
Moderator http://groups.yahoo.com/group/middle_... http://slisweb.sjsu.edu/people/facult...

[Zach T · Rating 4 out of 5]

How would you react if your life took a big curve? In this past quarter I read Seven days at the Hot Corner by Terry Trueman. This book describes a relationship between two really close friends drifting apart. Scott Lattimore is the main character in the novel and his best friend is Travis. Travis and Scott have been friends since they were very young. They are both seniors at Thompson High School.

Seven days at the Hot Corner was a very great book and I found myself not wanting to put the book down. This book caught my attention in so many ways, one being that it is a sports book and play and watching sports are one of my favorite things to do.

Baseball is everything to Travis and Scott. They both play for their baseball team at Thompson High School. While Scott and Travis were practicing for one of their last baseball games of their High School career, Travis got a bloody nose. While they were in the process of cleaning the blood up Scott got some of Travis’s blood on his hands. Scott is a very cautious person. The next day Scott finds himself at the Spokane County Public Health building for an AIDS test.

Scott says “This week, of all weeks, I should just be playing baseball.”

Scott says this because it is his last year playing baseball at his high school and also Scott and his team have a huge state baseball tournament coming up.

When you were embarrassed did you ever make something up? When Scotts number was called to get his AIDS test, he was very nervous. Walking down the hallway Scotts heart started beating faster and faster. When Scott gets into the doctors room for the test, Scott says “I’m really embarrassed, I’m sorry I lied about”, the nurse cuts him off and says “There’s nothing to be embarrassed about, it’s nobody's business but yours.” This is a significant moment in the book because it is showing that Scott was very embarrassed for the reason he was there and made an excuse for being there.

During the testing Scott gets some blood drawn. The nurse says “It will take five days to get the results back.” Scott thought he would know right away if he tested positive or negative for AIDS. After the test Scott meets up with Travis and Travis reveals that he is gay. Once Scott found out he overreacted and that's when their friendship started drifting apart. Travis says to Scott “Look how you’re reacting.” This shows how worried Scott is now about the results that he’ll get back from the Spokane County Public Health.

Even though Scott is very worried about the results that he will get he still stand up for Travis. At their high school the school newspaper came out with an article called “Coming Out” and this article is embarrassing Travis. This article leads everyone to expect that Travis is the one meant in this article. Everyone at Thompson High School is making rude comments to Travis. Then Scott stands up for Travis and Scott says,

“Quit making rude comments, everyone is different in their own ways.”
This shows that even though Scott is very confused at what’s going on Scott and Travis’s friendship is still strong.


I would give this book a 4 out of 5 stars because at some points it caught my attention but at other points in the novel it just didn't make sense. This was a fiction novel. I thought this book went into really good detail. The main theme in this novel was not only about the friendship of two kids but also about their baseball team.

Overall this book was a great read for myself. The author made the conflict clear by restating it multiple times throughout the novel. Even though the main conflict was about friendship the author also talked about Scott and Travis’s baseball team. I like how the author didn't only stay on one topic.

[Kurt · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fifty pages into the hot corner I wanted to turn around, head back home and forget the whole venture. Yet, my mission preserves even through the dull and predictable. The Hot Corner starts off in a public health building, our protagonist is getting an HIV test. And within those first few pages we hit both of the major problems with this book.

The first issue is the main character Scott. Never did I invest in him, not that all one of his dimensions gave me much to invest in. Not only is he simplistic, he is also straight. This is likely because the best way to tell a gay themed story is with a heterosexual.

There is a gay character in this gay themed novel, Travis. However, Travis is hardly in it. Never have I read a gay story with such little gay-ness. There are enough novel's with straight male leads, if you are going to attempt a gay theme novel do us all a favor and make the lead a gay character.

My second issue with this book is that it seemed to be more of a public service announcement than a book. And I do not mean one of those slick clever anti-smoking advertisements they now have. I mean the public service announcements of yesteryear, where a wise looking man in a tie lectured you.

The message was lost in its awkward and supercilious presentation. Oh, HIV is not only a gay disease? And not all gays have HIV? Wow, it is okay to be gay? By in large the audience that does endure this book does so because they have a vested interest and these messages are preached to the choir, a choir who just wasted a 150 pages of their lives.

The Good: The book is a quick read, it has a good heart, HIV is present to a young audience

The Bad: Dull, simplistic, preachy, lack of gayness, predictable

Gayness Level: 1 out of 5, there is not even gay handholding in this book

[Jennifer Wardrip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reviewed by Me for TeensReadToo.com

"The hot corner." In baseball, it's third base. So named because of the fact that you always have to be ready for anything, and no one knows it better than eighteen-year-old Scott Latimer.

Scott is the starting third baseman on Thompson High School's varsity baseball team. The Spokane All-City High School Tournament is coming up in a matter of days, so of course Scott is worried about how he'll handle himself on "the hot corner."

The only problem is that, as life has a way of doing, things in his personal life are a little messed up at the moment. His best friend, Travis, was recently kicked out of his house by his parents and has been staying with Scott and his dad. And that was fine, until Travis handed him a copy of the school newspaper, which contained an article entitled "Coming Out."

Now "the hot corner" isn't just on the baseball field, but everywhere Scott looks. He doesn't know what to do about his friendship with Travis. He especially doesn't know how to handle some of the things Travis has said to him, such as the fact that Scott has issues with being the son of divorced parents. During these next seven days, it's up to Scott to figure out how to make things right again -- both on the field and off of it.

Again, author Terry Trueman has taken a well-drawn character and put him into a realistic situation. This is another great read from one of my favorite authors, and I can guarantee you won't go wrong by picking up a copy.

[Dylan]

Book Report
Dylan Kinkade


9 out of 10 i will read it again because the book talk about baseball and it talks about weddings how he got married and how he played baseball on the plates he played on all of them and they the he loved to play baseball every day if they could but they didn't because they had to do there stuff like one dude on the baseball team and some people got married and the dude that was on third base his name is scott they called the base the hot corner because they always got people out on that base so they called it hot corner and the team's third baseman was getting married and they were all happy for him because he was a good teammate and a good friend he never counting anyone out because was not kind of guy he was always nice and he was happy that he was going to get married and everybody in the town counting on the team to go to the championship and they also said they called the 3 base the hot corner because they could not get people but know they might go to the championship but they have to keep it up to go because because the other team is doing good so we have to keep it up and we hope we can do good on third base or we might not win but at first he did not know that he was be able to make the hot corner but he did and they won the championship and the whole team was happy that we won even the whole town was happy and after the game we celebrity the win at a nice place to eat dinner and have some fun with the team and after that we put the trophy and the case at the school then the day was done and we went home.

[Zach South · Rating 3 out of 5]

For my holiday reading I choose to read 7 days at the hot corner by Terry Trueman. This book is about a boy named Scott who is in his last year of varsity baseball and dealing with a rough patch of friendship. In this book Scott is at batting practice with his friend and his friend starts to bleed so Scott helps stop the bleeding and thinks nothing about the incident. The next week though he finds out that his friend is homosexual which makes Scott freak out because of where he lives people think anyone who is homosexual has AIDS so Scott goes to the clinic to get a blood check and will have to wait 7 days to see the results. I will not spoil anymore of the story but I want to quick talk about it. Even though Scott is smart enough to realize that anyone can have AIDS because of where he lives he freaks out about. This makes me feel dissipointed at Scott because he let his society infleunce his thoughts which is not good. Also in the book the school finds out that someone is homosexual in the school but they don't know who so kids are trying to find out the kid like it is a bad thing. I think it does not matter how you identify and it should not be a big concerne for others because it is not important. What I like though is that when Scotts friend gets kicked out of his house Scott convinces his dad to let him stay with them. This makes me feel good because he's not letting his friends labels to change their friendship.

[Tyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was probably one of the worst books i've ever read. I didn't like this book because it was all about baseball. Also in the beginning of the book for like the first 30 to 40 pages he was only talking about him going to the clinic and being at the clinic to see if he has aids. The one thing i did like about it was that you have to wait and see the outcome of what happened to the main character Adam. In order to do that you had to read the whole book to find that out, so the book grabs your attention and pulls you in. I recommend this book to people that live and love baseball. If you don’t like baseball you will not find this book entertaining at all. Even though I didn’t like the book, I gave it four stars because it uses a good use of imagery and it is a real big attention grabber. I also picked this book not because of the cover but because of the author. I like Terry Trueman he writes some pretty good books. If you like this author just like I do a great book by Terry Trueman would be Stuck in Neutral.

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scott is a baseball player -- third base; he plays the hot corner. These 7 days, tho, are about more than baseball. He starts the week by going to a clinic to be tested for AIDS. He tries to keep his worries from his divorced parents, and his best friend, Travis. Scott uses baseball as the metaphor through which he sees everything in his life. This fast moving novel lets us really get to know Scott -- the sweet kid, the disloyal friend, the confused son, the star baseball player. Trueman has created a character...in fact several characters...I really care about. The issues here are ones all high school students will relate to. I loved the strong sports connections, and think it will be a selling point for guys.

Side note. In the acknowledgements, Trueman thanks Crutch (gotta be Crutcher) and Terry Davis (of VISION QUEST fame, who gave Crutcher his first break). Trueman's from the same area...I wonder if this is the new hotbed of YA novelists who write for guys...

[Karen Ball · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can't wait to recommend this to my 8th graders. This is the story of Scott Latimer, Thompson's High's varsity third baseman (third base being the "hot corner" of the title). His best friend since grade school has just been thrown out of his house, and has come with live with him and his parents. The reason he was kicked out? He's gay. He's not your average "flaming" stereotype -- he's a nice kid, good friend, sort of shy...and most people never thought anything more than that. The 7 days of the title refers to the weeklong waiting period for the results of an HIV test that Scott takes once he finds out Travis is homosexual, because there was an incident at the batting cages last December when Travis was hit by a ball and his blood got on Scott's hands. During the week, Scott is also playing for the state championship. This is a powerful short novel that deals with prejudice -- especially the prejudice we don't think we have until push comes to shove.

[Agatha Donkar Lund · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up because it was getting pretty good critical reviews and because it was about baseball! And teenagers coming out! And the intersection of the two! Which should have been right up my alley, but the fact is: it was pretty rotten. Not only was the narrator a completely unsympathetic jerk to his gay best friend -- who'd been kicked out of his own house for coming out to his parents -- and his lack of sympathy wasn't even presented in an endearing way, but all the characters were thin and boring, too, and there was not nearly enough baseball in it. I tore through it in an afternoon, and frankly, it could have used about another 100 pages to flesh things out. It felt like a skeleton of a book: there were good structural bones there, but there wasn't any meat hanging on them. Big disappointment.

[Johnny S · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought that the book was pretty good, but there were a lot of spots that were just like any other sports book like them winning the championship. There also were some spots that I would never have expected happening, like not having the main character make the game winning play. I liked that he didn't make the winning play because he was up next and I thought it was pretty obvious that he would and I was surprised when he didn't even get the chance. I also would not have thought that Seth and his best friend would fight and not talk to each for a whole day comparing that they are in the same house. Another reason why I liked it is because I play baseball and I am in high school so I can relate to what is happening in the baseball games and understand that there is a lot of drama and fighting going on in high school.

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Scott is freaking out because he thinks he may have contracted AIDS. He goes for the HIV test and as he awaits the results he is spending 7 days in the proverbial "hot corner"--a baseball term for third base. Scott thinks he could possibly have contracted AIDS from his gay friend Travis. As Scott works through his suppositions, fears, assumptions, and prejudices he gets a better understanding of what Travis' life must be like. This is a great YA book for examining these issues in a realistic and fast-paced way. Anyone can relate to the situation as they think about encountering or living as either one of the characters. This book would make a great starting point for a discussion of these topics.

[Tyler · Rating 5 out of 5]

The writing of this book can be a little confusing at times, especially the last regular chapter. Although I was sure of the results from the test, I had to re-read the paragraph four or five times until I was sure that's what was being said. The concept of the book is the exceptional part, I'm not familiar with any other YA book about the effects of someone coming out on one of the friends. Add that and the baseball elements to the story I would think this an excellent book to advocate to school-aged environment.

[Oscar · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book is great if your really into baseball. the only reason why i really read it was beacause i can really connect to the protaganist. i actually like this book beacuse it got me 30 buffilo wings. i was tellin my cuzion about the book ...but she didn't believe me,thats how crazy the book is. so i told her if i bring her the book the next day she has to make me buffolo wings(she makes the best buffolo wings) sure enogh the next day i was knocking on her door rubbing the book in her face. no shes reading the book ...and has to make me the buffolo wings before the end of the month =]