The Speed of Light

280 pp. "Summer. Baseball. Car Baseball. Sock Ball. Wall Ball. The Time Tower: can you get older faster' The speed of light: can it be measured' A carp, washed up in the riberbank: what's inside' Larry, Witt, and Rafferty have a whole summer to play all the different kinds of baseball, to build structures in the backyard, to find out what makes the world tick. "We've got to keep busy," says Witt. I want to know everything. Not just part." Larry doesn't want to know what keeps him heading for Witt's backyard, rich with weeds and rotting appliances, whenever he's not at baseball practice. All he knows is that there's no one he'd rather be with than these two friends, that the chaos of Witt's universe offers refuge from his own orderly home and an entrance into a world of change, growth, and unpredictability."