The desperado who stole baseball

Name: The desperado who stole baseball
Author: John H. Ritter
ISBN: 9780399246647

Age Rating, Reading Level & Content Guide

by John H. Ritter

NO OFFICIAL SERIES TITLE

Reading Level 4-5 LP · Mild · Physical Ages 9-12 Balanced Read Page-Turner

The text is written at a 4th grade reading level, the subject matter is intended for middle graders (ages 9–12), and the content is mild with minimal sensitive material. Its HootRating code, LP, means mild content, mostly physical.

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About This Book

In a lively California mining town during 1881, a spirited baseball team enlists a clever twelve-year-old orphan and the infamous outlaw Billy the Kid to take on the mighty Chicago White Stockings. Together, they face thrilling challenges in a high-stakes game that could change everything. Adventure and teamwork bring this wild West story to life on the baseball field.

Themes

Adventure Sports Friendship Historical Coming of AgeOrphansFrontier and Pioneer Life

Quick Assessment

This is a Level 4-5 book with mild content intensity. Content themes include mild peril. Written for readers ages 9-12.

Why we rated The desperado who stole baseball LP (Mild)

The desperado who stole baseball is written at a Level 4-5 reading level across 274 pages (approximately 57,990 words). Reading-wise, most kids in grade 6 and up can manage The desperado who stole baseball on their own; younger readers can enjoy it with a parent or teacher reading along.

Read aloud, The desperado who stole baseball runs about 6.5 hours — long enough to span several bedtime sessions.

We rate The desperado who stole baseball as LP (Mild, mostly physical) because the content sits in the "Mild" range — mild conflict — the kind a child encounters in normal play and sibling life. Across our four dimensions (emotional, physical, social, thematic) the book reads as evenly mild; no single dimension stands out as a concern.

Specific content flags noted by reviewers: Mild Peril.

Thematically, The desperado who stole baseball explores adventure, sports, friendship, historical, and coming of age — these threads give the book room to mean different things to different readers.

Good fit for

✓ Children in the Ages 9-12 range — the maturity and attention span match the story's pacing.
✓ Reluctant readers who need fast-paced, hook-heavy stories to stay engaged.
✓ Kids drawn to stories about adventure, sports, friendship.
✓ Readers who fall hard for one book and want a long series to live in — there are 41 more books in the NO OFFICIAL SERIES TITLE series.

Maybe not for

! Readers looking for something heavier — this is a gentle, low-stakes story by design.

For Parents

Content Intensity

LP · Mild · Physical

Emotional

Gentle

Physical

Mild ←

Social

Gentle

Thematic

Gentle

Reading the HootRating code: the first letter is the content intensity (C = Gentle · L = Mild · M = Moderate · I = Intense · V = Very Intense); the second, when there is one, is the kind of content that drives it (E = Emotional · P = Physical · S = Social · T = Thematic). Reading level and age range are rated separately. How we rate

Light conflict or tension. Mild peril resolved quickly.