The Key to the Golden Firebird

by Maureen Johnson

Brooks, May and Palmer are three teenage sisters dealing with the sudden death of their father. Brooks and Palmer had shared their father's love of baseball (all three girls are named for baseball players) and are athletic softball players themselves, but May, the middle brainy sister, had always felt left out of that athletic circle.

The novel follows the three sisters as they each work out life without their father (and with mother overwhelmed by her own work and grief). Brooks and Palmer, the athletes, begin to falter at sports, and May begins to wonder about her romantic feelings towards Pete, who has always been in the girls' life like an annoying brother.

The story drives toward the girls' trip to fulfill their father's wish: to scatter his ashes on the pitcher's mound and Camden Yards.