While Gold Dust appears to be only about baseball, it is more than that, tackling tough issues such as racial intolerance and class conflict. Characters such as Butchie resent blacks for forcing them to travel great lengths in terrible weather just to get to school.

Tensions rise not only on the schoolyard, but also on the streets of Boston, as Richard, Napoleon, and Melanie cannot even enjoy an ice cream without feeling threatened.

Perhaps most difficult for some readers is Napoleon's insistence that Richard not ignore the racism that exists around him, but instead recognize that it is real and not a figment of Napoleon's over-sensitive imagination. Lynch puts the reader into the position of examining his or her own experiences objectively. Just as Napoleon forces Richard to acknowledge the racism that exists in his neighborhood, Lynch makes readers examine their own community and reflect on...