Gold Dust revolves around the experiences of Richard Riley Moncrief as he tries to share his intense love of baseball with the newly-arrived Dominican, Napoleon Charlie Ellis. Richard prefers to keep his life simple, devoting all of his energy to following the game. Playing year round in all sorts of weather, Richard intends to play baseball professionally one day, and in Gold Dust, Lynch captures Richard's obsession with the game. While other characters outwardly think the seventh-grader is out of his mind hitting ice balls in the freezing winter cold, Lynch carefully and simply presents Richard as a boy in love with the clarity of the game. Richard accepts the rules of baseball for what they are, never trying to second-guess them or disagree with them. Preferring status quo, the young baseballer takes the same view toward life.

Richard does not question his place...