Migration of Willie Mackerels, The

Willie Michael’s goal in life is to become a professional baseball player, but he is a marginal athlete, at best, and he is frequently distracted by awareness of his oversized nose. His rival, Teddy Snodgrass, is not only athetically gifted but has managed to steal the affections of Willie’s heart’s desire, the tantalizing Trudy Trammel. Willie moves away when his parents purchase a rundown tavern on the Olympic Peninsula, the most wild and remote area in the State of Washington. Now in his senoir year of high school, Willie plays football, basketball and baseball for the perennial doormat of the league, the Happy Valley Milk Maids. The Milk Maids lose game after game and seem incapable of beating anyone, let alone the powerful Scandia Vikings, led by his old rival, Teddy Snodgrass. But Willie won’t give up. He has a secret baseball weapon- taught to him by the town drunk. It just might be enough to upset the Vikings and recapture the attention of the lovely Trudy. Mike Clarke has written two previous novels that center around the theme of fishing. In his third novel, The Migration of Willie Mackerels, Mike taps the knowledge gained from a long career as a schoolteacher and athletic coach to create a coming-of-age story that is fun, heatwarming and wise. He currently resides in Port Hadlock, Washington, on Puget Sound, not too far from where Willie Michaels may have stepped up to the pitures mound.