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3.64 AVERAGE
3.64 AVERAGE
Very powerful--it made me weep. The book addresses questions of race, prejudice, difference, community, and responsibility without providing easy answers. The girls are vivid characters, and considering that there are twenty-one of them, they're pretty easy to keep track of.
I love this author, but was very disappointed in this book. The writing struck me as stiff and false, especially 1st base's Shazam and her clunky stream-of-consciousness chapters. I appreciated the many different narrators, but ultimately, I found this book much less authentic than her other works.
So, the audiobook was a little hard to follow since it was a "full cast recording", and it's hard to keep players from two teams straight in your head when you don't have a list anywhere to look at.
But the story was good - the ending was a bit too ambiguous for my liking, and there seemed to be a giant leap at the end of going from not-understanding to understanding, which seemed unlikely for the character in question, but ... whatever. It was a fun story, and fun to see a historical fiction book about GIRLS in SPORTS, within the context of history.
But the story was good - the ending was a bit too ambiguous for my liking, and there seemed to be a giant leap at the end of going from not-understanding to understanding, which seemed unlikely for the character in question, but ... whatever. It was a fun story, and fun to see a historical fiction book about GIRLS in SPORTS, within the context of history.
To be honest, I was expecting more from this book. Unfortunately, I got bogged down in all the characters - not all were necessary to tell the story since most of the characters had the same point of view. It tells how the japenese suffered under the U.S. policy during and after WWII and the prejudices that they still usffered once they returned home - if there was a home to return to. Adults hatred trickled down to thier kids and this hatred explodes during a girls baseball game.
There were some very strong prejudices and feelings for these young girls. There were small sections narrated by each girl throughout and I think that made the audio version a bit choppy. Plus the team rosters and batting orders got very repetitive. But that being said the narrator did a great job doing distinctive voices for the girls.
Summary: In small town, post-World War Oregon, twenty-one 6th grade girls recount the story of an annual softball game, during which one girl's bigotry comes to the surface.
Summary: In small town, post-World War Oregon, twenty-one 6th grade girls recount the story of an annual softball game, during which one girl's bigotry comes to the surface.
It's a strong idea, overall. Recovery from Japanese internment is something just as worth exploring as the Japanese internment itself. But this is just too muddled to be truly powerful. Shazam and Aki as POV characters, mayyyyybe with a third tossed in, would be a really powerful combination. But the total confusion of something like 24 POV characters (I didn't count myself, but I saw someone else give that number) makes things incredibly muddy almost immediately.
There's power to the book in the time when it does hit (haha). But it's just overwhelmed by its own bulk and that power gets lost 90% of the time.
(Also, wtf, does Shazam have a titanium elbow or something?)
There's power to the book in the time when it does hit (haha). But it's just overwhelmed by its own bulk and that power gets lost 90% of the time.
(Also, wtf, does Shazam have a titanium elbow or something?)
Pretty scattered story with a baseball theme that ended up with zero payoff. The message was certainly good, but the delivery left a lot to be desired.
I had concerns at the beginning of this book that it would be trite and repetitive, and there are a few moments that I wish were handled just a bit more gracefully. On the whole, though, this is a story that covers a lot of angles and allows for a lot of important questions; it's a book that trusts young readers to pay attention, think critically, and ask themselves what they believe.
4.5/5…I first read this years ago when teaching, and it holds up. What a freight train of foreboding this story delivers, and I love the voice of the narrators (the members of the teams)…if their voices tend to be pretty similar..save for Shazam, and Susannah.
I was quite impressed by this book. Wolff (thank god she grew up to be an author, eh? And a decent one at that?) overreaches a little bit by aiming for a twenty-person narrative (!!), so naturally the girls start to sound similar after a while, but the key players -- especially Shazam -- are really evocatively drawn and their voices are clear and strong.
The plot builds in a slow, simmering, inexorable way, and there's no easy payoff or pat, after-school-special ending that teaches us all a shining lesson about racism, thank goodness.
The pride, passion, and clarity with which each girl speaks about playing softball makes it an excellent read for athletic middle-school girls.
Really thoughtful and well-written overall.
The plot builds in a slow, simmering, inexorable way, and there's no easy payoff or pat, after-school-special ending that teaches us all a shining lesson about racism, thank goodness.
The pride, passion, and clarity with which each girl speaks about playing softball makes it an excellent read for athletic middle-school girls.
Really thoughtful and well-written overall.