Baseball is America's sport! When it became America's sport well over a century ago, that really meant it was a sport for white males. Over time, like America itself, it's changed and become more inclusive. Now that opening day is here, it's time to share some great books about baseball with middle grade readers.
Like Madelyn l'Engle, Ellen Klages follows a family of brilliant and talented people through their adventurous life. L'Engle follows the Murry family through the series that begins with A Wrinkle in Time. Klages follows the Gordon family beginning with Green Glass Sea.
In Out of Left Field, youngest daughter, Katy Gordon is a baseball fanatic in a world where everything, except Little League admission rules, is changing. The San Francisco Seals, the hometown favorites for 50 years, are going away, to be replaced by the Giants. Sputnik is launched and schools in the south are being integrated. But Kay, who throws a mean pitch so singular that it doesn't even have a name, cannot join Little League because she's a girl. When her teacher assigns an American hero research paper, Katy delves deeply into the history of female baseball players in order to prove that the Little League rules make no sense.
This book has interesting, fully developed characters, and a plot line that shows how kids can change the world through activism, but it also paints a brilliant picture of what life was like in 1957. You can read this novel on its own, but it's even richer when read with its companion stories, Green Glass Sea and White Sands, Red Menace.
In Out of Left Field, youngest daughter, Katy Gordon is a baseball fanatic in a world where everything, except Little League admission rules, is changing. The San Francisco Seals, the hometown favorites for 50 years, are going away, to be replaced by the Giants. Sputnik is launched and schools in the south are being integrated. But Kay, who throws a mean pitch so singular that it doesn't even have a name, cannot join Little League because she's a girl. When her teacher assigns an American hero research paper, Katy delves deeply into the history of female baseball players in order to prove that the Little League rules make no sense.
This book has interesting, fully developed characters, and a plot line that shows how kids can change the world through activism, but it also paints a brilliant picture of what life was like in 1957. You can read this novel on its own, but it's even richer when read with its companion stories, Green Glass Sea and White Sands, Red Menace.
If you're looking for a movie tie-in to Out of Left Field, try The Perfect Game. Based on a true story, this sweet and innocent movie tells the story of a group of boys from Monterrey, Mexico who became the first non-U.S. team to win the Little League World Series. It, too, is set in 1957 and gives a good picture of the prejudice against both blacks and hispanics that was common in that period.
Get a Grip, Vivy Cohen is a sweet story about a girl with autism who wants to join a baseball team and pitch the knuckleball she learned from a pro player. Told in letters and emails between Vivy and VJ Capello, the major-league knuckleballer who's her hero (and a pretty nice guy for responding to all her letters!), this novel will help readers get into the head of a girl who's not much different despite her disabilities. She has to face bullies and her own personal fears when she gets on the mound, but she does it with bravery and honesty and a kindness towards others that is genuinely inspiring.
Baseball Genius was written by Tim Green and Derek Jeter, so you know the sports parts are dead-on accurate, exciting, and detailed enough to follow well: it's like listening to a game on the radio! The rest of the story is exciting, too: every one of the very short chapters has a cliff hanger of an ending that will keep even reluctant readers going. The story centers on Jalen DeLuca, the son of a hard-working immigrant father and a mother who's left the family to pursue her dream. Jalen's dad doesn't make enough at his Italian restaurant to support his son's baseball aspirations, so Jalen tries to make money by stealing balls from the home of the Yankee's second baseman. This starts a series of events that leads to Jalen using his uncanny ability to predict pitches to help the Yankee stay on the team. While most middle grade readers will love this book, I can't help but feel uncomfortable with the message that kids can steal and cheat if their circumstances justify it. Green and Jeter wrote this book before the Astros' infamous trashcan banging episode. I wonder how they feel about it now.
In The Grip, a Middle Grade book that reads like an autobiography, Marcus Stroman and co-author Samantha Thornhill team up on a story about a young ball player. Marcus showed talent from a young age, and his father is determined to make that talent pay off. Even though he and mom are divorced, he makes sure Marcus practices every morning. Eventually, Marcus feels overwhelmed by the mental pressure this brings, but his mother finds him a therapist who can help him deal with it.
The book will help children explore what it is like to have parents divorce, being teased for being short, and the need to just be a kid. It is not a fast paced or exciting book, and the plot has no real surprises, but kids who have aspirations for the big league will find an affinity with Marcus and will appreciate knowing that even Golden Glove winners were kids once.
The book will help children explore what it is like to have parents divorce, being teased for being short, and the need to just be a kid. It is not a fast paced or exciting book, and the plot has no real surprises, but kids who have aspirations for the big league will find an affinity with Marcus and will appreciate knowing that even Golden Glove winners were kids once.
Jenn Bishop's novel The Distance to Home tells the story of Quinnen, a girl who was the star pitcher on her baseball team, the Panthers. When her sister Haley dies, Quin loses heart for everything, including baseball. Told in chapters that alternate between last summer, when Haley died and this summer, when Quinn is still working through guilt and grief, the story slowly emerges as Quinn begins to understand that she isn't the only one affected by the death. As she develops empathy and understanding, she finds the courage to get back in the game. This book made me cry!
Another baseball book about a player dealing with the loss of a sibling is Mike Lupicia's The Only Game. Lupicia is the uncontested king of sports novels for middle grade readers; when I was still teaching, his books were in the hands of all my jock boys. He does a good job of describing the games like a true sports announcer, but he also does a good job of revealing the secret fears of middle school athletes. In this novel, the main character is a star pitcher, but feels so much guilt after his dare devil brother's accidental death that he leaves the team. What helps him heal is helping another kid named Teddy, whose weight and lack of confidence has kept him on the sidelines all his life.
I don't read a lot of graphic novels, but this one attracted me both because it was about baseball and because it was historical fiction. I'm glad I read it, and I think it's perfect for 3-7th grade boys, especially reluctant readers.
The story in Stealing Home is about Sandy Saito, a Canadian of Japanese descent whose life changes when Japan attacks Pearl Harbor. Sandy is a typical boy. He reads comic books and loves baseball, especially the local Japanese team, the Asahi. Suddenly, he is perceived as different and dangerous. The Canadian government begins treating ethnic Japanese as enemy aliens, taking away their radios and cars. He is excluded from games and taunted by other children. Finally, his family is separated and forced to move to internment camps with substandard facilities.
J. Torres and David Nashimoto tell a fictional story with so much emotion and historic accuracy that it reads like a memoir. I especially appreciated the extensive background information and resources for further study that are in the back of the book .
The story in Stealing Home is about Sandy Saito, a Canadian of Japanese descent whose life changes when Japan attacks Pearl Harbor. Sandy is a typical boy. He reads comic books and loves baseball, especially the local Japanese team, the Asahi. Suddenly, he is perceived as different and dangerous. The Canadian government begins treating ethnic Japanese as enemy aliens, taking away their radios and cars. He is excluded from games and taunted by other children. Finally, his family is separated and forced to move to internment camps with substandard facilities.
J. Torres and David Nashimoto tell a fictional story with so much emotion and historic accuracy that it reads like a memoir. I especially appreciated the extensive background information and resources for further study that are in the back of the book .
Linda Sue Park's Keeping Score is the story of Maggie Fortini, a Dodgers fan who lives in Brooklyn in the 1950s. Maggie can't play baseball for the same reason that Katy Gordon, the girl in Out in Left Field can't play: back then, it just wasn't allowed. Unlike Katy, Maggie doesn't buck the system. Instead, she learns to keep score from Jim, one of the guys down at the firestation where her father used to work. When Jim enlists and goes to Korea, keeping score is one of the things that connects her to Jim, and it develops into a child-like kind of magic that keeps the world orderly. But when the Dodgers lose AGAIN and then Jim stops writing, Maggie begins to question everything, even God.
The Sweet Spot, Stacy Barnett Mozer, is a great book for athletic middle school and upper elementary girls. Thirteen-year-old Sam Barrette’s baseball coach tells her that her attitude's holding her back, but how can she not have an attitude when she has to listen to boys and people in the stands screaming things like “Go play softball,” all season, just because she's the only girl playing in the 13U league. Lovely and sensitive, this book will help guide girls through the difficulties of asserting themselves and becoming leaders in a man's world.
The Girl Who Threw Butterflies, by Mick Cochrane, is another book about a girl trying to play baseball. After her father's death in a car accident, eighth grader, Molly Williams decides to join the baseball team and show off the knuckleball her father taught her how to throw. Although the author does a little more telling than showing, this book also gives a fair picture of a girl overcoming hardships, both on the field and in her personal life.
Anne E. Burg's All the Broken Pieces is a novel in verse that tells the story of a twelve-year-old boy whose mother was Vietnamese and his father, an American soldier who abandoned him after the war. He flees his native Vietnam and is adopted in the U.S. is mother urged him to flee to the US, and now he lives with a caring adoptive family.
It's a story about baseball, but it’s even more about fitting in, adoption, discrimination, post traumatic stress disorder, guilt and sorrow, and the difficulty of soldiers returning to the US after the war. Both haunting and lyrical, this book goes beyond the usual baseball-themed books to show an emotional picture of a specific and difficult time in history. Matt Pin is a boy between cultures, who can show the reader both sides of the story with grace and courage.
I've got one copy of this novel. Tell me in the comments that you'd like it and I'll pick one lucky responder to get it!
It's a story about baseball, but it’s even more about fitting in, adoption, discrimination, post traumatic stress disorder, guilt and sorrow, and the difficulty of soldiers returning to the US after the war. Both haunting and lyrical, this book goes beyond the usual baseball-themed books to show an emotional picture of a specific and difficult time in history. Matt Pin is a boy between cultures, who can show the reader both sides of the story with grace and courage.
I've got one copy of this novel. Tell me in the comments that you'd like it and I'll pick one lucky responder to get it!
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However, I encourage readers to check with their local libraries first!
Jennifer Bohnhoff is an author of books for readers from middle grade to adult. She is not an avid baseball fan, but she is married to one and loves to sit in the stands, eat a hot dog, and take in the action. You can read more about her and her books on her website.
However, I encourage readers to check with their local libraries first!
Jennifer Bohnhoff is an author of books for readers from middle grade to adult. She is not an avid baseball fan, but she is married to one and loves to sit in the stands, eat a hot dog, and take in the action. You can read more about her and her books on her website.
