![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Waiting on Wednesday: The Golden Tower (Magisteriu.Picture Book Review: The Rough Patch by Brian Lies.Review: Dog Man Lord of the Fleas by Dav Pilkey.Fact Friday and Review: Eavesdropping on Elephants.Picture Book Blog Tour and Review: Eraser by Anna.Not too shabby! He has since written 14 books for young people, many of which are historical fiction. According to his website, Samurai Shortstop made quite a few lists including, Best Picks for Young Adults the 2006 Washington Post Top Ten Picks for Children Booklist’s 2006 Top Ten Sports Books for Youth Booklist’s 2006 Top Ten First Books for Youth The New York Public Library’s Books for the Teen Age 20 Bank Street College of Education Best Children’s Books of the Year. Samurai Shortstop was Gratz's debut in 2006. While the cultures clash in many ways, Toyo falls in love with baseball and sees similarities between it and Bushido. Toyo's father completes the ritual and informs Toyo that he expects him to do the same when his father's time comes.Īt boarding school, Toyo is subjected to cruel hazing by upperclassmen and his father arrives daily to teach him the way of the Samurai. It is the late 1800s and feudal Japan is embracing Western customs and modernizing. The day before fifteen-year-old Toyo Shimada is to start boarding school, his father forces him to witness his uncle commit seppuku, or ritual suicide, rather than renounce his Samurai status. Dial Books/ Penguin Young Readers Group, May, 2006. This well-written tale offers plenty of fascinating detail, a fast-paced story, and a fresh perspective on "America's pastime." It should delight baseball fans and win a wide audience.Samurai Shortstop by Alan Gratz. His lessons inbushido include meditation, balance, and swordplay, and Toyo finds in baseball a way to make the connection between "both modern and ancient, mental and physical." Gratz's concluding notes offer more on the period as well as sources for more information. Eventually, the teen and his friends are able to stand up for themselves, and Toyo wins a place on the school'sbesuboro or baseball team. Meanwhile, Toyo begins his studies at an elite high school where the hazing by the senior students makes the first-year students miserable. He tells Toyo that once he has taught him the ways ofbushido, or the warrior's code, he, too, will take his own life. Toyo's father, Sotaro, is a scholarly samurai whose weapon has always been his ink brush, but he too has decided that he cannot live in this new Japan. In the hypnotic opening scene, Toyo and his father assist as his Uncle Koji commits ritual suicide orseppuku. Emperor Meiji has instituted a series of radical reforms one of them requires that all samurai hang up their swords. It is 1890, and 16-year-old Toyo Shimada is uniquely poised to witness the clash of old and new ways in his native Tokyo. This well-written tale offers plenty of fascinating detail, a fast-paced story, and a fresh perspective on "America's pastime." It should delight baseball fans and win a wide audience.- Marilyn Taniguchi, Beverly Hills Public Library, CA ![]() ![]()
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