Keeping Score (edició 2010)

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I picked this up because it's Linda Sue Park although I'm no baseball fiction fan. The first quarter of the book was baseball heavy but once Jim went to war in Korea, the story became more engaging for me. Maggie's thoughtful earnestness about baseball, her friendship with Jim and her projects (saving money for baseball tickets, her scoring notebooks, etc.) is endearing and heartfelt. Booktalk: Maggie loves baseball. She is a big fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Everyone in the neighborhood is. Well, except for Dan, the new firefighter. He’s a New York Giants fan. But Maggie doesn’t mind too much because Dan loves baseball as much as she does. He also taught her how to score every play in every inning of every game by drawing a chart like this. But then Dan has to go away to fight in the Korean War. So Maggie writes him lots of letters telling him what’s going on in the neighborhood and how the Giants and Dodgers are doing. Dan sends Maggie a few letters…not much since he’s busy fighting a war, but a few. Then…he stops sending letters…and Maggie needs to find out what’s happened to him. ( )

Young Reader Reaction: Keeping Score is a poignant book emphasizing the strength of faith, whether it is rooting for a team or in prayer for another person. The character and plot development is astonishing. At first, readers see Maggie as an avid Dodger’s fan who adopts keeping score to prove that it is not merely a childish fascination. Later, she is a mature young lady who retains that optimism and the belief that every problem has a solution. She perseveres and has hope despite continual losses. All of the characters are genuine and bonded together through baseball. Park blends the themes of history (1950s, Korean War) and baseball fluidly. In fact, it is almost as strongly a war-themed novel as it is about baseball.

For middle school students, Keeping Score offers a peek into history, especially the less attractive aspect of war, and follows the journey of a young girl entering her teens. This book suits baseball and history lovers, with an accurate portrayal of life in the 1950s. I was rather surprised by the books alignment to reality in the details and the emotional whirlwind of personal obstacles within the main character.

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You really have to love baseball to enjoy this book. I am not a sports fan, and I could barely get through the pages that described, at great length, how to score a ballgame. Another member of my family, a baseball fan, loved this book.

I just can't assign a fair rating, so I won't try!

Baseball and Korean War. Brooklyn Dodgers. ( )