Baseball Saved Us
Written by: Ken Mochizuki
Illustrated by: Dom Lee
Published by: Lee & Low Books, Inc in NY in 1993
Genre: Historical Fiction (Multicultural Work)
Age: grades 3-5
Summary: A young Japanese-American boy recounts his story of life in an internment camp during WWII. Although they did not have much and things became tough at times, the parents in the camp used their resourcefulness to make a suitable baseball field for the boys to give them something familiar from their old lives. The young narrator details how baseball changed his life for the better. Because of the time he spent practicing in the camp, he was able to focus on something besides the harsh reality of his everyday life and, as an added bonus, was able to learn about a sport that eventually helped him be excepted back into his community after he returned home after the war.
Response: What struck me the most and continues to amaze me about this situation is something expressed in the author's note. "None of these immigrants from Japan--or their children, who were American citizens--were ever proven to be dangerous to America during World War II." On one hand I understand that we were so frightened by what happened at Pearl Harbor, because it happened to us on our soil and it was the first time something like this had happened, and we were scared and wanted to protect ourselves. But, on the other hand, what we did to these people and the conditions we made them live in was completely wrong. I cannot believe that it took until 1988 (43 years after the war ended) for us to admit that we were wrong!
The content of this book is wonderful. It could help so many children realize how harmful even one word can be to another child. This boy's least favorite word was "Jap" because "it meant that they hated [him]" (21). It really hurt him when people placed this label on him because he meant no harm to Americans and truly felt himself to be one, but this words represented so much hate--it represented the camp and the reasons his family was sent there. This book could be used to teach children tolerance for others. Because Baseball Saved Us is told from the perspective of a child, children can easily identify with it and because it speaks of baseball, boys will really be especially intrigued by the story. To me, this work was so heartwarming and I found myself cheering this boy on throughout my reading of the book. Even without in-depth explanations of the camp's conditions, one can sense the harsh reality this boy faced on a daily basis and hopes so much that baseball will be the answer--as it does.
The illustrations in this book are outstanding! There exist so many details in every one of the illustrations that one cannot seem to turn the page for fear of missing something. The illustrator's method was to apply beeswax to paper, scratch out the images, and then add oil paint for color. This "scratching out" is what makes the images so beautiful in this work. They look like old photographs instead of paintings to me. The texture on each page just makes you want to touch every picture because it seems as though you could feel them. The amount of color in each picture is perfect. None of them is too stark, but each has the right amount of paint. Many of the illustrations are double-page spreads, but none of them cover the entire two pages since space for the text is set aside on each page. The text and the illustrations match very well. One of my favorite illustrations is on pages 25 and 26 where "The pitcher wound up and threw" (25). Here the illustrations are three separate ones in a sequence. The first one depicts the pitcher readying himself to throw, the second shows the windup, and the third illustrates the actual pitch. Sequential pictures are my favorites because it looks like someone held the shutter button on a camera and took several individual pictures at just the perfect timing.
Teaching Connections: Before reading this book to or with children I would definitely read the author's note and possibly direct students to some of the following websites in order for them to understand what really happened to Japanese-Americans during this time.
This book could easily connect to the social studies curriculum. A good teaching suggestion would be to have students research the lives of children during the Holocaust, like Anne Frank, and write a comparison paper between that experience and the one of the boy in this book.
Teachers could connect this book to math as well. A lesson about baseball and counting the number of runs and innings, etc. would be very interesting for students. It would allow them to learn about the sport, connect it to the book, and they could even make predictions about which team might be favored to win after calculating innings and how many players they had on which bases, etc.
(Image retrieved from http://content.scholastic.com/content/images/content_promo/book/01baseball.jpg on 19 April 2008)
Written by: Ken Mochizuki
Illustrated by: Dom Lee
Published by: Lee & Low Books, Inc in NY in 1993
Genre: Historical Fiction (Multicultural Work)
Age: grades 3-5
Summary: A young Japanese-American boy recounts his story of life in an internment camp during WWII. Although they did not have much and things became tough at times, the parents in the camp used their resourcefulness to make a suitable baseball field for the boys to give them something familiar from their old lives. The young narrator details how baseball changed his life for the better. Because of the time he spent practicing in the camp, he was able to focus on something besides the harsh reality of his everyday life and, as an added bonus, was able to learn about a sport that eventually helped him be excepted back into his community after he returned home after the war.
Response: What struck me the most and continues to amaze me about this situation is something expressed in the author's note. "None of these immigrants from Japan--or their children, who were American citizens--were ever proven to be dangerous to America during World War II." On one hand I understand that we were so frightened by what happened at Pearl Harbor, because it happened to us on our soil and it was the first time something like this had happened, and we were scared and wanted to protect ourselves. But, on the other hand, what we did to these people and the conditions we made them live in was completely wrong. I cannot believe that it took until 1988 (43 years after the war ended) for us to admit that we were wrong!
The content of this book is wonderful. It could help so many children realize how harmful even one word can be to another child. This boy's least favorite word was "Jap" because "it meant that they hated [him]" (21). It really hurt him when people placed this label on him because he meant no harm to Americans and truly felt himself to be one, but this words represented so much hate--it represented the camp and the reasons his family was sent there. This book could be used to teach children tolerance for others. Because Baseball Saved Us is told from the perspective of a child, children can easily identify with it and because it speaks of baseball, boys will really be especially intrigued by the story. To me, this work was so heartwarming and I found myself cheering this boy on throughout my reading of the book. Even without in-depth explanations of the camp's conditions, one can sense the harsh reality this boy faced on a daily basis and hopes so much that baseball will be the answer--as it does.
The illustrations in this book are outstanding! There exist so many details in every one of the illustrations that one cannot seem to turn the page for fear of missing something. The illustrator's method was to apply beeswax to paper, scratch out the images, and then add oil paint for color. This "scratching out" is what makes the images so beautiful in this work. They look like old photographs instead of paintings to me. The texture on each page just makes you want to touch every picture because it seems as though you could feel them. The amount of color in each picture is perfect. None of them is too stark, but each has the right amount of paint. Many of the illustrations are double-page spreads, but none of them cover the entire two pages since space for the text is set aside on each page. The text and the illustrations match very well. One of my favorite illustrations is on pages 25 and 26 where "The pitcher wound up and threw" (25). Here the illustrations are three separate ones in a sequence. The first one depicts the pitcher readying himself to throw, the second shows the windup, and the third illustrates the actual pitch. Sequential pictures are my favorites because it looks like someone held the shutter button on a camera and took several individual pictures at just the perfect timing.
Teaching Connections: Before reading this book to or with children I would definitely read the author's note and possibly direct students to some of the following websites in order for them to understand what really happened to Japanese-Americans during this time.
This book could easily connect to the social studies curriculum. A good teaching suggestion would be to have students research the lives of children during the Holocaust, like Anne Frank, and write a comparison paper between that experience and the one of the boy in this book.
Teachers could connect this book to math as well. A lesson about baseball and counting the number of runs and innings, etc. would be very interesting for students. It would allow them to learn about the sport, connect it to the book, and they could even make predictions about which team might be favored to win after calculating innings and how many players they had on which bases, etc.
(Image retrieved from http://content.scholastic.com/content/images/content_promo/book/01baseball.jpg on 19 April 2008)
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