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Title details for Samurai Shortstop by Alan Gratz - Available

Samurai Shortstop

by Alan Gratz
Arthur Morey
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
Tokyo, 1890. High school can be brutal, even in turn-of-the-century Japan.
From his first day at boarding school, Toyo Shimada sees how upperclassmen make a sport out of terrorizing the first-years. Still, he’s taken aback when the seniors keep him from trying out for the baseball team–especially after he sees their current shortstop. Toyo isn’t afraid to prove himself; He’s more troubled by his uncle’s recent suicide. Although Uncle Koji’s defiant death was supposedly heroic, it has made Toyo question many things about his family’s samurai background. And worse, Toyo fears that his father may be next.
It all has something to do with –the way of the warrior–but Toyo doesn’t understand even after his father agrees to teach it to him. As the gulf between them grows wider, Toyo searches desperately for a way to prove there is a place for his family’s samurai values in modern Japan. Baseball might just be the answer, but will his father ever accept a “Western” game that stands for everything he despises?

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Awards

  • Release date

    August 26, 2008

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780739360835
      • File size: 211781 KB
      • Duration: 07:21:12

  • Languages

    • English

  • Levels

    • ATOS Level: 4.9
    • Lexile® Measure: 790
    • Interest Level: 4-8(MG)
    • Text Difficulty: 3-4

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Set in the late 1800s in a changing Japan, this story is about baseball--and more. After witnessing his uncle's ceremonial suicide, Toyo is accepted to an elite school, where he works to earn a place on the baseball team. In his attempts to understand the ways of the samurai, Toyo gains personal insight and applies his new knowledge to his favorite pastime. An accomplished actor, Arthur Morey does an acceptable job of relaying the story. However, the intriguing and well-researched plot would be better served with a more dramatic production, and, despite the strength of the story, the producers may miss opportunities to connect young listeners to a foreign place and time. B.H. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      May 22, 2006
      Debut novelist Gratz uses baseball to tell the story of Japan's tumultuous transition from 19th-century feudalism to 20th-century Westernized society. In the harrowing first chapter, 15-year-old Toyo witnesses his uncle commit seppuku
      —ritual suicide—rather than renounce his samurai lifestyle as the emperor has ordered. As required by custom, Toyo's father decapitates his brother, and Toyo must watch because, his father says, "Soon you will do the same for me." Toyo then begins life at Ichiko, Tokyo's most elite boarding school, haunted by the image of his father tossing his uncle's head onto the funeral pyre. The violence soon becomes more personal, as Ichiko's upper classmen conduct vicious hazing rituals to keep the first-years in line. His father arrives daily to instruct Toyo in bushido
      —the "samurai code"—which includes sword-fighting but also meditation and flower arranging. Toyo channels these skills into his passion for a new sport introduced by American gaijin—besuboru.
      Into this well-researched period piece, Gratz drops a few anachronistic sports clichés, climaxing with a Big Game against a team of Americans. Though Toyo finds a way to use the samurai values his father has taught him, his leadership skills don't develop enough for him to protest or withdraw from aiding the enforcement of a brutal punishment against a boy who has strayed from Ichiko's harsh rules, undermining the sympathy readers may have developed for him. Still, this is an intense read about a fascinating time and place in world history. Ages 12-up.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

Levels

  • ATOS Level:4.9
  • Lexile® Measure:790
  • Interest Level:4-8(MG)
  • Text Difficulty:3-4

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