Keeping Score

In Keeping Score, Linda Sue Park again gives us an opportunity to really feel what it was like to be a particular kid in a particular place and time quite different from our own. In Maggie-O's mid-twentieth century New York, the technology was different, but the kids still had problems that today's kids can relate to. Baseball without TV or the Internet -- just imagine! Maggie tunes in to the game by listening to radios through open windows while walking through the neighborhood. She shares the ups and downs of her favorite team with the whole community. Her baseball experience includes no visuals at all except the black-and-white photos in the morning paper. When Maggie-O first lays eyes on that field we are right there with her, seeing what she sees (GREEN!) and feeling what she feels. Her obsession with score keeping, her magical thinking and superstitions are quirky but quite age appropriate, and her growth through disillusionment seems quite genuine. Maggie's experience of the effect of the Korean War on her friend Jim will give today's kids a peak at some of the difficulties facing our own soldiers today. Here's a book that is serious and intelligent, but tremendously engaging. It's a great choice for preteens who like to see how the world looks through someone else's eyes, even if they couldn't care less about baseball. I think this wonderful story also has cross-generational appeal--giving parents a glimpse into the universal experience of tweener angst and giving sixty-somethings a chance to rekindle memories from their younger days. Another home run for Ms. Park!Janet Gingoldauthor of  Danger, Long Division

With overtones of `In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson', Park's story focuses on the Brooklyn Dodgers of the early 1950s with the main character, Maggie, among their most ardent fans. Maggie spends considerable time with the firemen at the local firehouse where her father once worked. She sits with the firemen and Charcoal, the firehouse Labrador, and listens fervently to the games on the radio. A new fireman, Jim, a (gasp!) Giants' fan, teaches Maggie how to keep score, which Maggie does with religious, but somewhat futile, conviction for her Dodgers after learning with Jim and the Giants' games. Then, Jim goes to Korea to serve. He replies to Maggie's regular letters for a while, then... nothing.... Description stops here to avoid spoilers. Maggie, with her youthful enthusiasm, energy, and good will is an enjoyable character. Her supporting characters, her best friend, her family, and the firemen mostly, are warm additions to her world, Maggie and the story are endearing and recommended for an intermediate grades student, most especially for a compassionate girl who happens to enjoy baseball.

My daughter needed this book for her online literacy class. This is her second week of school, and I was very eager to purchase this book from somewhere in order for my daughter to start on her assignment right away. I'm in total awe, I can't believe how quickly I received the book. I literally ordered the book on Thursday, September 10th and received it on Monday, September 14th. I'll definitely be purchasing more books from this seller.

I read this book with my 9 year old son. It is such a wonderful story of love, friendship, sacrifice & hope.

Loved it! Read at the same time as my grandson,one really pleasant shared experience - if he lets me knowof another I will certainly ready that as well

Great book that I read with my eight year old. Building the passion for baseball with the Korean War and PTSD for context, woven in artfully and seamlessly. Highly recommended.

Kept me mildly interested. I stopped several times to read something else, then went back. It's ok.

This is a great summer read for a young person. It is nice to have a young girl as the main character in this baseball story.