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April
2002 Vol.3 Issue 4
This
month's book reviews
Another
angle on baseball as
a way to unite father and son
It's not unusual
today to hear about fathers who push too hard to get their
young sons interested in baseball. The interesting twist in
"Baseball Fever" is that the ten-year-old son is
a baseball fanatic and his college professor father thinks
sports are a terrible waste of time.
This little book
does a good job of examining how pervasive the sport of baseball
is in our American society. It certainly cuts across all age
levels, educational levels, and socioeconomic levels. But
even more, the book explores how a son and a father go about
trying to understand each other and develop an empathy for
each other's attitudes and interests.
The little 124-page
paperback is light reading and would be a good choice for
a middle grader on the younger end of that age range. It might
even promote some good family discussion.
- Buy this book from
A
Civil War adventure story told through
the eyes of a twelve-year-old
This prize-winning
historical novel tells the story of a twelve-year-old member
of a New York street gang in the 1860's who ends up a drummer
boy in the Union Army. Charley Quinn earns the name "Charley
Skedaddle" because, during a bloody battle in the Wilderness
campaign of 1864, he runs from the battlefield in terror.
His flight takes him into the Blue Ridge Mountains, where
a tough mountain woman gives him shelter and hides him from
the roaming bands of Confederate "conscriptors."
Charley considers
himself a coward since he ran from the war. In the mountains,
however, he establishes that he can perform courageous feats.
He is able to regain his self-respect and earn the grudging
admiration of those who considered him an "outlander."
Although based
partly on historical figures, the novel is fiction. While
enjoying an engrossing adventure story, a young reader picks
up a wide array of historical information. Among other things,
he or she learns about the Irish immigrants, the draft riots
in New York, the bounty system used to recruit soldiers, military
leaders in the Civil War, battlefield conditions during that
war, and something about the life of the mountain people in
the Appalachians.
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A
repackaged version of an old story
A Harper Trophy
book for children was just published in 2000 as a revival
of the original 1943 publication of "Anna and the King
of Siam." The earlier version was published in two forms
- one for adults and another rewritten for children. The author,
Margaret Landon, based her books on the writings of Anna Leonowens,
originally published in the 1870's. Of course, the three major
movies and the long-running stage play titled "The King
and I" were based on the 1943 publication.
This current Harper
Trophy edition for children was published to take advantage
of the popularity of the latest movie version starring Jody
Foster. Most adults identify Yul Brynner, from his stage and
screen roles as the personification of the original King of
Siam. Deborah Kerr won an Oscar for her performance as Anna
in that 1956 movie. Older adults recall Rex Harrison in the
non-musical movie version of "Anna and the King of Siam."
Irene Dunne played Anna in that 1946 movie. These older versions
regularly pop up on television; so many children will have
seen them.
Surely, with all
of this staying power, "Anna and the King" should
qualify as a modern classic. This inexpensive paperback should
enthrall another generation of young readers.
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Adventure,
literature, and history all
tied up in one paperback
"The Shakespeare
Stealer" by Gary Blackwood is just the kind of paperback
that most parents would like to see their young teenagers
reading. It provides considerable historical background about
Elizabethan England, contrasting country life with life in
urban London in the early 17th century. It also involves a
young reader in the atmosphere surrounding the production
of Shakespeare's plays in that era. Such a reading experience
can only help sons or daughters in the appreciation of issues
covered in their later education.
The author, by
using a teenager in the first person telling of the story,
is able to get young readers to identify closely with the
characters and action. The feelings and concerns of a teenager
in Shakespeare's day don't appear to be all that different
from those of a teenager today.
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