This month's book reviews

Can a young baseball fan find happiness
in a family that doesn't like sports?

Ten-year-old fourth grader Ezra Feldman is a smart kid and he does well in school. His dad is a college professor and his mom is a medical doctor. Ezra's trouble is that he is nuts about baseball and his dad thinks baseball is a complete waste of time. His mother and his college-age older brother don't care about baseball, but they aren't always on Ezra's case like his father is.

Ezra lives in New York City and is a Mets fan. Of course, nearly everyone else is a Yankee's fan, but that doesn't bother him. What embarrasses him is that his own father doesn't even know anything about baseball. For instance, his dad calls a "double header" a "two-timer." He yells at Ezra for watching the Mets play on TV. He really got angry when he caught Ezra listening to a game at 11 p.m. in his room on a school night.

Ezra's dad is always trying to get Ezra to play chess with him. Ezra, on the other hand, is always hopeful that sometime his dad would take him to a baseball game. Instead, his dad bought him an electronic chess game for his birthday. Ezra tricked his dad into promising to take him to a ballgame if Ezra could beat him at a game of chess. Ezra practiced enough that he began to better understand the game of chess. He also learned to sit on his hands so that he would not be forced to take moves that he really didn't want to make. Wonder of wonders, he finally beat his dad in a game! It was a first, but it was enough to start some changes in his dad's attitude toward Ezra as well as toward baseball.

"Baseball Fever" by Johanna Hurwitz is a fun book to read. There are a number of humorous incidents in this little book about baseball and about how a boy gets his dad to better appreciate having a son that has "baseball fever."

 

The story of a twelve-year-old drummer
boy in the American Civil War

Charley Quinn is a member of a street gang in the Bowery section of 1860's New York City. When the story begins, Charley has just recently learned that Johnny, his older brother, had been killed in the Battle of Gettysburg. Although Charley was only twelve years old, he dreamed of going to war and shooting Confederates in order to avenge his brother. Johnny had been a hero among the street gang members and had died a true hero in the war. Charlie didn't want to die but he wanted to be a hero like Johnny.

Through a series of incidents, Charley ends up a drummer boy in the same army unit in which his brother had served. He worked hard at being a good drummer. In his first real battle in the Wilderness in Virginia, however, an enemy bullet ruins his drum. Charlie decides to fight like a real soldier, so he picks up a rifle from a dead soldier. He takes careful aim and hits a Confederate just across the field. He sees the man fall. At that point, Charlie decides he really doesn't like war at all. Friends are falling all around him. Men are running in terror in all directions. Charlie throws the rifle down and runs away from the battlefield. He heads west to get away from armies and fighting. Eventually, he hopes to find his way home to New York.

Charley learns later that some of his comrades saw him running away and had nicknamed him "Charley Skedaddle." He is so ashamed that he begins to call himself by that name. The rest of the book is concerned with what Charley does as he tries to get away from the war yet restore his confidence in himself.

"Charlie Skedaddle" is an exciting adventure novel. While enjoying the story, a reader can learn a lot about how life was in those days of terrible fighting between the States.

 

A book that has been made
into a movie several times

"Anna and the King" is the story of an Englishwoman who went to the Far East to serve as a teacher for the wives and children of the King of Siam. The time was the 1860's, the time of the Civil War in the United States. Siam, which is now called Thailand, was ruled by a king who was treated almost as a god by his subjects. The king, although ruling much as previous kings had done for a thousand years, was trying to bring his country into "modern" times.

Anna Luonowens' husband, an army officer, died while they were living in India. Anna had a daughter and a son and no regular income to support herself and her children. Since she was well educated, she opened a school for army officers' children. Even though the school failed, the King of Siam heard of Anna and requested that she come to Siam and conduct a school for the royal children.

After placing her daughter in a boarding school in England, Anna and her six-year-old son traveled to Siam. An Indian servant and her husband went along with them. Once in Siam, Anna was left waiting for some time, before the King of Siam even acknowledged that he had sent for her. In the letter inviting Anna to come, the King had promised her a specified salary and a house of her own. When she finally met with the King, he refused to pay her the agreed upon amount or to honor her request for a home of her own. Rightfully, Anna refused to do the job she was expected to do unless she received the pay and home the King had promised.

So Anna began her time in this isolated land by angering the powerful King who never had the experience of anyone questioning his commands or even his slightest wish. Luckily, the King would cool off from his spells of anger. So eventually Anna began tutoring his children and was allowed to move into a house of her own near the royal palace walls. Anna and her son came to love the beautiful country and its people. The royal children and the King's wives came to respect and love Anna. Even the King came to admire her and to depend on her counsel and advice.

The book "Anna and the King" tells such a great story that three major movies have been made that were based on Anna Leonowens' story. A long-playing musical called "The King and I" also was based on the book. Although the story is factual, it reads as well as any adventure novel.

 

Shakespeare's London and his theater through the eyes of an orphan from the country

The main character in "The Shakespeare Stealer" was born in the year 1587. An orphan, he never knew his mother or his father. He was nicknamed "Widge" in the orphanage where he had been placed by neighbors.

When he was seven years old, Widge was apprenticed to Dr. Bright, a physician who was also a preacher. He had to work assisting Dr. Bright prepare different types of medicines and do other general chores. Widge also was expected to learn to read and write in both English and Latin, which was very unusual for servant boys in that era. Still more unusual, he was required to learn to use a version of shorthand, which Dr. Bright had invented himself. The doctor expected Widge to rapidly write scientific notes and religious sermons while using the invented shorthand.

By age fourteen, Widge was very good at recording what he heard spoken. His life was changed again when a mysterious, sword-carrying stranger showed up and forced Dr. Bright to sell the young apprentice to him. The stranger had insisted on insuring that Widge could apply the shorthand that Dr. Bright had invented, before he whisked Widge away.

Under his new master, we find out why the book is called "The Shakespeare Stealer." Widge is expected to go to the theater in London and record the plays that he hears performed. Another group of performers wants to use Shakespeare's plays without having to pay to use them.

Widge is impressed by the hugeness of the city of London. By accident, he becomes part of the cast of performers at Shakespeare's theater. The mysterious stranger is always lurking in the background. He threatens to kill Widge, if copies of the plays are not turned over to him.

"The Shakespeare Stealer" by Gary Blackwood is an adventure novel, filled with suspense and surprises. The historical background it provides is a bonus.