Book Review 48: Keeping Score by Linda Sue Park

This was a major tear jerker. And to think the fact that it was a sports themed book made me not want to read it. And again, as I commented on another book from the Truman list I believe, some of the "accents" were a bit annoying. This is about a family from Brooklyn. The main character is Maggie, called Maggie-o by her dad after Joe DiMaggio. The family, and whole neighborhood are really big into baseball, specifically the Dodgers. This is right at the time of the Korean War. Maggie's dad is a fireman, or was until he was injured in a fire. So Maggie hangs out at the fire station a lot. She meets a new guy there named Jim. He teaches her how to keep score of the games, so she always can tell people what has happened and not forget. She gets really into it and starts keeping notebooks for the whole seasons. She begins to like the Giants because of Jim, especially Willie Mays. Even though she still is loyal to the Dodgers. Jim gets sent off to Korea. At first Maggie writes him all the time and he writes her back. He tells her about the boat ride over, and a young Korean boy who is the tent boy. He even sends her a picture of them. Then, all of a sudden, the letters stop. Maggie doesn't know what has happened. And no one tells her until after a while, it finally comes out that Jim was at a terrible battle and while not hurt, when he went to lay down and rest, he did, but then just stayed there, not moving, not talking. He came home the same way. Maggie comes up with a scheme to try to get him talking again by saving up her confirmation money and allowance long enough to take her whole family and Jim and his sister and her family to see the Dodgers play the Giants. but Jim and his sister don't show up the whole game.

Maggie's prayers for Jim, the teams, all of it is heartwrenching. How she feels when some of her prayers seem to work, but others don't is the way I know I feel all the time. Her feelings of helplessness and frustration I feel a lot, and so I was in tears through a lot of the last half of the book.

It's a great book. So glad I read it.

On to the 2nd to last book, Thank you, Lucky Stars by Beverly Donofrio. Only one more after that, but still waiting on it from the library.

Book Review 47: Stolen Children by Peg Kehret

Peg Kehret's books seem to always be on the Mark Twain list like every year, kind of like Mary Downing Hahn's books do. While they've not been my favorites in the past, and I alwasy feel they tend to have some similar trends in them, I decided this was a really good book. The main character is Amy, and she is babysitting for a girl named Kendra, who gets kidnapped, and the kidnappers decide they have to take Amy too because she sees them. The kidnappers intend to send a DVD every day for a week and then ask for ransom. Amy is a writer, (I'm enjoying all the books this year with kids who like to write in them), and so she uses what time she has to try to figure out how to put clues into the recordings so that hopefully when her family and friends see them they might figure it out and come help them. I really like how it gives all the ways Amy thinks to do this, as well as all her thoughts about making sure she keeps herself and Kendra safe as long as she can. I feel this could be helpful to kids that may end up in a similar situation. Another thing I really liked was how it showed people who had chances to really help, and didn't. In these cases, it was because they figured no one would believe them, or that someone else would do something because they were away from what was going on. But it really stood out because of a news story I heard last night about a girl who was raped right outside her high school while a bunch of people watched and took pictures on their phone, but no one did anything. Not to mention they went back to a woman who was murdered years ago and people just closed their windows and did nothing even hearing what was going on. The one person in the story who does something at the end, you really have respect for. And I liked this a lot.

Next on to my last sports book called Keeping Score by Linda Sue Park. I believe I've read one or two of this author's books and enjoyed them in the past. I only have 3 more books, although one I'm still waiting to get to re-check out from the library, and then I'll be done!

I want to do NaNoWriMo this year, but the more I read, the more I figure it is a waste of my time. I really don't know how to think of all the details and stuff these authors do, so I think that means I probably am not meant to be a writer. We'll see. I have an idea for a new novella, or I could go back and work on my one from 3 years ago.