Samurai Shortstop

This was added to my classroom library. I have 7th and 8th graders so there are a few graphic scenes, I do watch who checks it out :)

I loved this book! The setting, Japan around 1890, was fascinating. The author made the city and the boys' boarding school come alive with selected details. I loved the character of Toyo, a boy who is coming of age at a time when the world is changing drastically. Toyo is under pressure from his father to reject the new ways (baseball, for one, introduced by the Americans) and respect and live up to the old ways (of the samurai), even though the old ways are dead or dying away. In addition to the stress of which path to choose, which kind of person to be, Toyo has to contend with his classmates in the boarding school -- and each and every one of us who has gone through school knows that this is not only not easy, it is often the most important conflict a young person faces before he or she leaves school and enters the larger world. Definitely worth reading!

Bushido,-loyalty, courage, and compassion is at the very heart of this moving novel by Alan Gratz. Gratz focuses on Toyo and his classmates in an exclusive high school as they struggle to find themselves in the period following the end of the samurai. Baseball is what brings them all together, as the Japanese boys grow together as one.

Very interesting how quickly the change in Japan from the Samurai culture to the modern culture. Little bit violent at the start but explanation at the end of what traditions were all about.

My son enjoys all of Gratz’s books & is a fan. He wasn’t sure when starting this one, but has reread it several times already.

I really enjoyed this book. The only thing I would change is to move the historical information from the end of the book to the front of the book. I had no idea this novel was historical fiction until after I had finished reading it.I purchased extra copies to give to my baseball/softball playing grandchildren.

Starting with the first line in the novel. Samurai Shortstop grabs your attention and makes it extremely difficult to put down!!

WOULD RECOMMEND THIS BOOK FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL AGE, MY 12 YEAR OLD SON LOVED IT ! I ACTUALLY READ IT AS WELL , AND I LOVED IT !!!!!!!

Quick shippingFantastic bookI'd order again