Bat 6

As this book opens, it is the beginning of the 1949 season, and girls on both teams are preparing for the big 50th annual game. New on the Bear Creek Ridge team is Aki, a Japanese-American girl whose family has just returned from the concentration camp where they lived during WWII. New to the Barlow team is Shazam, who lost her father when Pearl Harbor was bombed in 1941. The very first line of the book, "Now that it's over, we are telling," sets up the expectation of something catastrophic happening and that tension is well maintained throughout the book as the girls on each team share bits and pieces of what happened at the Big Game.

Bat 6 was a worthwhile read exploring themes of racial tension, rivalry, and the effect of war on the mind of a child. However, it was difficult going. In spite of chapter headings it was hard to keep track of who was narrating and what team they were on. In fact it took me four chapters just to realize that these girls were on different teams, so I had to backtrack in my reading and pay more attention to chapter headings. A table is provided at the beginning of the book which lists each girl on each team, but to have to flip back and refer to it every time the narrator's voice changes interrupts the reading experience and makes a book like this work rather than fun.

This may be a good read-aloud, but it would be an unusual 9-12 year old who would be able to keep track of the story.


Bat Six   September 5, 2002
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

This book is a tense conflict of emotions after world war two. Its extremely real characters and prejudices fit in perfectly with the time and setting. The thoughtful Aki contrasts with the tempermental, troubled, Shazam, and the incident at Bat Six is strongly foreshadowed but shocking even so.
This is a great book!!!


So Much Better than its Cover   July 15, 2002
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Baseball is a metaphor.
Bat 6 is not just about war.
Valuable views on bigotry & morality.