Keeping Score by Linda Sue Park

A. Bibliography

Park, Linda Sue. Keeping Score. Clarion Books. 2008. ISBN # 978-618-92799-9.

Park, Linda Sue; Read by Julie Pearl. Keeping Score [audiobook]. Listening Library. 4 CD's.2008.

B. Plot/Summary

Maggie, a young Dodger's fan, learns how to keep score of baseball games from a fireman named Jim, who is a Giant's fan. Jim is drafted to the Korean conflict. Maggie then learns everything she can on her own about why the Korean conflict started and keeps track of the progress with maps and notations. Later, Maggie learns that Jim came back traumatized and unresponsive, so Maggie does everything in her power to "help" Jim recover, including saving her allowance money to take Jim to a Giant's and Dodger's game at Ebbet's Field. Will her plan work?

C. Critical Analysis

The characters are fun, interesting, and realistic. I enjoyed Maggie's youthfulness and plotting to try to help Jim and the Dodger's. Maggie, like most pre-teen children, believe that what they wear or do effects the outcome of games or other events. She is superstitious. The dialogue that Park uses between the characters is authentic and believable. I really like how Maggie grows from focusing on herself and her favorite team to how she willing to sacrifice everything to help someone else.

The plot was slow to develop, but was very interesting and "can't put the book down" in parts that had a lot of action or planning. The story line was quite surprising in parts and enjoyed the twists as they developed.

The setting in the 1950's Brooklyn was very believable. Park did an excellent job with the descriptions and research on the historical facts of the baseball games and Korean conflict to make the story plausible and enjoyable. The setting was described in such a way that the reader can get a vivid image in their head and "see" what is transpiring.

The themes of hope, friendship, war, perseverance, and loyalty are wonderfully intermingled with the characters, plot, and setting to "paint" an overall picture of love for one another.

The audiobook was a great companion to reading the book as well. Julie Pearl did a wonderful job with the reading. She not only used different voices for the characters, but she gave them accents as well. For example, the mother of Maggie was Irish, so she had an Irish accent and Maggie had a Brooklyn accent. There wasn't any kind of background music or sound effects, but they really weren't needed since the different voices was used. This technique definitely helped make the story more compelling and interesting. Since the story was slow to develop, I believe that having the audio version as well helped me get into the story and stay with it once it started rolling.

D. Awards/Review Excerpts

A Junior Library Guild Selection

Cybils, 2008.

Kirkus Book Review Stars, March 1, 2008.

Melissa Johnson (Heart of Texas Reviews (Vol. 21, No 3))

"If you are looking for books about girls who love sports, this would be an excellent choice."

Kirkus (Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2008 (Vol. 76, No 5))

"A winner at every level"

David Goodale (VOYA, April 2008 (Vol. 31, No 1))

"This book will become a cherished favorite in every library."

E. Connections

*other books on baseball historical fiction

Keystone Kids by John R. Tunis

The Brooklyn Nine: a Novel in Nine Innings by Alan Gratz

The Lucky Baseball: My Story in a Japanese-American Internment Camp by Suzanne Lieurance

*other books by Linda Sue Park

When my name was Keoko

A Single Shard

Project Mulberry