Module 6

July 11 -17, 2011

Book 1:   Shoeless Joe and Black Betsy by Phil Bildner

Bibliography: 

Bildner, P. (2006). Shoeless Joe and Black Betsy. New York: Aladdin Paperbacks.

Summary:

After a hitting slump, Joe tried changing everything form his stance, switching from left to right in batting, wearing glasses, but nothing helped him hit the ball. Joe went to see a friend about making a bat for him. A few days later, Joe went to pick up his bat and he loved it, he know it would help him hit the ball. He was going to call it Betsy, after Betsy Ross. The bat didn't help his hitting so Joe took it back and asked his friend to make on out of hickory. That bat was beautiful but didn't help either. Now he wanted a big, 48 oz. bat, stained in black. That bat took Joe to the majors after a successful season, but there, Joe couldn't bat again. He was sent back to the minors. Joe took his bat back to his friend and was told that his bat needed love and warmth, so he slept with his bat in his bed. Joes batting improved and he moved back to the big league. Again, his batting diminished and he was sent back down to the minors. Joe went back to his friend Charlie and he told him that he should give Betsy an oil massage every night, so Joe followed instructions. The next instructions were to wrap Betsy in a cotton clothe when he traveled up north. Joes batting improved after he followed all of the instructions given to him by Charlie. Joe was moved back to the major league where he retired after an investigation by the White Sox regarding an intentional losing season by the players. Shoeless Joe earned his nickname after he removed the new spike shoes he was wearing because they gave him blisters and played in his socks.

My Impression:

I enjoyed this book. I really didn't know much about Shoeless Joe or his special bat named Betsy. This book was fun to read, was interesting and I actually learned something from it. It was interesting to see how much Joe believed in his bat and the power he received from taking care of it. As a wife of an athlete, I understand that rituals and equipment can have a mental toll on their performance. I appreciate how Joe trusted his friend in his ideas and followed his instructions.

Reviews:

1. Publishers Weekly

One of Baseball's greats receives star treatment in this compelling book. Shortly before "Shoeless Joe" Jackson (so named for having played a game in his stocking feet) joins the minors, he falls into a slump, and out of desperation ends up in the workshop of "the finest bat smith in all of South Carolina." Joe names the bat Ol' Charlie Ferguson makes for him Betsy("Pitchers are going to honor and respect this bat the way they respect the flag Betsy Ross created," the hero states), but the slump continues. So does the partnership between the two men as Ol' Charlie refines the bat's design -it's remade from, the "north side of a hickory tree" and rubbed down with tobacco juice so it will be "dark and scary looking"-and Joe learns how to massage it with sweetoil and keep ot wrapped in cotton ("Cotton will make Black Betsy feel tight at home in Cleveland," Ol' Charlie tells him). Finally, Betsy takes him to the major leagues and his finest season ever. Rookie Bildner hits a homerun here, zeroing in on the bat as just the right lens through which to view his picture book biography. He strews the conversational prose with appealing colloquialisms in a catchy refrain ('sure as the sky is blue and the grass is green"). Payne's (The Remarkable Farkle McBride) portraits take on a tell-tale quality suffused with nostalgia; his strong-featured characters offer a riveting blend of humor and gravity. An afterword fills in the details of Jackson's life and career, including the 1919 Black Sox scandal. Ages 5-8 (March)

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2. Kirkus Reviews

Is great hitting in the clean, natural swing of the batter--or the perfectly balanced feel of the bat? As kids know when they start playing baseball, small details must converge just right to overcome the edge between winning and losing, hitting and striking out. Sometimes this translates into superstitions or quirky behavior. First-time author Bildner toes this question in the quirks of Shoeless Joe Jackson and his feared bat, Black Betsy. Joe, who played in the major leagues from 1908 to 1920, does well in the minor leagues, but can't seem to move up without the help of his South Carolina friend, the great bat-maker Charlie Ferguson. While Charlie knows how to make the best bat, it's not hard to decide which needs tweaking more, the bat or Joe's mind so he can finally realize his great potential. From Joe sleeping with the bat to his wrapping it in the cotton of his southern roots, Bildner sticks mostly to the main facts and resists a romanticization of the game. Players who know the perfect, sweeping amalgamation of hand, eye, and sweet spot might expect to hear its dramatic tenor when Joe cracks the ball with Black Betsy, but this is a story finished by statistics. Payne's (Brave Harriet, p. 944, etc.) mixed-media illustrations are gorgeous: the fuzz is in the flannel and the light is just right. And so are his perspectives, angles, and other compositional choices that make for the right mix of mystery and narrative to draw the reader in. A lengthy synopsis of Joe's entire career and his statistics are appended. (Picture book. 5-8)

Suggestion for Use:

This is a good book to use for a nonfiction activity when discussing chronological order or time lines.Since the theme is sports, there would be many students that would enjoy the topic and that would aid in learning about historical sports events along with learning to search for facts listed in the back of the book in chronological order.

Citations:

Roback, D., Brown, J. M., Britton, J., & Zaleski, J. (2002). [Review of the book Shoeless Joe & Black Betsy by P. Bildner]. Publishers Weekly, 249(1), 64. Retrieved from http://libproxy.library.unt.edu:2104/ehost/detail?vid=168&hid=104&sid=7a87cd8b-4f2b-41fe-a3a0-0bc09d25192e%40sessionmgr110bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=lih&AN=6450586

Shoeless Joe & Black Betsy (2001). [Review of the book Shoeless Joe & Black Betsy by P. Bildner]. Kirkus Reviews, 69(24), 1754. Retrieved from http://libproxy.library.unt.edu:2104/ehost/detail?sid=4bd0d626-d5bc-4e5e-821d-8aa96a0b2217%40sessionmgr110&vid=49&hid=111&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#db=lih&AN=6638706

Book 2:  The Wednesday wars by Gary Schmidt

Bibliography: 

Schmidt, G. (2007). The Wednesday wars. New York: Clarion Books.

Summary:

Holling Hoodhood is in 7th grade. HIs parents and his sister Heather live in the perfect house in a perfect town. His father is an architect and puts in a bid to build the new middle school. He also becomes the Chamber of Commerce business man of the year. Every Wednesday, the students leave school to attend church related activities. All the students in Holling's class leave, except him. This leaves his teacher with one student all afternoon, which she is not real happy about. His teacher finds him work to do but after a while of long, painful Wednesdays, she decides to have him start reading Shakespeare. They discuss for understanding and Holling begins to memorize many lines from the stories. Eventually, she convinces him to play a part in a play of Shakespeare's work. He has the role of Ariel - a fairy. After a humiliating experience trying to get his baseball signed after the play, he's in costume and Mickey Mantle won't sign a ball for him, his teacher rewards him with a personal visit at school from a couple of other players and they present him with tickets to the season opening game. During this time, Holling saves his sister from being hit by a bus that was sliding across a patch of ice and there are two rats running amok after escaping their cage in the classroom. Holling makes the track team and then has to cash in his savings bond to help his sister return home after being stranded when she ran away. With so many things going on in Hollings life, he struggles to do well in track. His teacher shares with him that she won an Olympic medal in track and she gives him pointers in his running technique. Holling  becomes better at running and his self confidence grows after some events among his friends and his teacher.

My Impression:

 I really enjoyed this book. I can sympathize for Holling with being the only one left at school on Wednesday afternoons. I also can relate the his teacher, Mrs. Baker, who decides that he needs more than just busy works and helps him to understand the writings of Shakespeare. This helps Holling develop an appreciation which leads to his participation in the play. Holling experiences many difficult situations: his friends father steal his dads idea for the design of the new middle school, Mrs. Baker and her husband being off at Vietnam, his sister and her beliefs and then running away, the realization that his idol, Mickey Mantle, wasn't a very nice guy. All of these things changed the way Holling thought.  Mrs. Baker stepped up and took advantage of her time with him and helped him learn about himself and see things about other people that were below the surface. She changed his life.

Reviews:

1. Booklist

On Wednesday afternoons, while his Catholic and Jewish schoolmates attend

religious instruction, Holling Hoodhood, the only Presbyterian in his seventh

grade, is alone in the classroom with his teacher, Mrs. Baker, who Holling is convinced

hates his guts. He feels more certain after Mrs. Baker assigns Shakespeare’s plays for Holling

to discuss during their shared afternoons. Each month in Holling’s tumultuous seventh grade

year is a chapter in this quietly powerful coming-of-age novel set in suburban Long

Island during the late ’60s. The slow start may deter some readers, and Mrs. Baker is too good to be true: she arranges a meeting between Holling and the New York Yankees, brokers a deal to save a student's father's architectural firm, and, after revealing her past as an Olympic runner, coaches Holling to the varsity cross-country team. However, Schmidt, whose Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy (2005) was named both a Printz and a Newbery Honor Book, makes the implausible believable and the everyday momentous. Seamlessly, he knits together the story’s themes: the cultural uproar of the ’60s, the internal uproar of early adolescence, and the timeless wisdom of Shakespeare’s words. Holling’s unwavering, distinctive voice offers a gentle, hopeful, moving story of a boy who, with the right help, learns to stretch beyond the limitations of his family, his violent times, and his fear, as he leaps into his future with his eyes and his heart wide open - Gillian Engberg

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2.  School Library Journal

This entertaining and nuanced novel limns Holling Hoodhood's seventh grade year in his Long Island community, beginning in the fall of 1967. His classmates, half of whom are Jewish, the other half Catholic, leave early on Wednesdays to attend religions training. As the' sole Presbyterian, he finds himself stranded with his teacher, Mrs. Baker, whom he's Sure has it in for him. She starts off creating mindless chores for him but then induces him to read Shakespeare-lots of Shakespeare. Chapters titled by month initially seem overlong, relating such diverse elements as two terrifying escaped rats, cream puffs from a local bakery, his dad being a cheapskate/cutthroat architect, and Holling's tentative and sweet relationship with classmate Meryl Lee. The scary Dong Swieteck, and his even more frightening brother, and the Vietnam War are recurring menaces. A subplot involves a classmate who, as a recent Vietnamese refugee, is learning English and suffers taunts and prejudice. Cross-country tryouts, rescuing his older runaway sister, and opening day at Yankee Stadium are highlights. There are laugh-out-loud moments that leaven the many poignant ones as Schmidt explores many important themes, not the least of which is what makes a person a hero. The tone may seem cloying at first and the plot occasionally goes over-the-top, but readers who stick with the story will be rewarded. They will appreciate Holling's gentle, caring ways and will be sad to have the hook end.- J. Shoemaker, Southeast Junior High School, Iowa Gity, IA

Suggestion for Use:

This is a good book to use in a coming of age theme since it shows Holling struggling with the world around him. He doesn't understand a lot of what everyone else is going through and he also realizes that he can't fix everything for others. As the story progresses, you see Holling become empowered and he learns from these situations and uses them to make him stronger and more confident.

Citations:

Engberg, G. (2007). [Review of the book The Wednesday wars by G. Schmidt]. Booklist, 103(19/20), 71. Retrieved from http://libproxy.library.unt.edu:2104/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=5839463e-1cfd-4182-b0e7-71404461a7bd%40sessionmgr114&vid=273&hid=112

Shoemaker, J. (2007). [Review of the book The Wednesday wars by G. Schmidt]. School Library Journal, 53(7), 110. Retrieved fromhttp://libproxy.library.unt.edu:2104/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=4bd0d626-d5bc-4e5e-821d-8aa96a0b2217%40sessionmgr110&vid=86&hid=119