Rating: 
Summary: Racism in small-town Oregon
Review: Softball is everything for this town where two sixth-grade girls teams compete every year for 50 years for the trophy. And for 50 years, everything is fine, until 1949 when one team recruits a strong Japanese American player, her family back in town after being in an internment camp, and the other team recruits Shazam, a gifted but disturbed girl who absolutely loathes Japanese people for unknown reasons. Emotions build up until the explosive game, and things spin out of control. This marvelously written book goes through all the viewpoints of the different girls on both teams, and the aftermath.
Rating:
Summary: Racism in small-town Oregon
Review: Softball is everything for this town where two sixth-grade girls teams compete every year for 50 years for the trophy. And for 50 years, everything is fine, until 1949 when one team recruits a strong Japanese American player, her family back in town after being in an internment camp, and the other team recruits Shazam, a gifted but disturbed girl who absolutely loathes Japanese people for unknown reasons. Emotions build up until the explosive game, and things spin out of control. This marvelously written book goes through all the viewpoints of the different girls on both teams, and the aftermath.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent read aloud book on multiculturalism and prejudice
Review: The 50th annual sixth-grade girls softball rivalry between two little Oregon towns has everyone involved. The story is told in little vignettes by the 21 girls who make up the two teams for this year's teams. The arrival of a new girl and the reappearance of another change the expected lineups for the 1949 game. Aki Mikami's family has finally come back to their farm when she is old enough to play for Bear Creek Ridge where her mother was MVP of the 1930 team. Shazam, who plays for Barlow, is a great player, but she harbors deep feelings of hate for the Japanese because her father was killed at Pearl Harbor.What happens the day of the game forces the players, their families, the coaches, and the whole town to face the issue of bigotry. A strong story convincingly told by the girls themselves from their differing viewpoints of the action. This would be an excellent read aloud tool for the classroom since it has 21 parts representing the two teams. A natural fto foster discussion of multiculturalism, bigotry, and prejudice.
Rating:
Summary: A very realistic book
Review: The way this book was written was very good, and you see a pattern of bad grammar (it is being narrated by 21 6th grade girls). You see some exceptions, though, like Shazam (Shirley's) extremely bad grammar, and like Aki's extremely good grammar. The reason I say it is very realistic is that the view of the girls shows their feelings about how excited they are about Bat 6, and they are very honest in their narration. You probably know the basic plot from reading the descriptions, but the book is really mostly about the girls from Bear Creek Ridge Grade School and Barlow Road Grade School, and what they are doing in their lives to get ready for Bat 6, the annual softball game for 6th grade girls. The main narration takes place in 1949, after World War II has ended. Shazam (whose real name is Shirley) comes to Barlow Road Grade School, and the other girls think she is unusual, and she doesn't hide her hate for "Japs", people of Japanese descent. Her father was killed in Pearl Harbor, and she is living with her grandmother. Aki Mikami has gotten back from the camps for Japanese people (even Japanese people born in America) that the government sent them to. She is very good at softball, and on the day of Bat 6, the day all of the girls have been waiting for all their lives, Shazam's hate for "Japs" certainly comes out and Aki is seriously injured on her head; she must stay in a bed with a device on her head all summer and she can't eat solid food. The book is sad, but it is also informative, and it doesn't just use the characters as a device to convey an idea or seomthing. The characters are fully imaged and described. It shows what can happen when a person's problems are ignored. (Shazam never hid her hate, and everyone chose to ignore it, or not really do anything.) I strongly suggest you read this book. I read it because it was on a school reading list, but I am glad I did.
Rating:
Summary: Bat Six
Review: 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!!!
Rating:
Summary: Timely and moving
Review: This is a complicated book about responsibilty and disappointment. I was in tears by the end. I am a school librarian and this is the best book I read since "Afternoon of the Elves" about children set apart by differences. Even though it was set after WWII, I think it is very timely in regard to the violent behavior we unfortunately sometimes witness in children today. I agree with the previous reader, this author needs more recognition!
Rating: 
Summary: It could have been written better.
Review: Virginia Euwer wolff really had a lot going for her, but the way she wrote it and presented it really wasn't very good. She had such a great plot, and if only someone else had written it for her, and presented it in a fashionable style, there'd be a lot less bad comments for it, and a lot more people wanting to buy it. Overall, it was pretty crummy.
Rating:
Summary: 21 Different Wonderful Girls
Review: What a joy. My daughter and I both loved this book -- we fought over who got to read it. Other reviewers give you a sense of the story. What we found amazing is that, with one very troubled exception, these 21 girls are good, kind girls. Faced with a deep moral issue, they try hard to do the right thing -- to figure out what IS the right thing. Many novels for readers this age present the majority of girls as elitist and snotty. Not this one. These girls are fun, unique, complex, real and very thoughtful. Reading their stories, as they try to understand this girl that brings hate into their place of tolerance and respect, you learn with them. By the end, it's hard to hate even the most troubled girl. It's a book that makes your own heart bigger and better.
Rating:
Summary: 21 Different Wonderful Girls
Review: What a joy. My daughter and I both loved this book -- we fought over who got to read it. Other reviewers give you a sense of the story. What we found amazing is that, with one very troubled exception, these 21 girls are good, kind girls. Faced with a deep moral issue, they try hard to do the right thing -- to figure out what IS the right thing. Many novels for readers this age present the majority of girls as elitist and snotty. Not this one. These girls are fun, unique, complex, real and very thoughtful. Reading their stories, as they try to understand this girl that brings hate into their place of tolerance and respect, you learn with them. By the end, it's hard to hate even the most troubled girl. It's a book that makes your own heart bigger and better.
Rating: 
Summary: Time well spent
Review: With a girls softball competition as the setting, Wolff probes into issues of racial prejudice, illegitimacy, and life in a small town. It is 1949 and Aki and her family have returned to town after spending several years in an Japanese internment camp. Also new in town is Shirley, "aka Shazam," whose father was killed during the war. The story of the annual baseball competition, Shazam's attack on Aki and all that surrounds it, is told through the mouths of each of the team members. It is fascinating, and readers are quickly pulled into the story. The grammar and vocabulary shift with the speaker which sometimes makes the reading difficult, but the effort is worth it.
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