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El Beisbol Nos Salvo / Baseball Saved Us
by
Ken Mochizuki,
Dom Lee
-- A Japanese-American boy discovers hope and self-respect at an internment camp during World War II
Hardcover, 32 pages
Published
July 28th 1995
by Lee & Low Books
(first published March 1993)
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Ken Mochizuki reads aloud his book, Baseball Saved Us. The story takes place during and briefly after WWII. The author’s own parents were sent to an internment camp in Idaho during the war. With knowledge of his own family history, Mochizuki creates a story about a boy and his family who suddenly find themselves in an internment camp. Their boredom and frustration leads them to build a baseball field within the barbed-wire fences that they live. The game brings people together and gives t...more
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Reading Level: Intermediate
This book describes how baseball helped the Japanese who were in internment camps during World War II find meaning and worth during their struggle.
This book is a wonderful asset to the Social Studies curriculum. It allows students to see that different groups of people were treated poorly during World War II. It also shows students that everyone can achieve great things no matter what their race is.
The illustrations also allow c...more
This book describes how baseball helped the Japanese who were in internment camps during World War II find meaning and worth during their struggle.
This book is a wonderful asset to the Social Studies curriculum. It allows students to see that different groups of people were treated poorly during World War II. It also shows students that everyone can achieve great things no matter what their race is.
The illustrations also allow c...more
We borrowed this book from our local library as part of a kit with a paperback book and an audiocassette that is narrated by the author. It was a touching story and while I was afraid at first that it would appeal more to boys because of the baseball theme, we all really liked it.
It tells about the internment of over 100,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese citizens who lived along the Pacific coast of the United States during WWII. It speaks of the hatred and prejudice of Americans...more
It tells about the internment of over 100,000 Japanese Americans and Japanese citizens who lived along the Pacific coast of the United States during WWII. It speaks of the hatred and prejudice of Americans...more
I read this book during an undergraduate children's literature class and have always thought it was a really great story. The illustrations are powerful and play a big part in the telling of Mochizuki's story, which is actually based on his own parents experiences in a Japanese internment camp. An activity that really turned me on to this story was the "in their shoes" activity where the students take on the role of a story character and answer questions asked by their peer audience. T...more
Baseball Saved Us is a historical fiction book written by Ken Mochizuki. The book takes place in a Japanese American internment camp back in World War 2. The story takes place with the main character(unnamed) narrating about the general aspects of the internment camp and why he and his family are there. His dad simply says that the Americans do not trust them even though they are Americans as well. The internment camp is very dry and the guards constantly watched over everything that the Japanes...more
Great book
Suggested Age: 3rd and up
Brief Synapses: After the attack on pearl harbor, Japanese Americans were presumed untrustworthy so they were sent to live on internment camps. Well shorty the main character of the story was a little boy living with his family in one of those camps. His father had this ingenious idea of building a baseball field. Shorty discovers that the game became much more than winning a game but more about winning self-respect and dignity for himself and his p...more
Suggested Age: 3rd and up
Brief Synapses: After the attack on pearl harbor, Japanese Americans were presumed untrustworthy so they were sent to live on internment camps. Well shorty the main character of the story was a little boy living with his family in one of those camps. His father had this ingenious idea of building a baseball field. Shorty discovers that the game became much more than winning a game but more about winning self-respect and dignity for himself and his p...more
In this moving tribute to human courage and dignity (written by the child of Japanese internees), a young Japanese boy describes his time in the American internment camps during WWII. Recognizing that enforced idleness is detrimental to their humanity, the inmates build a baseball field and organize teams to pass the time of their imprisonment. They choose an American game, rejecting their label as non-Americans, and the boy grows in his skill by playing all through the camp. It is through t...more
Summary/A Thoughtful Review:
Baseball Saved Us, appropriate for upper elementary readers, tells the story of a young boy's experience while imprisoned in the Japanese internment camps in the early 1940s. The illustrations and text work together in beautiful harmony as they create images of the dismal, desolate, conditions of this "camp" in the American desert. A place with "dry, cracked dirt," dust storms blowing sand everywhere, public bathroom facilities, and the...more
Baseball Saved Us, appropriate for upper elementary readers, tells the story of a young boy's experience while imprisoned in the Japanese internment camps in the early 1940s. The illustrations and text work together in beautiful harmony as they create images of the dismal, desolate, conditions of this "camp" in the American desert. A place with "dry, cracked dirt," dust storms blowing sand everywhere, public bathroom facilities, and the...more
Surrounded by barbed-wire and fences, "Shorty" and his family along with thousands of Japanese Americans are forced to relocate from their homes to a "camp" after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Fighting the heat of the day, and the freezing cold nights, Shorty and the others at camp need something to look forward to wake up to. So they build a baseball field, and a league is formed. Shorty soon finds that he is playing the game not only to win, but to gain self respect and di...more
Baseball Saved Us is a work of historical fiction that is intended for primary readers. This book has won The Parents Choice Award. It is about a young boy named Shorty that is forced to move to and internment camp with his family. Shorty and his father decide to build a baseball diamond and form a league in order to boost the spirits of the internees. Shorty learns that he is playing not only to win, but to gain dignity and self-respect as well.
I gave this book five stars because it ...more
I gave this book five stars because it ...more
Baseball Saved Us is a book recommended for students in grades 1-5. This book described how baseball helped the Japanese who were in internment camps during World War II. It also describes how the game of baseball helped the Japanese find meaning and worth within their struggle.
This story focuses on a child’s perspective of war. It touches briefly on the situation of the wrongfully imprisoned Japanese Americans during the World War II, but at the same time includes a sports spin wh...more
This story focuses on a child’s perspective of war. It touches briefly on the situation of the wrongfully imprisoned Japanese Americans during the World War II, but at the same time includes a sports spin wh...more
This is an incredible story that powerfully demonstrates how being ruled by fear can quickly foster hate and prejudice. This picturebook was a reminder that when we put our fears and biases about others away and focus on our common ground as human beings, we can move forward towards achieving a more peaceful world. I found the illustrations to be very unique. These pictures were created by combining a beeswax technique with oils. This method supports the historical nature of the story, but...more
Baseball Saved Us includes wonderful illustrations and can be used within a social studies classroom to introduce a lesson on World War II and the activity (baseball) that helped one Japanese-American boy help pass the time. The boy's victory in the game provided him with hope in the story through a tough time and can be a story for students to reflect on and relate to as they endure hardships. This book would tie in wonderfully with a lesson on World War II and can be used to do a character stu...more
Baseball Saved Us was inspired by the real events of the Japanese internment during World War II in the United States. Ken Mochizuki tells the story from the point of view of a young boy who is forced with his family to move from his home to the desert. As a way to pass the time productively, a baseball league is formed giving them hope and purpose. Baseball and the boy’s desire to fit in are the recurring themes throughout the book and will enable children age five to ten to relate to the di...more
I thought this book was interesting for a children's book. It was rather serious. But it had some happy times too. It has to do with a Japanese-American camp in the U.S. during World War II. They had nothing to do at this camp, so the families set up a baseball field to give them something to do. I noticed the pages with pictures were framed with a white border. The pictures had lots of browns and natural colors in them. You can really see the emotions on the faces of the characters. The climax ...more
When a Japanese-American boy and his family are interned in a camp during WWII, they decide to combat their depression by building a baseball field. During a game the boy channels his humiliation--both from being a prisoner and from being a bad player--to anger, giving him the strength to hit a game-winning home run. He then funnels the same strength after returning home during a game while racial slurs are yelled at him by many in the crowd. The writing is sweet in this story that is inspired b...more
This book is great for social studies, use it as a read aloud and ask students for inferences from the beginning by looking at the cover of the book. The book is about people of Japanese decent that had to leave their homes and live in camps simply because they were Japanese. They started a baseball team and it inspired them. This book is inspiring student can share what saved them. I know reading has saved me many times as a young student and now as an adult. This book can move students to writ...more
"Baseball Saved Us" is a historical book. Back when world war two way going on, the main character of the book had nothing to turn to besides picking up a baseball bat and playing. There was not much for children to do during the war, so the main character decided he was going to make a change. The book is geared towards children in the primary to intermediate age groups.
I gave this book a rating of 5 stars. The illustrations in the book were amazing and looked so life like...more
I gave this book a rating of 5 stars. The illustrations in the book were amazing and looked so life like...more
This book is about life in a Japanese-American concentration camp. All the Japanese-Americans living in America at the time of WWII, both Japanese born and American born, were rounded up and put into a camp due to the fear of Japanese spies being everywhere. Though life is difficult for the people in the camp, the people made due with what they had. The children began to play baseball for fun and through baseball, the community grew together. This is an excellent book to use to portray the perse...more
The cover of this book tells a great deal with Japanese boys playing baseball with a backdrop of a barbed wire fence. Baseball Saved Us is a story that shares the how baseball helps one child first in the Japanese American internment camp, and then again when he gets out. Baseball helps him create a bridge to acceptance. The pictures which were created by scratching encaustic beeswax and then adding oil paint, give an authentic feel to the story. This would be a great book to use to introduce...more
I enjoyed this book Dr. Holbrook shared in class. I think this book could be used at multiple grade levels. It introduces students to the unjust hardships endured by Japanese-American citizens in internment (aka concentration) camps. This is definitely a social issues text that could be used in critical literacy classrooms. The book, though, does not overwhelm young students with horrendous atrocities, so the teacher can determine the depth and breadth of the conversation that would take pla...more
Ken Mochizuki provides an authentic, "insider" perspective of the Japanese American internment camps during World War II. His parents attended this internment camp in Minidoka. He tells the story of creating a baseball field and league to take their minds off of the realities of being confined to the "camp". Its author's note, at the beginning of the book, gives its reader historical background before journeying through the story. It also shows how Japanese Americans were dis...more
When I first ordered this book it was in all Spanish and had to reorder it for English. This is defiantly a good book. There are not to many people that know about how the Americans placed Japanese people into camps like the Nazi’s did. Although the Americans did not gas them, but they did keep them prisoners. This was something that I never knew about until I was about 19 or 20 in college. This is something that our students should be learning about not. It should not be something kept hid...more
Baseball Saved Us is about a young boy who is in an internment camp with his family in the 1940s. During WWII, the United States government put all people of Japanese descent into internment camps in remote locations in states such as California, Nevada, and Idaho. Mochizuki explains this history in his author's note, which could be a great learning tool for students. I think this book would be appropriate for students in grades 2-5. This book could be an introductory lesson on WWII, or just an ...more
When the young narrator of this story first arrives at the Japanese internment camp, I looked at the illustrations of the barracks and immediately thought of the concentration camps of Europe in the 1940s. The orange and brown colors of the desert were very true-to-life. Another aspect of the illustrations I liked was the illustrator's use of a series of three drawings, almost like a comic strip feel. The narrator doesn't give the reader much insight into the life of someone in an internment ...more
“Baseball Saved Us” is the story of a young Japanese American boy’s experience in an internment camp during WWII. Their unfair treatment is confusing to the young boy, who sees himself as American. His father explains that America is at war with Japan and the government thinks they can’t be trusted. Upon witnessing behavior changes in his family is “…when Dad knew we needed baseball.” The prisoners unite together to build a baseball field. Practicing the “All American” sport is a symbol of their...more
Shorty and his family, along with thousands of Japanese Americans, are sent to an internment
camp after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Fighting the heat and dust of the desert, Shorty and his
father decide to build a baseball diamond and form a league in order to boost the spirits of the
internees. Shorty quickly learns that he is playing not only to win, but to gain dignity and
self-respect as well. Baseball Saved Us will appeal again and again to readers who enjoy
cheerin...more
camp after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Fighting the heat and dust of the desert, Shorty and his
father decide to build a baseball diamond and form a league in order to boost the spirits of the
internees. Shorty quickly learns that he is playing not only to win, but to gain dignity and
self-respect as well. Baseball Saved Us will appeal again and again to readers who enjoy
cheerin...more
I vaguely remember reading this book when I was a kid--the three-panelled illustration of the guard tower stands out in my mind--so I wanted to read it again as an adult. I'm a huge baseball fan, and I did one of my senior papers on nisei (second generation Japanese Americans) during WWII, so this topic has come to mean a lot more to me over the years. Yet this book doesn't do justice to the powerful rule the baseball games played in the Japanese American internment camps.
A great book that looks at what went on inside the japanese internment camps. How baseball meant so much to them and kept them sane and normal while in a horrible situation. Great ending and a good story to highlight the reality of the situation and the humanity and normalcy of the people that lived through that. Would using during a WWII lesson about the internment camps. Could also use when talking about the ways that our govenment has violated the consitutiion in the past.
Excellent story of life in a Japanese Internment Camp through a child's perspective. The beautiful illustrations make this horrible reality easier for a child to understand.
This story is a must for any discussion on WWII, government, community, and sports.
This is a must for multicultural shelves because the authentic story is one we should never forget. The powerful illustrations bring to the for front what life was like for Japanese Americans during WWII.
This story is a must for any discussion on WWII, government, community, and sports.
This is a must for multicultural shelves because the authentic story is one we should never forget. The powerful illustrations bring to the for front what life was like for Japanese Americans during WWII.
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