Both Maggie Fortini and her brother, Joey-Mick, were named for baseball great Joe DiMaggio. Unlike Joey-Mick, Maggie doesns captivating story will,...
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Dec 10, 2008
Wendy
rated it: 
My review is definitely biased, because I don't have the slightest interest in baseball, especially the intricacies of scoring baseball, and (sorry, sports fans among my friends) I get extremely impatient with people who care deeply about professional sports. So it's hard to know whether the meticulous detail about baseball is dull, or if that's just me. Leaving that aside, I didn't think this was nearly as polished as some of Park's other books, and it was especially lacking in characterizati
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Apr 16, 2011
Steve
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With overtones of ‘In the Year of the Boar and Jackie Robinson’, Park’s story focuses on the Brooklyn Dodgers of the early 1950s with the main character, Maggie, among their most ardent fans. Maggie spends considerable time with the firemen at the local firehouse where her father once worked. She sits with the firemen and Charcoal, the firehouse Labrador, and listens fervently to the games on the radio. A new fireman, Jim, a (gasp!) Giants’ fan, teaches Maggie how to keep score, which Maggie
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Aug 23, 2010
M.
rated it: 
Maggie O. (named for Joe DiMaggio) lives in a Brooklyn neighborhood that is almost entirely composed of Dodger fans. Maggie and her brother Joey-Mick are fanatics. With the help of a friend of her dad, Maggie O. learns to score each game to include the intricacies of each play and she spends great amounts of time doing just that.
The book has two or possibly three plots--despite all Maggie O.'s hopes, prayers, and score sheets, the Dodgers don't win the pennant; her mentor in scoring More...
The book has two or possibly three plots--despite all Maggie O.'s hopes, prayers, and score sheets, the Dodgers don't win the pennant; her mentor in scoring More...
Jul 06, 2010
Anne
rated it:
***MINOR SPOILER****
In this book, one of the characters gets sick and Maggie is hoping and praying for him to get better. I've been thinking a lot about prayer and hope because our landlord just found out that he has colon/liver cancer. It has been a pretty bleak diagnosis...and I wonder how much to hope, how much to pray...how to believe in answers even if it isn't the one you want, and how to pray to God and accept his will, and yet not loose the hope that miracles can still happen More...
In this book, one of the characters gets sick and Maggie is hoping and praying for him to get better. I've been thinking a lot about prayer and hope because our landlord just found out that he has colon/liver cancer. It has been a pretty bleak diagnosis...and I wonder how much to hope, how much to pray...how to believe in answers even if it isn't the one you want, and how to pray to God and accept his will, and yet not loose the hope that miracles can still happen More...
May 29, 2010
Amy
rated it:
Maggie meets Jim at the firehouse where her father used to work before being injured. Maggie goes to the fire house often to listen to the Dodgers games on the radio with the guys, until they hire a new guy, Jim, who is an avid Giants fan. Jim shows Maggie show to score a game and she gets so good at it that she's able to add her own unique touch to her scorecards. Jim is sent off to fight in the Korean War and while Maggie gets letters from Jim for awhile, the letters suddenly stop. We find
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Jun 28, 2009
Elizabeth
rated it:
Yet another girls and baseball book, this one set in the 1950s, in Brooklyn, where Maggie hangs around the neighborhood fire station and listens to Dodgers games on the radio. One of the firemen teaches her how to score games ... and then he is drafted to Korea. Maggie writes to him when he is serving overseas, but soon stops receiving letters in reply. I liked this a lot, although Maggie is supposed to be nine and I'm not sure I believed that, the character seems more like 11 or 12 in a lot of
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Jan 03, 2012
Jackie
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Maggie Fortini,12, is a rabid baseball fan. She loves the Brooklyn Dodgers. It's the early 50's and every New Yorker roots for one of the city's teams...Dodgers, Giants, or Yankees. Maggie loves sitting with the neighborhood fireman as they listen to the games on radio. They're like family, especially Charky, the firehouse dog. All the firemen love the Dodgers, too...until Jim joins the house. He's a Giants fan!
But, Maggie and Jim form a bond as he teaches her how to keep score for More...
But, Maggie and Jim form a bond as he teaches her how to keep score for More...
Jan 13, 2009
Kelly
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During the 1951 baseball season, nine year-old Maggie learns how to fill out a scorecard from one of the guys, Jim, at her father's fire station. Maggie, a die-hard Brooklyn Dodgers fan, and Jim, a New York Giants fan, listen to Giants broadcasts that first wonderful summer of statistics keeping. That winter Jim gets drafted into the Army and is sent to serve in Korea during the war. He and Maggie keep in touch with letters about baseball. Eventually Jim stops writing back to Maggie, the Dod
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Jan 26, 2011
sarah
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my least favorite of the books I've read for the Oregon battle of the books, I was nonetheless charmed by Maggie and her passion for baseball. Scorekeeping baseball fans must be a rather small universe of the fanatic universe, and if this book hasn't inspired me to be a scorekeeper or teach my boys the art, perhaps it isn't Linda Sue Park's fault (after all, no desire to collect butterflies resulted from reading Nabokov, much though I adored the book).
The book's problem, perhaps, is that Maggie More...
The book's problem, perhaps, is that Maggie More...
Dec 20, 2008
Lora
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This was a story told about baseball and the Korean war. The two elements were beautifully intertwined to create this wonderful historical fiction novel. This is a book that can appeal to sports lovers (especially all the technical baseball facts given), but it also focuses strongly on family relationships and the history behind the Korean war.
Maggie is a girl in Brooklyn who loves the Dodgers. She meets a the firefighter at her father's old firehouse named Jim. Jim teachers Ma More...
Maggie is a girl in Brooklyn who loves the Dodgers. She meets a the firefighter at her father's old firehouse named Jim. Jim teachers Ma More...
Jan 14, 2009
Deanna
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Historical Fiction, early 1950's. Since I am not a baseball fan I didn't think I would like this book but all of the baseball talk was actually interesting. I might even enjoy a baseball game now. Maggie keeps score of all of the Dodgers games in a notebook. Each year she buys a new notebook to score each game. I had never heard of scoring games before and found this fascinating. One of her friends goes off to fight in the Korean war and returns silent from seeing the atrocities of war. My fathe
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Apr 29, 2009
Belann
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The story was pleasant with a good message about hope and prayer. The problem was it was a little too pleasant. Not much happened. The heroine, Maggie at 12 is an avid baseball fan. She learns to score the games from a fireman, a friend of her dad's. The fireman, Jim, is later sent to fight in the Korean war. Maggie is good friends with him, and writes to him often telling him about the games. Then she doesn't hear from him anymore. Without spoiling the rest of the story, know that Maggie
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Jan 13, 2009
A.
rated it:
This goes up there with In The Year Of The Boar And Jackie Robinson as one of the great kids' books about the Brooklyn Dodgers with female protagonists; it's also a really thoughtful look at the Korean War, which doesn't get a lot of page time in children's and YA lit, at least from what I've read. Maggie is a fantastic heroine and the fact that the book is built around her scorekeeping -- I am a devoted scorekeeper at baseball games -- just made it all the more lovely for me.
Also, it More...
Also, it More...
Jun 10, 2011
Laina
rated it:
I really enjoyed this book. Linda Sue Park always manages to say something that I feel is worth sharing. Because of that, this is definitely a book I suggest. I found it very touching and very realistic. I loved Maggie, and I loved Jim. I'm not a baseball fan, however, and I felt a little weighted down by all the baseball, but the story wouldn't be the same without it. And really Park draws some interesting metaphors that run parallel through the story using baseball and Maggie's life. An
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Feb 11, 2009
Josiah
rated it:
"But hope is what gets everything started. When you make plans, it's because you hope something good is going to happen. Hope always comes first."
--"Keeping Score", P. 189
This was three excellent books in one: It was a great baseball story, a great story about the Korean War from the prospective of the home front, and a great story about relationships. Linda Sue Park certainly worked her magic in these pages, and made me a believer in her a More...
Jan 28, 2009
Susan P
rated it:
It's 1951 and 12-year-old Maggie and her brother live for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Maggie follows every game on the radio, and when an adult friend down at the neighborhood fire station teaches her how to keep score, she becomes even more interested in the game. Then Jim is sent off to the Korean War. Maggie writes him regular letters, and at first he writes back, but then his letters stop coming, and Maggie is worried that something is very wrong.
This is a great portrayal of time More...
This is a great portrayal of time More...
Jul 30, 2009
Sarah
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I heard some really good things about this book, but honestly I was a little disappointed. It seemed very choppy. First we talk about baseball. Then we get interested in the Korean war. Then we try to use baseball to heal wounds left from war. It just didn't seem to flow as nicely as I would have liked. At the same time, it would be a great introduction to the Korean War for middle grade students. It gives just enough facts to explain the gist of what happened and there's enough baseball
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Nov 06, 2011
Heather
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This book and I had a rough start. So much baseball, so little drama for the beginning. Maggie seems so one-sided, a girl obsessed with her baseball team, and not much else. And I couldn't care less about baseball. However, the book develops into something more. Granted, it still feels more like a novella as far as characterization goes, but the themes start to run deep. Maggie is confronted by feelings of hopelessness, a war that seems to have no point, a friend who seems to have abandone
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Jul 06, 2010
Patsi
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I've been on a Linda Sue Park reading binge this week as I'll be hearing her speak at a conference later this month. I read A Single Shard when it first came out and thought it was masterful but had not searched for other books by Park. Now that I'm reading a bunch of them, I'll have to admit that Keeping Score is perhaps my least favorite. The basic storyline is solid, but the detailed info on baseball statistics bogged me down. Still, I have to impressed with Park's obvious passion for the gam
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Jun 25, 2010
mitchell
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I love baseball. Love it in that geeky way that even most baseball fans don't love it. I keep score when I watch games in person or on television. When I travel to the continental United States I bring my scorebook with me in case I see a game. So when I heard that Newbery laureate Linda Sue Park wrote a book about keeping score, I knew I had to read it.
Maggie is an elementary-schooler who, like almost everyone in her neighborhood in the early 1950s, is a Brooklyn Dodgers fan. S More...
Maggie is an elementary-schooler who, like almost everyone in her neighborhood in the early 1950s, is a Brooklyn Dodgers fan. S More...
Sep 11, 2008
Molly
rated it:
I absolutely loved this!
When we first meet Maggie, she is nine, living in Brooklyn with her firefighter father (though, no longer on active duty because of an accident), older brother and stay at home mother. Maggie, like most of Brooklyn, is a HUGE Dodgers fan. While she doesn't play, she never misses a game broadcast (she prefers radio to TV). Perhaps her favorite place to catch a game is down at the firehouse, with her dad's old colleagues and the house dog. When a new guy joins More...
When we first meet Maggie, she is nine, living in Brooklyn with her firefighter father (though, no longer on active duty because of an accident), older brother and stay at home mother. Maggie, like most of Brooklyn, is a HUGE Dodgers fan. While she doesn't play, she never misses a game broadcast (she prefers radio to TV). Perhaps her favorite place to catch a game is down at the firehouse, with her dad's old colleagues and the house dog. When a new guy joins More...
Nov 14, 2008
Kate
rated it: 
Keeping Score is the very best kind of historical novel - one that first introduces kids to funny, dynamic characters they'll love and then brings in historical elements that are so much more meaningful as they affect the lives of those characters.
Ten-year-old Maggie Fortini loves the Brooklyn Dodgers. Loves them with a big, fat capital L. When Jim, a pal at her dad's firehouse, teaches her how to keep score, she finds a way to be an even better fan and believes she's helping the tea More...
Ten-year-old Maggie Fortini loves the Brooklyn Dodgers. Loves them with a big, fat capital L. When Jim, a pal at her dad's firehouse, teaches her how to keep score, she finds a way to be an even better fan and believes she's helping the tea More...
Jul 26, 2008
Rachael
rated it:
I found it hard to get into this at first, because the main character, Maggie, is so into baseball and I'm just not. But I really enjoy Linda Sue Park's work, so I stuck with it, and I'm glad I did. While there is a LOT of emphasis on Maggie's love of baseball, Park also explores deeper, more meaningful issues. When a friend of Maggie's is sent off to fight in Korea, she starts paying attention to what is happening in the rest of the world and finds herself asking questions she'd never before
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Dec 22, 2011
Jennifer
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Reviewed by Marie Robinson for TeensReadToo.com
For the first half of this book, I thought the title referred specifically to the protagonist, Maggie, learning how to score a baseball game. It's 1951, Maggie is a huge Brooklyn Dodgers fan, and baseball is central to her life. She learns how to score a game when her dad's firehouse colleague teaches her.
I admit I find it frustrating that Maggie has no real desire to learn to play baseball herself. There is a brief mention More...
For the first half of this book, I thought the title referred specifically to the protagonist, Maggie, learning how to score a baseball game. It's 1951, Maggie is a huge Brooklyn Dodgers fan, and baseball is central to her life. She learns how to score a game when her dad's firehouse colleague teaches her.
I admit I find it frustrating that Maggie has no real desire to learn to play baseball herself. There is a brief mention More...
Dec 06, 2009
Laela
rated it:
Maggie-O loves baseball even though she's a girl and can't play. She developes a friendship with the new fireman Jim who teaches Maggie how to score the games. Jim gets drafted into the Koren War and Maggie writes him all the time even after Jim stops writing her back. War is something Maggie can't wrap her mind around, not the why's and certainly not the people.
This is a touching story about dealing with War and how it effects people. Ms. Park puts you right in Brooklyn during More...
This is a touching story about dealing with War and how it effects people. Ms. Park puts you right in Brooklyn during More...
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Jan 13, 2009
Brenda
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Many reviewers loved this book and it is heading mock Newbery lists across the country, but it was just OK for me. The period (50's) was nicely evoked and it certainly packed a sentimental punch, and I am a big-time baseball fan, but something was amiss. Maybe it was the lack of spirit from this young girl; she was completely subservient to her parents and her family. Then again, maybe that's what it was like growing up in the 50's.
Dec 05, 2008
Ellen
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I enjoyed this book for two reasons; I am an avid baseball fan and I have an interest in post-traumatic stress disorder. Linda Sue Park also always writes well. However, the story is obscure, not at all kid or teen-friendly and frankly boring, if you don't have similar weird interests to mine. A Single Shard, despite its apparent obscurity, is a wonderful quest adventure I've been able to recommend to many kids ages 10-14.
May 26, 2008
Roxanne Hsu
rated it:
It does not take much for me to cry over characters and events in books. However, often I feel manipulated and eventually resentful because the author did something to "make" me cry for the wrong reasons. Not this one. My tears (they came toward the end in several places) were well worth the shedding. I got to really admire Maggie and completely believed in all her feelings: the indignation of how her prayers and sacrifices did not work out the way she had hoped for; the anger fits;
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Mar 05, 2010
Nancy
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Not sure kids would find this very compelling, but I enjoyed it. It's a solid historical fiction entry, giving a nice portrayal of life in the 1950's and a great introduction to the Korean War. But the book is also timeless in that shows the horror of how war can destroy even the soldiers who survive the battles. And the book is, of course, about baseball and the joys of keeping score - two of my favorite things in life.
Mar 17, 2009
Ricki
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9-year-old Maggie-O learns to keep score for baseball games from Jim, a fireman that works with her father. It is a book that educates kids of score keeping, the Korean War, and PTSD, and I think it treats the topics in a way that is sensitive to the young audience it is directed to. I would recommend this one for kids aged 8-11. I love baseball, but it might not go over well with kids who don't enjoy the sport.
