book data
166 ratings,
3.97
average rating, 47 reviews
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published
May 18th 2006
by Dial
(first published 2006)
details
Hardcover, 288 pages
isbn
0803730756
(isbn13: 9780803730755)
description
Tokyo, 1890. Toyo is caught up in the competitive world of boarding school, and must prove himself to make the team in a new sport called besuboru. Bu…more
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 221)
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avg 3.97
editions: all | this edition
editions: all | this edition
Read in February, 2010
This is a book I can definitely see myself recommending, since the pace, setting, plot, and mood of the book have tremendous teen/tween appeal.
Toyo, the fifteen-year-old son of a samurai, enters Japan's elite Ichiko academy, where he must balance 'besuboro' (baseball) practice with academics as well as training in the way of the samurai. Then there are the seniors, who come in the middle of the night to the new students' rooms to bloodily initiate them.
Actually, most...more
Toyo, the fifteen-year-old son of a samurai, enters Japan's elite Ichiko academy, where he must balance 'besuboro' (baseball) practice with academics as well as training in the way of the samurai. Then there are the seniors, who come in the middle of the night to the new students' rooms to bloodily initiate them.
Actually, most...more
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This book has several aspects that would appeal to teens. For one, there is hazing. Going to a new school is never easy, so it would be even more appealing to students who have gone through similar situations. To go with this, there is the historical aspect of the book. From reading about samurai to learning about seppuku, the reader learns about cultural traditions. Finally, there is the aspect of baseball, while baseball fans may be more drawn to the book, those who don't follow baseball ...more
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Read in March, 2009
I picked this up for Theo during a quick run through the library - how great a book about 2 of his very favorite things. Happily, I gave it a quick preview before handing it off. While I couldn't put it down for the rest of the afternoon, the book would have been too much for his 8 year old self. The main character is 16 years old, and I'm guessing this is a book for about that age range.
The story captivated me. Placed in Japan in the late 1800s, just as Western influence was tak...more
The story captivated me. Placed in Japan in the late 1800s, just as Western influence was tak...more
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Toyo goes to an elite boarding school in Japan in 1890, where most of the students are sons of samurai. Toyo is the son and nephew of samurai, and his uncle committed seppuko the year before Toyo came to this school. His father was less of a warrior than his uncle; he writes editorials for a Japanese newspaper decrying the new order that caused samurai to give up their swords and tried to create a more egalitarian society. Toyo's passion is baseball (besu boru) but his father has no use for the ...more
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This debut book by a gifted author could be a great father-son book club read because the theme is how a boy becomes a man. Can a father pass on the knowledge of being a man? Toyo Shimada, 15, is growing up in Tokyo in the 1890’s when the emperor has outlawed the samurai tradition of his ancestors. The opening begins with Toyo’s uncle performing suppuku, a ritual involving disembowelment and decapitation. Graphic violence continues throughout the book, including brutal hazing inflicted on st...more
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Read in January, 2010
I had been attracted to the cover of this book for a long time when I finally grabbed it during "historical fiction" month at my school. It was a much better book than I had expected! The story begins with the seppuku (suicide) of Toyo's uncle. Toyo lives in "new" Japan but comes from a history of samurai, which has been outlawed in turn-of-the-century Japan. When Toyo struggles to understand the reasons behind his uncle's suicide and the preparations for his dad's seppuk...more
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Read in June, 2008
Samurai Shortstop begins with a young Japanese kid witnessing his uncle's ritual suicide. His father, have just decapitated his brother turns to the son and says, "You'll be doing this for me soon.
Set in Japan in the 1880's, the novel follows the young boy as he is tutored in bushido in preparation for his role in his father's imminent seppuku. The boy immediately applies his samurai training toward his real passion: baseball.
At this point in Japanese history, the culture is i...more
Set in Japan in the 1880's, the novel follows the young boy as he is tutored in bushido in preparation for his role in his father's imminent seppuku. The boy immediately applies his samurai training toward his real passion: baseball.
At this point in Japanese history, the culture is i...more
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Read in March, 2008
I'm going to hold off on my review until the FMS Reading Challenge is over.... But I thought it was quite good, and as someone who spent alot of her undergraduate years studying the transition from the Tokugawa to the Meiji Restoration period.... I was impressed.
Gratz had done what I think is a masterful introduction to a complex time period, with all the conflicting values and pressures that a young adult would feel, all seen through the lens of "besubaru"; his impetus for...more
Gratz had done what I think is a masterful introduction to a complex time period, with all the conflicting values and pressures that a young adult would feel, all seen through the lens of "besubaru"; his impetus for...more
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Read in January, 2007
recommends it for:
Teens
If you can get past the first chapter of this book, it is a fabulous read.
It is a book about a young boy Toyo, who witnesses the suicide/death of his uncle, a samurai. Toyo knows that his uncle died an honorable samurai death, but he misses his uncle. Toyo does not like the old ways that his father clings so tightly to. He fears that the old ways will take his father from him, just as they did his uncle.
Toyo goes to an elite school designed to train the future leaders...more
It is a book about a young boy Toyo, who witnesses the suicide/death of his uncle, a samurai. Toyo knows that his uncle died an honorable samurai death, but he misses his uncle. Toyo does not like the old ways that his father clings so tightly to. He fears that the old ways will take his father from him, just as they did his uncle.
Toyo goes to an elite school designed to train the future leaders...more
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Jan 17, 2010
Jaclin Szafraniec
added it
Toyo attends a boarding school in Japan and the upperclassmen make him suffer as a freshman. His uncle commits suicide in front of a crowd and it affects him. He tries to cope with life's obstacles through the game of baseball. As a teacher of all boys, I could see this being a good shelf book. I didn't like it enough to teach.
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Read in March, 2008
recommends it for:
anyone who is interested in baseball, or just looking for an interesting read
This book shows how difficult it may have been for the old ways of Japan to change. From Samurai to commoners, many believed the old ways forgotten while others simply stuck to old prejudices. Toyo Shimada is shortstop on his school's Besuboru team, what we would call baseball. Even though it is a sport brought to Japan by the gaijin, Americans, Toyo finds that the game is more in depth with the samurai techniques then his father believes. As his father starts teaching him private lessons on ...more
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Read in March, 2010
I had a hard time identifying with and liking the characters of this book. It is a coming-of-age story about a Japanese boy in Japan during the end of the conflict between the traditional samurai and Westernization. Baseball is beginning to be a large part of Japanese culture in the early 1900s.
Read in May, 2006
"A distinct pleasure of Samurai Shortstop is the clarity of its prose and the accuracy of its setting. Gratz has done his homework, capturing the political and social concerns of the times, depicting Japanese samurai warrior conduct (bushido), and describing the harsh realities of Japanese boarding school life of the period. Moreover, Gratz incorporates occasional historical events and figures into the narrative, thereby lending the story further verisimilitude. The resulting bildungsroman,...more
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Read in December, 2009
Audio. Loved this. Historical fiction with wonderful characters. A great boy book. A very interesting story of baseball. A complicated time in Japans history and the author did a great job explaining it and putting it in context. Loved the audio-great reader.
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Read in January, 2007
In 1890 Japan, Toyo attends an elite boys' boarding school, where he learns how to play the new sport of baseball that was brought over by Europeans. He is also taking "bushido" or samurai lessons from his father, and both bushido and baseball have a lot in common, though his father refuses to accept the newfangled sport. The book is set during the time when the old ways of Japan, the samurai code, are being set aside for new modern things like streetcars and baseball, and Toyo's fathe...more
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Read in March, 2008
I am building a Book Map for this book. I will post the Map to www.brainbackbend.com when it is complete. For now, you can see some early comments on the Fulmore Spring Book Challenge Group Home Page.
I would strongly suggest students read this book, especially students into one or more of the following: baseball, samurai, Japan, Zen, or boy becomes man story.
Join the reading group and read SAMURAI SHORTSTOP. You will enjoy this exciting book and TOYO's jouirney as he b...more
I would strongly suggest students read this book, especially students into one or more of the following: baseball, samurai, Japan, Zen, or boy becomes man story.
Join the reading group and read SAMURAI SHORTSTOP. You will enjoy this exciting book and TOYO's jouirney as he b...more
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Read in March, 2009
Interesting book about a boy in Japan who loves baseball. He goes to a snobby exclusive boys' school(always interesting), and his father is an old-school samurai who doesn't want to accept the new order of Japan in which all are commoners.
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Read in March, 2007
recommends it for:
baseball and historical novel fans
What a great read! The book's setting is Tokyo in the 1890's, during the Meiji regime, when the current emperor was trying to Westernize Japan. As a result, samurais were ordered to lay down their swords and abandon samurai code. Toyo is the son of a samurai and torn between his father's samurai culture and the new Western cultural practices that Japan has adopted, including baseball. The opening chapter, during which Toyo must participate in his uncle's suppuku is riveting. Toyo does not w...more
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Read in May, 2009
OH GOD THIS BOOK.
SO HORRIBLE.
Dear Author,
You obviously do not know how to speak Japanese. Do not throw random words around, it makes you sound like an asshole. Seriously.
Sincerely,
Me
AVOID THIS BOOK AT ALL COSTS. It might cause brain damage. Ugh.
SO HORRIBLE.
Dear Author,
You obviously do not know how to speak Japanese. Do not throw random words around, it makes you sound like an asshole. Seriously.
Sincerely,
Me
AVOID THIS BOOK AT ALL COSTS. It might cause brain damage. Ugh.
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A gem found in my school library. Parallels the way of the samurai to the game of baseball. Very much like the phrase "Teach an old dog new tricks". I wouldn't mind reading this again :)
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historical-fiction (on 11 people's shelves)
young-adult (on 9 people's shelves)
ya (on 9 people's shelves)
sports (on 6 people's shelves)
fiction (on 4 people's shelves)
ya-lit (on 3 people's shelves)
teen (on 3 people's shelves)
historical (on 3 people's shelves)
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