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About the B'nai Bagels
Mark Setzer has a lot on his mind. He's worried about his upcoming bar mitzvah, and he misses his best friend, who's moved to the rich side of town and started hanging out with the obnoxious kid they used to make fun of.
Mark doesn't need the aggravation of his mother signing on to manage his Little League team.But if "Mother Bagel" complicates Mark's life, she's great for the team. Suddenly, they're winning games and headed toward the championship.
The problem is, Mark has some information that could change everything, and he doesn't know what to do with it. He's a friend, a teammate, and the manager's son - can he be all these and still be true to himself?
Mark doesn't need the aggravation of his mother signing on to manage his Little League team.But if "Mother Bagel" complicates Mark's life, she's great for the team. Suddenly, they're winning games and headed toward the championship.
The problem is, Mark has some information that could change everything, and he doesn't know what to do with it. He's a friend, a teammate, and the manager's son - can he be all these and still be true to himself?
172 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1969
10 people are currently reading
218 people want to read
About the author
E.L. Konigsburg
62 books1,512 followersElaine Lobl Konigsburg was an American writer and illustrator of children's books and young adult fiction. She is one of six writers to win two Newbery Medals, the venerable American Library Association award for the year's "most distinguished contribution to American children's literature."
Konigsburg submitted her first two manuscripts to editor Jean E. Karl at Atheneum Publishers in 1966, and both were published in 1967: Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler won the 1968 Newbery Medal, and Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth was listed as a runner-up in the same year, making Konigsburg the only author to win the Newbery Medal and have another book listed as runner-up in the same year. She won again for The View from Saturday in 1997, 29 years later, the longest span between two Newberys awarded to one author.
For her contribution as a children's writer Konigsburg was U.S. nominee in 2006 for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international recognition available to creators of children's books.
Konigsburg submitted her first two manuscripts to editor Jean E. Karl at Atheneum Publishers in 1966, and both were published in 1967: Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler won the 1968 Newbery Medal, and Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth was listed as a runner-up in the same year, making Konigsburg the only author to win the Newbery Medal and have another book listed as runner-up in the same year. She won again for The View from Saturday in 1997, 29 years later, the longest span between two Newberys awarded to one author.
For her contribution as a children's writer Konigsburg was U.S. nominee in 2006 for the biennial, international Hans Christian Andersen Award, the highest international recognition available to creators of children's books.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
April 23, 2013
This review is belated to the tune of 42 years, but having heard of E.L. Konigsburg's passing, I feel compelled to write about one of the favorite books of my adolescence, About the B'nai Bagels. My 11 year old self was captivated by Mark who seemed so much like me: a Jewish boy starting to come to grips with himself and his place in the world. Unlike Konigsburg's Mark, I wasn't on a baseball team and God did not live in the light fixture in my kitchen; but so much of his life felt authentic to me, and the warmly humorous banter sprinkled throughout the story easily could have come from my family's dinner table. Some may feel the universality of Mark's struggle is somehow compromised by the setting of the story, and perhaps this is a legitimate criticism of a piece of fiction aimed at adolescents, but if Laura Ingalls Wilder could give us a window into the life of a girl on the Plains in the 1800's, why not look in on this nice, Jewish boychik growing up in the 1960's? What could be bad?
December 19, 2016
This review also appears on my blog, Read-at-Home Mom.
About the B'nai Bagels was first published in 1969, on the heels of Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth, and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, which won a 1968 Newbery honor and the 1968 Newbery medal respectively. It had a couple of tough acts to follow, but overall, I think it rose to the occasion.
Mark Setzer is twelve years old. He's coping with the loss of his best friend who has recently moved to a richer part of town and made a snobby new friend, while also preparing for his bar mitzvah, and trying to get out of the shadow of his over-achieving older brother, Spencer. On top of that, his mother has volunteered to manage his little league team. When Mark becomes aware of some information that could jeopardize the team's success and undermine all his mother's work, he wonders whether he should tell, or keep it to himself. What he decides, in the end, results in a coming of age experience that puts Mark firmly on the path to adulthood.
The language in the book now seems quite dated, but I actually enjoyed that aspect of it. I think it might bother a contemporary young reader, but as an adult, I've become interested in some of the older, forgotten children's books, and I enjoyed being immersed in the style and context of another time period. I also enjoyed Mark's wry observations about his family life, his interactions with other boys on his team, and in his neighborhood, his struggle to hang onto aspects of his lost friendship, and most of all, the humorous and realistic dialogue Konigsburg writes for the Setzer family.
I think adults who enjoy children's literature, and like to look back as well as forward, should definitely read this book. Kids, though, will be harder to sell on it, unless they really like realistic fiction,or have an interest in what day to day life was like in the late 1960s. There's not even really enough actual baseball action in this book to make it appeal to baseball fans. There will be the rare kid, though, who will read this and love it, and whoever that kid is, I hope he stops by my desk in the library to talk about it when he's done.
About the B'nai Bagels was first published in 1969, on the heels of Jennifer, Hecate, Macbeth, William McKinley, and Me, Elizabeth, and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, which won a 1968 Newbery honor and the 1968 Newbery medal respectively. It had a couple of tough acts to follow, but overall, I think it rose to the occasion.
Mark Setzer is twelve years old. He's coping with the loss of his best friend who has recently moved to a richer part of town and made a snobby new friend, while also preparing for his bar mitzvah, and trying to get out of the shadow of his over-achieving older brother, Spencer. On top of that, his mother has volunteered to manage his little league team. When Mark becomes aware of some information that could jeopardize the team's success and undermine all his mother's work, he wonders whether he should tell, or keep it to himself. What he decides, in the end, results in a coming of age experience that puts Mark firmly on the path to adulthood.
The language in the book now seems quite dated, but I actually enjoyed that aspect of it. I think it might bother a contemporary young reader, but as an adult, I've become interested in some of the older, forgotten children's books, and I enjoyed being immersed in the style and context of another time period. I also enjoyed Mark's wry observations about his family life, his interactions with other boys on his team, and in his neighborhood, his struggle to hang onto aspects of his lost friendship, and most of all, the humorous and realistic dialogue Konigsburg writes for the Setzer family.
I think adults who enjoy children's literature, and like to look back as well as forward, should definitely read this book. Kids, though, will be harder to sell on it, unless they really like realistic fiction,or have an interest in what day to day life was like in the late 1960s. There's not even really enough actual baseball action in this book to make it appeal to baseball fans. There will be the rare kid, though, who will read this and love it, and whoever that kid is, I hope he stops by my desk in the library to talk about it when he's done.
January 25, 2014
I remember my fourth grade teacher reading this book aloud to the class the year it came out. For a girl growing up in the Midwestern suburbs, it was a revelation. I wouldn't even see a real bagel until I went to college eight years later. Re-reading it as an adult allowed me to see how good a writer Konigsberg truly was. She wove very adult themes such as anti-semitism into a "children's book" with sensitivity, while telling a very relatable, very funny story about family and about America's favorite pastime.
November 15, 2018
Konigsburg does a great job with the family dynamic - and the complications of friendships, too. She has a wonderful way of leaving out information instead of explicitly stating everything - which actually relates to the story, I guess: what parents know, what they say about what they know (and to whom), what they don't say; what kids know and say and don't say.
August 21, 2018
What a delightful read! This book requires the fairly standard disclaimer for E.L. Konigsburg, which is: she wrote it 50 years ago, some things might require a bit of explanation for young readers. The atmosphere of housewives-and-mothers, playing ball in the street, and the obligatory preparation for a bar mitzvah all evoke the mid-20th century, with this Jewish family's dynamic suggesting situations I imagine in my own family history. (What can I say? The stuffed cabbage conversation resonated.) Mark leads us into his home and neighborhood with a confiding, storytelling tone, recounting the whole tale once it's finished. Right away, then, you know where it's headed: his mother and the little league baseball team.
Mark talks about a whole lot more than just his mother's forceful nature. I was surprised by the undertones of racial and cultural dynamics throughout his life, which brought up memorable prejudices of the time: antisemitism, racism, classism, the origin of the projects. As a Jewish woman, I found her portrayal of their community similar to childhood stories my mother and grandmother have told, and I'd echo every reviewer who emphasizes its authenticity. This book could educate anyone interested in Jewish history in America. With such a varied and sometimes multicultural Jewish population, it speaks to both the importance of that identity and the breadth of interpretations of Judaism itself. The complex intersection of immigration, acceptance, and class peeks through Mark's disparate friendships and not-so-friendships with realism and depth. Those friends make this book as honest as it is; at 12 years old, I, too, was mostly concerned with my friends and the struggle of trying to make new ones.
Konigsburg has, on many occasions, demonstrated her mastery of coming-of-age tales, writing them with empathy and complexity. There's a reason she's one of my favorite authors, and it's the mix of touching and awkward and loving and frustrating and educational experiences she places her characters into. Mark and his family, here, go through every one of those situations. You watch them grow over the course of the baseball season, learning to view each other differently and trust each other in new ways. You watch his mother, a second-wave feminist, stand up and say "of course I can do what's usually a man's job," and turn it into a fact of life for the young boys. You watch his older brother, Spencer, step up and become a role model and mentor for the team. Mark's Dad chips in with his own particular wisdom. And Mark himself learns what's important to him and what he cares about in a really beautiful, nuanced way. While I don't think this is the best introduction to E.L. Konigsburg, it's not my least-favorite of her books, and it retains plenty of potential to delight and entertain readers for years to come.
I'd like to add a note about the Playboy magazines in the book, since a lot of reviewers are commenting on it. Read it anyway. I saw porn for the first time when I was younger than Mark (who's 12) and any child with access to a smartphone is going to stumble upon it sooner or later--and I'd guess sooner, because kids are curious and know how to google. Hand them the book, ask what they thought, and take the Playboy's role in this novel as what it is: an acknowledgement that pornography exists, that sexuality and desire exist, and that young adults will explore.
Mark talks about a whole lot more than just his mother's forceful nature. I was surprised by the undertones of racial and cultural dynamics throughout his life, which brought up memorable prejudices of the time: antisemitism, racism, classism, the origin of the projects. As a Jewish woman, I found her portrayal of their community similar to childhood stories my mother and grandmother have told, and I'd echo every reviewer who emphasizes its authenticity. This book could educate anyone interested in Jewish history in America. With such a varied and sometimes multicultural Jewish population, it speaks to both the importance of that identity and the breadth of interpretations of Judaism itself. The complex intersection of immigration, acceptance, and class peeks through Mark's disparate friendships and not-so-friendships with realism and depth. Those friends make this book as honest as it is; at 12 years old, I, too, was mostly concerned with my friends and the struggle of trying to make new ones.
Konigsburg has, on many occasions, demonstrated her mastery of coming-of-age tales, writing them with empathy and complexity. There's a reason she's one of my favorite authors, and it's the mix of touching and awkward and loving and frustrating and educational experiences she places her characters into. Mark and his family, here, go through every one of those situations. You watch them grow over the course of the baseball season, learning to view each other differently and trust each other in new ways. You watch his mother, a second-wave feminist, stand up and say "of course I can do what's usually a man's job," and turn it into a fact of life for the young boys. You watch his older brother, Spencer, step up and become a role model and mentor for the team. Mark's Dad chips in with his own particular wisdom. And Mark himself learns what's important to him and what he cares about in a really beautiful, nuanced way. While I don't think this is the best introduction to E.L. Konigsburg, it's not my least-favorite of her books, and it retains plenty of potential to delight and entertain readers for years to come.
I'd like to add a note about the Playboy magazines in the book, since a lot of reviewers are commenting on it. Read it anyway. I saw porn for the first time when I was younger than Mark (who's 12) and any child with access to a smartphone is going to stumble upon it sooner or later--and I'd guess sooner, because kids are curious and know how to google. Hand them the book, ask what they thought, and take the Playboy's role in this novel as what it is: an acknowledgement that pornography exists, that sexuality and desire exist, and that young adults will explore.
June 27, 2016
I remember liking this book as a kid. And I just finished reading it aloud with my 10 year old son. The story held his interest, and we enjoyed the humor. My son would giggle out loud as I read. I enjoyed sharing a story with my boy in which the main character, almost the same age as himself, is struggling through issues of family, identity, work ethic, honesty, loyalty, and friendship. On the other hand, I had forgotten how many references are made to "Playboy" in the book. I was sorry to see how normal and acceptable it was made to appear. But even that opened up an opportunity to talk to my son about why I believe that pornography is damaging to both boys and girls. It was a good shared read.
June 10, 2018
I loved this story for more of that slice-of-life coming-of-age goodness I liked in the Mixed-Up Files!!! The God-as-light-fixture and other bits of growing up religious made me so happy. -1 star for the B-plot about the magazines... but 4 stars at least for the name Fortune “Cookie” Rivera alone :)
July 31, 2024
It's surreal reading a book that FEELS like it could be contemporary enough (boys playing Little League, getting into scraps as kids do, and older siblings/parents being overbearing), but realizing that this book was published in 1969 and that manned space travel didn't exist yet.
Mark (or Moshe, his Hebrew name) mentions that maybe the Russians will make it to the moon before the Americans, a moment that made my soul exit my body.
1969 must've been an exciting time. I happened to watch Fly Me to the Moon a couple of weeks ago. I hadn't realized what a Before and After moment the Moon landing was in history. To me, that was something known, given...it has always existed.
And...AND! Multiple characters in this book were like, "What's a 'bagel'? I've never had a bagel."
Bagels, yet another thing that are 100% a given in my life. They're mainstream and have always existed. Man, 1969 must've been WILD.
This felt like a nice time capsule of an age when life seemed more simple. Definitely hard to relate as a 42-year-old woman in 2024, but I enjoyed being in Mark's head and seeing his world, as well as how he saw/experienced it.
Mark (or Moshe, his Hebrew name) mentions that maybe the Russians will make it to the moon before the Americans, a moment that made my soul exit my body.
1969 must've been an exciting time. I happened to watch Fly Me to the Moon a couple of weeks ago. I hadn't realized what a Before and After moment the Moon landing was in history. To me, that was something known, given...it has always existed.
And...AND! Multiple characters in this book were like, "What's a 'bagel'? I've never had a bagel."
Bagels, yet another thing that are 100% a given in my life. They're mainstream and have always existed. Man, 1969 must've been WILD.
This felt like a nice time capsule of an age when life seemed more simple. Definitely hard to relate as a 42-year-old woman in 2024, but I enjoyed being in Mark's head and seeing his world, as well as how he saw/experienced it.
May 26, 2025
Cute book. It would’ve been a “PJ Our Way” book if it had been written in the 2010s or 2020s. I don’t mind the dated references but it took me awhile to get past the first 20% of the book where the main plot is the 12yearold boy narrates the fights between his mom and his college age brother to establish character and drive the plot. But Oy! I wanted a book about the kids, not the grown-ups. Then the book picks up as the baseball season does, too, but Konigsburg’s characters do a lot of telling the reader directly instead of showing the hurt of not being a good ballplayer, or the embarrassment of having a mom and older brother manage the team. The best parts are definitely the kids-only practices at the the low income housing, although everything learned there will clearly be useful later in the plot, as telegraphed with bright neon arrows. The antisemitism is never really addressed, just swept under the rug. I’d love to know more about how this book would be different or the same now, instead of in 1969
June 28, 2022
Thought we’d give this a try since I have such fond memories of Konigsburg’s most famous book and Mason was finishing up his little league season. We enjoyed the baseball and Judaism themes. When the first reference to Playboy magazine came up I decided to skip it. Little did I know how often it would recur throughout the book. Had I known, I would have handled it differently but as it was, I ended up skipping whole sections of the book which, as you might imagine, disrupted the flow a bit.
This might be a great book for a kid of the right age to read on their own, to feel understood and relate to. I think it lost something because I was reading it to them.
This might be a great book for a kid of the right age to read on their own, to feel understood and relate to. I think it lost something because I was reading it to them.
January 4, 2022
This book is as wonderful as I remember it, probably even better than I remember it, because I now relate to it as a mom who coaches her son’s sports team, in addition to relating to it as a kid who was coached by a parent. But it also falls into this sub-genre of middle grade bar mitzvah novels which I find so moving. Finding The Worm, by Mark Goldblatt, takes place in the 1970s, also about bar mitzvahs and best friends and baseball. I’m not sure my son actually relates to these novels as much as I project him relating to them when I read them with him, but maybe he will some day.
September 13, 2022
This book was a really fun story. I liked the boy Mark in the story and learning about him. The story did not have a lot of surprises, but thats fine. I did feel the story was a little too sporty for me but thats also fine. I did like how much education there is about Judaism in the book and you learn some Hebrew. It also had a great sense of humor. It did not feel slow and it’s a good length. Highly recommend.
September 12, 2023
I originally picked up this book because my nine-yr-old is very much into baseball and I wanted to see if this is a good pick for our read-aloud. Since it has Playboy in it, I don't think I'll read it for him (yet). It was a cute story - kind of a typical friends-growing-apart-and-coming-back-together story and family growing together. I enjoyed the characters, and it was a good refresher after having read a difficult (but very meaningful) book such as the Slave Dancer.
January 6, 2026
The summer that Mark Setzer is twelve, his little league team is managed by his mother and couched by his older brother. But that doesn't give him any sort of advantage. What had been a losing team in the past begins to win games all the way to the Championship but can they see it through?
I know I read this as a kid because I read a number of Konigsburg books. I didn't remember anything about it. It's boys being boys but there's a good message at the end.
I know I read this as a kid because I read a number of Konigsburg books. I didn't remember anything about it. It's boys being boys but there's a good message at the end.
November 13, 2025
"Really, I thought, if it was as unimportant as Spencer told Mother it was, then why was it important enough to have her change? It was obvious that Spencer was becoming grown-up; he didn't make sense."
This was a mostly sweet read about the challenges of growing up and appreciating your family, even if they might sometimes drive you nuts.
This was a mostly sweet read about the challenges of growing up and appreciating your family, even if they might sometimes drive you nuts.
January 23, 2019
Another great one!
January 17, 2022
I don't remember a ton about this book. But I remember thinking it was ok, and being shocked to read a book about a Jewish baseball team
November 20, 2024
Loved this book as a kid!!!
March 16, 2025
I love mid-grade books. And I love this author! Some actual pearls of wisdom in this one. And I love baseball!
December 27, 2022
i know this book is for little kids but it took me two weeks to read it and it was like 150 pages total 😕
February 5, 2015
This book is a book where Mark or Moshe as his mother calls him plays through a little league sason of baseball with the problems a regular kid has. Having to win back a friend, trying to get better, and he has to do his bar mitzah. Then it gets more serious as his mother is the manager of his team and so is his brother as a coach. Now Mark has more complex problems like having to deal with a rasict kid calling him a "Jew"
I can connect to the world how people are all racist whether they want to admit it or not. Kids seperate themselves in groups and dislike a certain race or religon. So when a kid called Mark a "Jew", Mark was very upset because he deeply believes in the religon and is a part of his life. How is mother talks about god and it's used as a refrance in Mark's life.
I gave this book a five out of five becuase it shows how kids have problems that are like everyone else. Having to win friends is a thing that kids all over the world has problems to do with and self dignity about not embrassing themselves. There was also a problem with the "Jew" Problem which was very serious and having to do with wanting to tell on him which the kids think is "childish" or to leave it alone acting tough.
I can connect to the world how people are all racist whether they want to admit it or not. Kids seperate themselves in groups and dislike a certain race or religon. So when a kid called Mark a "Jew", Mark was very upset because he deeply believes in the religon and is a part of his life. How is mother talks about god and it's used as a refrance in Mark's life.
I gave this book a five out of five becuase it shows how kids have problems that are like everyone else. Having to win friends is a thing that kids all over the world has problems to do with and self dignity about not embrassing themselves. There was also a problem with the "Jew" Problem which was very serious and having to do with wanting to tell on him which the kids think is "childish" or to leave it alone acting tough.
July 31, 2013
3.5 stars - an all-American, 1960s story of adolescence, family and baseball.
"Barry Jacobs and Hersch came to watch, too. They kept close to each other, and at first, I stayed with them. But we were like two fingers and a thumb, me being the thumb, a bit shorter and fatter and separated." Oh, the third-wheel thumb. It is definitely a sore experience to stick out.
"'MOTHER: 'I'm more worried that if he finds that he can't have that little corner of privacy at home, he'll look somewhere else for it. Bumming around with bad kids or staying out all night, or trying to do something really secret and really bad. If it becomes something worse, I'll step in.'
"AUNT THELMA: 'Why don't you just buy him the magazine?'
"MOTHER: 'Because it's not my place to give him permission to be a peeping tom into Playgirl. Just because I let him doesn't mean that I have to approve, does it? I don't have to approve of everything he does, do I? And I have to save my hard disapproving for the bad things.'"
I really like reading about thoughtful parenting. Do I agree with Mother? I agree with her about the privacy piece. But does she tacitly approve of the objectification of women?
"Barry Jacobs and Hersch came to watch, too. They kept close to each other, and at first, I stayed with them. But we were like two fingers and a thumb, me being the thumb, a bit shorter and fatter and separated." Oh, the third-wheel thumb. It is definitely a sore experience to stick out.
"'MOTHER: 'I'm more worried that if he finds that he can't have that little corner of privacy at home, he'll look somewhere else for it. Bumming around with bad kids or staying out all night, or trying to do something really secret and really bad. If it becomes something worse, I'll step in.'
"AUNT THELMA: 'Why don't you just buy him the magazine?'
"MOTHER: 'Because it's not my place to give him permission to be a peeping tom into Playgirl. Just because I let him doesn't mean that I have to approve, does it? I don't have to approve of everything he does, do I? And I have to save my hard disapproving for the bad things.'"
I really like reading about thoughtful parenting. Do I agree with Mother? I agree with her about the privacy piece. But does she tacitly approve of the objectification of women?
August 31, 2009
The protagonist of this book is Mark Setzer who is a young kid. Mark has a lot of stuff on his mind. He is nervous about his upcoming bar mitzvah, and he doesnt see his best friend anymore. Mark's mother becomes a manager of a little league baseball team, which Mark is on. The team does well and they go onto the championship. Mark has a major secret, but he doesnt want to tell anyone.
I wouldn't really recommend this book to anyone, just by looking at the cover of the book i was able to predict what was going to happen.To me i dont really like those types of books.
If i were to rate this book out of ten, i would give it a five. Im being generous in giving it a five rating.
I wouldn't really recommend this book to anyone, just by looking at the cover of the book i was able to predict what was going to happen.To me i dont really like those types of books.
If i were to rate this book out of ten, i would give it a five. Im being generous in giving it a five rating.
May 5, 2013
My homage to Konigsburg continues - I am finding it interesting to see the sheer range of subjects that she covered in her fictions but I have to say that the books that I have really enjoyed the most are all about keeping secrets - Jamie and Claudia in the Metropolitan Museum; the quartet in View from Saturday who have layers and layers of secrets to uncover and the secret of whether or not Caroline is or isn't really who she says in Father's Arcane Daughter - B'nai Bagels is lively and paints a lively portrait of a middle class Jewish family but it's not as memorable as some of Konigburg's other books - well, on to T-backs, T-shirts, COAT, and Suit!
May 23, 2016
I LOVE EL Konigsburg, but this was not a winner at all. Very disappointed. It was mostly fine, except that the tension in the story largely revolved around 12 year old boys hiding porn magazines and looking at them, and it is wholly accepted as 'normal.' I was very disappointed in how it was promoted and even more so that it was dealt with this way in a book for children. I picked this up for free at the library giveaway table and I am very glad I read it so that it is not where my reading 6-year-old first learns about porn magazines. Ugh. I put this straight into the trash (which I never ever do with books).
April 6, 2009
How can I adequately relate just how much this book meant to me? The wisdom of E.L. Konigsburg, spoken at such unexpected turns throughout the book, is some of the most purely insightful reading that I have EVER seen, ANYWHERE. The things said in this book were at times so shockingly perceptive, as if E.L. Konigsburg had a direct connection to my heart, that I would reread a line (or entire paragraph) again and again and again, not wanting to move on to the rest of the book. I simply cannot understand why this was not a Newbery Honor book. This book knows my heart.
October 27, 2010
Reading level 5.4
An Ok story about baseball team and friendship (and how it changes) I just didn't love how the author used hiding a "playgirl" as a means to show that a boy needs some privacy, or that it was his right, it was a little weird to me. The book isn't my favoirte anyway, although it explored learning about different people (the main character is a Jew) and how others view you based on what you "are" Also about how big brother's grow up and change. But it was a little weird for me. Probably my least favorite Konigsburg book. I wouldn't recommend it.
An Ok story about baseball team and friendship (and how it changes) I just didn't love how the author used hiding a "playgirl" as a means to show that a boy needs some privacy, or that it was his right, it was a little weird to me. The book isn't my favoirte anyway, although it explored learning about different people (the main character is a Jew) and how others view you based on what you "are" Also about how big brother's grow up and change. But it was a little weird for me. Probably my least favorite Konigsburg book. I wouldn't recommend it.
November 26, 2012
I have found most of this author's books to be delightful little bites of life. This book is the same. Not a specific plot per se, just a piece out of a family's life told from the perspective of the nearly 12 year old son. Love the Jewish families. Don't know why, just do. It's like reading about a pioneer or pilgrim or mining family, it just fits as a little piece of American life with the deligthful language/word usage that is singular to eastern American Jewish families, mixed up with the fun observations from a growing boy's point of view.
September 5, 2015
I read this book while working for a company I realllllly didn't like. So it will always kind of live in my head in the same space. But I remember this book being clever, especially the ending. It was that kind of clever where the author has made you believe you can trust her, and then she takes you on a wild ride in the last crucial chapters. Kind of like Ocean's 11. But with Jewish teenagers instead of hot outlaws.
April 19, 2016
Although it takes place in the late 1960s, this story is ahead of its time. Take a synagogue-sponsored Little League Team; the narrator's outspoken, baseball-loving mother as coach; a pair of gifted twins whose pitching talents literally mirror each other's, and .... Playboy Magazine. Yep, Hugh Hefner's publication figures in there as well, at a time when it cost only 75 cents an issue. Now take THAT salmon and smoke it!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews