Keeping Score

Both Maggie and her brother, Joey-Mick, were named after baseball great Joe D’Maggio. But they aren’t Yankee fans. Their team is the Brooklyn Dodgers. And although Maggie doesn’t play baseball, she knows the game. She can recite stats, understands complicated plays, cheers when the Dodgers win—and suffers when they lose.

But even with Maggie’s support, the Dodgers fail to win the Series, season after season. And the letters she sends to her friend and baseball mentor, Jim—serving in Korea—aren’t answered.

Nothing Maggie does helps. Maybe it doesn’t make any difference at all.

Or maybe it does.

The Washington Post - Elizabeth Ward

Newbery medalist Linda Sue Park is a master storyteller, and she proves it again here. The story closes at the end of 1954, and whether or not one knows what awaits the Dodgers in 1955, the quiet thrill she packs into the last three paragraphs is palpable.

Linda Sue Park is the author of the Newbery Medal book A Single Shard, many other novels, several picture books, and most recently a book of poetry: Tap Dancing on the Roof: Sijo (Poems). She lives in Rochester, New York, with her family, and is now a devoted fan of the New York Mets. For more infromation visit www.lspark.com.