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    Keeping Score
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    Keeping Score
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    Keeping Score
    Audiobook4 hours

    Keeping Score

    Written by Linda Sue Park

    Narrated by Julie Pearl

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

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    About this audiobook

    Both Maggie Fortini and her brother, Joey-Mick, were named for baseball great Joe DiMaggio. Unlike Joey-Mick, Maggie doesn't play baseball-but at almost ten years old, she is a dyed-in-the-wool fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Maggie can recite all the players' statistics and understands the subtleties of the game. Unfortunately, Jim Maine is a Giants fan, but it's Jim who teaches Maggie the fine art of scoring a baseball game. Not only can she revisit every play of every inning, but by keeping score she feels she's more than just a fan: she's helping her team.

    Jim is drafted into the army and sent to Korea, and although Maggie writes to him often, his silence is just one of a string of disappointments-being a Brooklyn Dodgers fan in the early 1950s meant season after season of near misses and year after year of dashed hopes. But Maggie goes on trying to help the Dodgers, and when she finds out that Jim needs help, too, she's determined to provide it. Against a background of major league baseball and the Korean War on the home front, Maggie looks for, and finds, a way to make a difference.

    Even those listeners who think they don't care about baseball will be drawn into the world of the true and ardent fan. Linda Sue Park's captivating story will, of course, delight those who are already keeping score.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateMay 13, 2008
    ISBN9780739365076
    Author

    Linda Sue Park

    Linda Sue Park, Newbery Medal winner for A Single Shard and #1 New York Times bestseller for A Long Walk to Water, is the renowned author of many books for young readers, including picture books, poetry, and historical and contemporary fiction. Born in Illinois, Ms. Park has also lived in California, England, and Ireland. She now lives in Western New York. Learn more at lindasuepark.com.

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    Reviews for Keeping Score

    4/5

    63 ratings7 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Our family really enjoyed this book. It gives a glimpse of what American life was like during the Korean War and shows the faithfulness of a young girl’s friendship when a family friend is sent overseas to serve in the military.
    • 4/5
      Listened per my grands were and found this a very sweet story with historical significance. Worth hearing the story.
    • 4/5
      I picked this up because it's Linda Sue Park although I'm no baseball fiction fan. The first quarter of the book was baseball heavy but once Jim went to war in Korea, the story became more engaging for me. Maggie's thoughtful earnestness about baseball, her friendship with Jim and her projects (saving money for baseball tickets, her scoring notebooks, etc.) is endearing and heartfelt. Booktalk: Maggie loves baseball. She is a big fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Everyone in the neighborhood is. Well, except for Dan, the new firefighter. He’s a New York Giants fan. But Maggie doesn’t mind too much because Dan loves baseball as much as she does. He also taught her how to score every play in every inning of every game by drawing a chart like this. But then Dan has to go away to fight in the Korean War. So Maggie writes him lots of letters telling him what’s going on in the neighborhood and how the Giants and Dodgers are doing. Dan sends Maggie a few letters…not much since he’s busy fighting a war, but a few. Then…he stops sending letters…and Maggie needs to find out what’s happened to him.
    • 4/5
      (#32 in the 2009 Book Challenge)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 ways. It's got a nice old timey New York feel, where everyone gets to be nostalgic about the Dodgers. One major annoyance, which is not about the book but about the publisher, is that the book cover shows a girl in a modern-day baseball stadium. I also learned from the back of the book that the author grew up as a Cubs fan in Chicago, and then became a Mets fan later in life when she moved to New York, which I find unsettling because 1. gee, nice team loyalty and 2. are you some kind of glutton for punishment or what?Grade: BRecommended: Also a middle reader, probably better for kids who are more thoughtful readers. i don't think you need to be particularly a baseball fan to enjoy it, although an appreciation of that era of baseball would probably enhance the reading experience.
    • 4/5
      It's the summer of 1951 and Margaret Olivia Fortini is nine, going on ten. She is the daughter of an Italian father and an Irish mother (one day pasta, one day potatoes), a practicing Catholic, and like most Brooklynites, a fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers, better known as " 'Dem Bums." The Dodgers are flirting with a chance at the World Series and the United States is entering into the long-standing Korean conflict. Maggie spends much of her time at the firehouse, where her Dad does all the hiring. She loves nothing better than listening to the games on the radio with the guys, that is, until the new guy, Jim, teaches her how to score the games."There was something else about keeping score - and Maggie loved this most of all. Like every other Dodger fan she knew, she felt almost like part of the team, like she herself was one of the Bums. It was as if cheering for them, supporting them, listening to the games, talking about them, somehow helped them play better.Maggie knew that this didn't really make any sense. It wasn't like Jackie and Campy and Pee Wee knew that her radio was turned on, or played worse if it wasn't. But there were times when it felt as though the strength of her wishes, combined with those of thousands of other fans all over Brooklyn, pulled the player or the bat or the ball in the right direction - for a stolen base or a hit or a strikeout, exactly when it was needed most."When Jim is called up to serve in Korea, Maggie relies on what she knows best - prayers and baseball. But suppose just wanting something, praying for something is not enough? Suppose none of it matters?Linda Sue Park explores what most children (and adults) eventually come face-to-face with - doubt. Will it matter if you don't wear your lucky shirt? Does praying help if your heart is not in it? Does receiving a benefit from a selfless act make it selfish? The Korean War, post-traumatic stress disorder, faith, family, and friendship - Keeping Score looks at all of these topics through the lens of a true baseball fan - and that is what makes the book work. Baseball is an optimist's sport. There's always next year. Hope springs eternal. Keeping Score never falls into despair. Maggie's loving family and steadfast friend, Treecie, keep her hopes alive.Park's love of baseball is apparent in Keeping Score. Her team spirit is authentic; the play-by-plays flow easily. She writes, as she says, from the pain of growing up a Cubs fan. This is a great book that should appeal to girls and boys alike and especially baseball fans!
    • 5/5
      Like Linda Sue Park (as she says in her afterword), I don't remember learning to score a baseball game, but I know it was one of the many things my parents taught me to do as I was growing up. And like Maggie in this wonderful story, keeping score only added to my love of the game.Park combines a story of a girl growing up with her love of the Brooklyn Dodgers (although the story ends before she would experience the ultimate disappointment of their move to Los Angeles) with a story about her concern about a friend who is sent to Korea and her growing awareness of the conflict there.I couldn't give this book 5 stars because it gets a bit sappy near the end. But the rest of the book is well worth it, especially for Dodgers fans!
    • 5/5
      A solid 5+ stars. A rich and layered story with every nuance and turn true. This is Newbery quality - again - and unforgettable.