Young Toyo must face bullying seniors, his father's refusal to modernize, and his own inability to cope with his uncle's seppuku, all while finding a way to incorporate his father's bushido (way of the samurai) into his baseball practices and help his school's baseball team rise to the top. Still, this is an intense read about a fascinating time and place in world history. Samurai Shortstop by Alan Gratz is a Coming of Age Story focusing on young Toyo Shimada, a first-year at Ichiko High School in the year 1890, around the start of the Meiji period in Japan. Though Toyo finds a way to use the samurai values his father has taught him, his leadership skills don't develop enough for him to protest or withdraw from aiding the enforcement of a brutal punishment against a boy who has strayed from Ichiko's harsh rules, undermining the sympathy readers may have developed for him. Into this well-researched period piece, Gratz drops a few anachronistic sports clichés, climaxing with a Big Game against a team of Americans. Toyo channels these skills into his passion for a new sport introduced by American gaijin- besuboru. the "samurai code"-which includes sword-fighting but also meditation and flower arranging. His father arrives daily to instruct Toyo in bushido The violence soon becomes more personal, as Ichiko's upper classmen conduct vicious hazing rituals to keep the first-years in line. Toyo is caught up in the competitive world of boarding school, and must prove himself to make the team in a new sport. Can he find a way to reconcile old and new Author's notes. His samurai father insists on teaching him Bushido, the way of the warrior, but all Toyo wants to do is turn dobu pures (double plays) as shortstop of his school team. As required by custom, Toyo's father decapitates his brother, and Toyo must watch because, his father says, "Soon you will do the same for me." Toyo then begins life at Ichiko, Tokyo's most elite boarding school, haunted by the image of his father tossing his uncle's head onto the funeral pyre. 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. Caught in the middle is high school student Toyo Shimada. Background videos on Samurai Warriors at. Expertly researched by debut author Alan Gratz. Samurai Shortstop by Alan Gratz, The Penguin Group, 345 Hudson Street, New York. ritual suicide-rather than renounce his samurai lifestyle as the emperor has ordered. At its heart a novel about a boy who loves baseball, Samurai Shortstop is fascinating, suspenseful, and intense. But when he gets there, the school is run by the seniors which causes him and his friends lots of problems as they are the newcomers and the youngest. In the harrowing first chapter, 15-year-old Toyo witnesses his uncle commit seppuku Samurai Shortstop by Alan Gratz is a great Historical Fiction book talking about a intelligent kid who goes to the 'so-called' best school in Japan during the 1800s. As the gulf between them grows wider, Toyo searches desperately for a way to prove there is a place for his family’s samurai values in modern Japan.Debut novelist Gratz uses baseball to tell the story of Japan's tumultuous transition from 19th-century feudalism to 20th-century Westernized society. It all has something to do with –the way of the warrior–but Toyo doesn’t understand even after his father agrees to teach it to him. Physical Description: 280 pages 22 cm print Publisher: New York : Dial Books. And worse, Toyo fears that his father may be next. Although Uncle Koji’s defiant death was supposedly heroic, it has made Toyo question many things about his family’s samurai background. Toyo isn’t afraid to prove himself He’s more troubled by his uncle’s recent suicide. From his first day at boarding school, Toyo Shimada sees how upperclassmen make a. Still, he’s taken aback when the seniors keep him from trying out for the baseball team–especially after he sees their current shortstop. High school can be brutal, even in turn-of-the-century Japan. High school can be brutal, even in turn-of-the-century Japan.įrom his first day at boarding school, Toyo Shimada sees how upperclassmen make a sport out of terrorizing the first-years.
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