Choice book report



For my choice book report I chose “The boy who saved baseball” by John H. ritter

The main character’s is Tom Gallagher. The book doesn’t really give a description on him but you can infer that he is an average twelve and a half year old boy who loves baseball. Although he isn’t the best player he works hard and practices every day with his friends to improve his skills. His room is covered in posters displaying his favorite baseball players. Tom is risk taking too, at one point in the story he breaks into his favorite baseball player, Dante Del Gato’s house to ask him if he will help coach their team. He is very brave, He is willing to stand up to the mayor and tell him what he believes and to leave their team alone, and in the final game with two outs tom steps up to the plate, and even though he’s shaking he doesn’t back down and helps his team win. He isn’t the most athletic player on the team, but he is one of the hardest working, he gives his best every day, taking hundreds of grounders in the infield, and swinging a countless number of cuts at the plate. He cares so much about baseball he will do whatever it takes to improve his skills and his teams. He is very quiet and shy, he never really talks very much in the book and spends hours by himself talking about his day and scribbling down drawings in his notebooks. At the end of the book he is standing alone with his crush, Maria and even though it is obvious she likes him he is very shy and has a hard time talking to her. During all the teams’ conversations Tom rarely says anything, and quietly sits listening. He likes myths and superstitions too; in the book there is a prophecy about a man with a secret he must pass on, and a double crosser, which happens to come true in the end. Tom is forgiving and understanding, in the book Del Gato and Cruz De La Cruz both leave there team and disappear in their team’s time of need, but eventually tom understands why and forgives them both for what they did, even though no one else would.

I liked the book. It had a fairly original plot and lots of detail, and there was always chaos and interesting things happening that kept you reading.  I liked that it was told in third person perspective because it really helped you see the big picture and not just see what one person thought of what was going on. I liked the plot because it was about baseball, a sport. I like that it wasn’t the same boring old plot just told in a different time with different characters, it seemed like I was reading something entirely new, with lots of side stories and interesting things going on that keep it interesting and fun to read. The book had very good character development too, in the beginning Del Gato seems angry and unwilling to help the boys but as you start to read more Del Gato turns out to be really nice and caring and works hard to help coach the team and make them a lot better I think the author did a very good job of describing and adding lots of detail too, which made it really feel like a story that could actually happen, ex: “Cruz running his hand along the jagged sections of the torn adobe, the interior of the wall now exposed along the edges of the break, had pieces of straw poking out of the brown clay.” My only critique would be that I think the book is rather short. The ending feels abrupt and I wish there was more, but maybe that’s just because I enjoyed reading it so much I didn’t want it to end. I would recommend this book, to anyone really. It isn’t hard to read and baseball fans would love it, but the central themes are so good so that you don’t have to like baseball to like this book, you just have to like an interesting story. I think that if you have free time you should give this book a try, even if you don’t like baseball. I think this book would also be a great book for little kids, it’s easy to read to read and very appropriate, and has a story I think most younger kids would like. Over all I really liked the book and would recommend it to anyone who likes baseball or wants to read something new with a good plot and good central themes you can learn from.