Keeping Score
Keeping Score
by Linda Sue Park (2008)
“She could never be a Yankees fan. Or a Giants fan, either, except for cheering for Willie Mays. It was impossible–like saying she should be a dog instead of a girl.”
Maggie loves nothing more than hanging out at the firehouse and listening to Dodgers games on the radio. Maggie’s love of baseball runs in the family–her mother and brother are Dodgers fans, her father is a Yankees man (his fandom going so far as to name both his children (Maggie-o and her brother Joey-Mick) after his favorite player, Joe Dimaggio).
Maggie enjoys listening to the games at the firehouse so much because all of the firehouse employees are Dodgers fans too. That’s why she’s somewhat taken aback when the new fireman Jim turns out to be a Giants fan. Nevertheless, Jim and Maggie become fast friends, a friendship galvanized by Jim’s agreement to teach Maggie the ins and outs of keeping score. Maggie even becomes a somewhat clandestine fan of Willie Mays, although she remains true to her team as she tracks play-by-play their progress and regress each game for the duration of each season.
Maggie feels that her efforts factor in to the Dodger’s success, and she tries everything to help her World Series Championship-challenged Dodgers to win the championship. She dutifully listens to their games on the radio, scores the games, reads the newspapers articles about the games, clips said newspaper articles, and adds the Dodgers as a whole to her prayer list.
Her new nightly prayer becomes, “Please God bless Mom and Dad and Joey-Mick and me and all our friends and relations and the most abandoned souls in Purgatory and–and the Dodgers. Amen.” Talk about a prayer that covers a lot of bases (pun somewhat intended).
Maggie’s baseball-centric view of the world begins to expand when Jim is drafted. He leaves to serve as an ambulance driver in the Korean War (or Conflict as it was then labeled). Maggie writes to him and he writes back, for a time. Then Jim’s letters stop coming.
As Maggie struggles to understand Jim’s silence, she becomes increasingly interested in understanding the war. She goes with her mom to do some research at the library, and her mom tells her, “War is about land, territory. One side trying to control more than the other.”
The story continues with Maggie throwing all of her efforts into following the war and following baseball in hopes that the former will help Jim return safely and that the latter will help the Dodgers win the championship. When she discovers that both of her efforts seem to be to no avail, she’s forced to re-evaluate her role–what she can do and what’s beyond her control.
She also comes to a new understanding of the importance of hope–for herself, for Jim, for the Dodgers, and for all of their futures. She thinks, “But hope is what gets everything started. When you make plans, it’s because you hope something good is going to happen. Hope always comes first.”
Keeping Score follows Maggie’s life in New York in the early 1950s, from age nine to thirteen. Maggie’s coming of age encompasses so much–baseball history and lore, the Korean War, loyalty, grief, friendship, and hope–that inadvertent learning is likely to take place (for instance, I know that I learned quite a bit about baseball history, and who knew the scoring could be made so complex?). The story flows smoothly and the historical detail flows around it in a way that Parks has accomplished before (remember A Single Shard?) and we can only hope will accomplish again.
At the end of Keeping Score, Park’s author notes and list of websites for nascent scorekeepers add to an already worthy piece of historical fiction for young readers. For those looking for additional baseball-related literature, the following are links to a few lists of baseball literature that have been put together.
- Cincinnati Library: Baseball–America’s Love Affair (more for adults, but it does have some ideas for interesting nonfiction and biographical books)
- Harris County Public Library: Baseball (a mixture of picture books, easy readers, fiction, and non-fiction)
- Logan Library: Picture Books About Baseball
- UIUC Education & Social Science Library Blog post: Baseball Anyone?
- University of Wisconsin CCBC: 40 Books about Sports ( a mixture of sports
) - Waterford Public Library: Baseball Books (A mixture of picture books, easy readers, chapter books, nonfiction)
Feel free to leave a comment if you have any thoughts on Keeping Score or on other favorite baseball literature, (recently updated) baseball booklists, or moments in baseball history.
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