Six Innings

By James Preller

Book Overview

Two teams, six innings, one game. A lively cast of characters--baseball-loving boys between the ages of eleven to thirteen--are playing the biggest game of their lives. With acrobatic catches, clutch... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312547366
• ISBN13: 9780312547363
• Release Date: January 2008
• Publisher: Feiwel and Friends
• Length: 147 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.

Customer Reviews

HE LOVES IT!

My 9 yr old son who struggles academically LOVED this book. When he was done he came to me and asked if I would get him more books like this one because he, "liked it better than his other books". I haven't read it so I don't know exactly what he meant. For him to enjoy reading is huge! He is a Red Sox fan and plays baseball. Maybe that had something to do with it?

Six Innings - Great read

I got a vivid picture of the action in the Little League championship game. It brought back great memories of when my kids played. Nice job.

Major league quality -- a real talent

Six Innings by James Preller is just that, the play by play description of six innings of a Little League baseball game. All of our nation's obsession with the sanctity of the game is concentrated in this afternoon of play by two teams of boys. The book opens in Sam Reiser's bedroom, where he is lying in bed, a young amputee now only able to announce his team's play, to speak the words for actions he can no longer perform. We think we are in for a problem novel, a book about adjusting to a handicap. Then the innings begin, and we realize that Preller has found the perfect dramatic structure in which he can write about twenty-four different boys in depth, each member of the team. Using the inexorable action of the six innings, he delineates the interplay of personalities, abilities, the age of the players and their temperaments. The hopelessness of young Patrick Wong in outfield, praying the ball won't go to him, vowing never to play again after his last humiliating strike out, is compared to the hard throwing pitcher, who already shows signs of a moustache. Although everyone cares deeply and intensely, the action is balanced by the humor of the identical twins, the serious one, Eamon Sweeney, and the leftie, Colin Sweeney, referred to by their coach as the Right Sweeney and the Wrong Sweeney and the attitude of the coaches themselves. In a tense moment, a coach takes his team aside and urges them to "Have fun." Six Innings has a lingering effect, the way baseball does, its pace subtle, leaving the lingering promise of summer.

Yes - A Home Run

Sure, the easy title for a baseball book, but in this case so true. "Six Innings" is the rarity, the book that hooks both teenagers and adults. A baseball book, but not just for baseball fans. A sports book with real human interest, and (hey, more importantly, let's not forget what this is) real compelling baseball. A book about kids that reminds us what kids are really like. Prellers gift is twofold: he knows the game of baseball and how to communicate it and he still remembers vividly what it is like to be young and how kids feel and behave. Recommended to everyone who is Little League age, or ever has been.

Like the game of baseball...this book has it all.

I read Six Innings with my sixth grader, who can't wait for baseball season to start each spring. We absolutely loved it! This book is wonderful on so many levels. James Preller captures the game of baseball and all that it means to kids (and adults). But it's not just a book about baseball. It's about being a kid. It's about being part of a team. It's about being a friend. Six Innings is the story of two close friends, Sam and Mike, and the ups and downs of their friendship, their families, their lives. Their story, like the stories of the rest of the little leaguers in the book, is revealed pitch by pitch, half-inning by half-inning, as a dramatic championship game is played. The baseball action is entertaining, realistic, and filled with the twists and turns that come with the game. Young readers will identify with the authentic characters and dialogue. If kids don't recognize themselves somewhere in this book, then they'll recognize kids they know. Don't think that this is "just a baseball book" though - it is so much more. The depth of the story beyond the game and the challenges the kids face off the field will completely draw you in, too. Should be required reading at little league diamonds around the country this spring!