Bat 6

by Virginia Euwer Wolff

Overview

"Extraordinarily artful." -- Booklist

The sixth-grade girls of Barlow and Bear Creek Ridge have been waiting to play in the annual softball game -- the Bat 6 -- for as long as they can remember.But something is different this year. There's a new girl on both teams, each with a secret in her past that puts them on a collision course set to explode on game day. No one knows how to stop it. All they can do is watch...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780545881050
Publisher:	Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date:	07/28/2015
Sold by:	Scholastic, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	240
Lexile:	930L (what's this?)
File size:	5 MB
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Virginia Euwer Wolff is the author of books which have been named ALA/YASD Best Books and School Library Journal's Best Books, in addition to other awards.

"Our daily news is filled with children doing horrifying things," says Ms. Wolff, "and I'm fascinated by the question:  What is it we notice about these kids but decide not to acknowledge?"

Ms. Wolff was born and raised in Oregon, Virginia.  She currently lives in a house in the woods of Oregon City.

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Bat 6:A New York Public Library 100 Best Books of the YearA School Library Journal Best BookAn ALA Notable BookA Jane Addams Award Winner* "Complex, fully realized characters. A powerful novel." - Booklist, starred review"The characters are engaging. Wolff's evocation of period and place is indisputably masterful." - Horn Books"[The] emotions and perspectives ring true." - Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

Set against the backdrop of a softball game played between two small rural towns in Oregon in 1949, this novel reveals, among other things, the lingering aftereffects of war. The sixth-grade girls from Barlow and Bear Creek Ridge have spent the year practicing for a softball game that has been an annual event since 1900. Now, during the fiftieth anniversary game, an incident occurs that upsets the sanguine assumptions of the citizens. The central action revolves around Shazam, a deeply troubled girl whose father was killed at Pearl Harbor and who has been nursing an abiding hatred for the Japanese ever since, and Aki, a Japanese-American girl. Aki and her family have recently returned home after spending the war years in an internment camp. Early in the game (but late in the novel), Shazam attacks Aki, injuring her severely. The game ends abruptly, and all the players -and many of the adults- are left to wonder what share of the responsibility they bear. The story is narrated in brief first-person retrospective accounts from all twenty-one girls on both teams, and it is sometimes difficult to distinguish one voice from another. But the characters are engaging for the most part, and while Aki's characterization seems a bit too stereotypical, Shazam is a complex and compelling protagonist. Wolff's evocation of period and place, on the other hand, is indisputably masterful. The questions she raises about war, race, and cherished beliefs are difficult and honest and a welcome antidote to more romanticized versions of the years following the "last good war."

Horn Book Magazine

In Bear Creek Ridge and Barlow, two small Oregon towns, everyone is looking forward to the Bat 6 girls' softball game of 1949. Both towns make plans to cheer the sixth graders on, all in the name of good, clean fun. This simple, small-town portrait of Americana is shattered, however, when a racial incident occurs at the 50th annual game: One player, Shirley, whose father was killed at Pearl Harbor, slams her elbow into the face of Aki, a Japanese-American. It brings the game to a halt, and inspires the townspeople to debate and examine what exactly has gone wrong in the years since WW II ended. Guilt hangs over both towns: Could anyone have prevented the incident? Shirley had not concealed her hatred of "Japs," yet no one had believed that such a troubled girl would act on her feelings. Through the first-person narrations of the 21 girls of the two teams, the story emerges, and while few of the voices are truly distinct, their emotions and perspectives ring true. Wolff (Make Lemonade, 1993, etc.) is especially deft in creating a transforming, bittersweet post-war atmosphere and winning portraits of members of the communities who support, respect, and encourage their young girls, but come to question their own roles in the tragedy. (Fiction. 12-14)

Kirkus Reviews