Teacher as a Reader #2

As I finished up the book, I realized that while I did enjoy reading it, I did not relate to the book that much. Most of the book is about Shakespeare and baseball, neither of which I am very interested it. I think that younger children, especially boys, would really enjoy it while being able to relate to the young boy, Holling, and his love of baseball. The book captures the reader with the underlying baseball story line, and then introduces them to Shakespeare. The students get to read about sports and they get to see that boys like them can also get into Shakespeare. The characters in the book are very much like many of the young boys in my class. They can relate to the main characters and see that they are very similar to them. The young girls on the other hand more then likely would not enjoy the book nearly as much as the young boys did. While I did enjoy it and there were some funny parts and there was a small romantic story line that went with it that might capture some of the girls, the majority of the book is Shakespeare and baseball.

After I finished the book, I started to think about whether or not I would have actually read this book when I was in 5th grade. Usually the first thing that I notice about a book is the front cover. In this case, the front cover and the book can be slightly misleading. The book looks like it is new and one might assume that it is about a boy in today’s times; however, the book is about a young boy growing up during the Vietnam War. Today, students might be able to relate to the characters because they are growing up in a time of war. The cover is not very interesting and does not give the reader a good idea about what the book is about. I also usually judged whether or not I am going to like a book based off the first few pages of the book. The first few pages of this book introduce the characters, along with the crazy different things that the students used to do to their teachers to get even with them which I think the students would really enjoy, I know I did! All in all, the book was interesting and may appeal to the boys more then the girls but for those that are into either baseball or Shakespeare, it is a great book!!