Keeping Score by Linda Sue Park

Growing up in Brooklyn in the early 1950s, Maggie is a devoted Dodgers fan. She likes to go to the local firehouse, where her father used to work, and listen to the games with the firemen there. When she befriends a new fireman, Jim, who is a New York Giants fan, he teaches her how to score games. Later, when Jim is drafted and sent to Korea, she writes to him faithfully until one day he stops writing back. What happened to Jim? Maggie eventually finds out, and has to find a way to help him. Baseball fans will enjoy this picture of life in the 1950s, and how the love of a baseball team knit together a community. An author's note gives background on the Brooklyn Dodgers, the New York Giants, their moves to the West Coast and the Korean Conflict. Keeping Score by Linda Sue Park. Clarion Books, 2008.