Baseball in April: An excellent book about much more than baseball!

Baseball in April, and other stories by Gary Soto. Harcourt Brace Jovanovich Publishers, Copyright 1990.

Baseball in April is a collection of eleven short stories that document the lives of Mexican-American youth in Fresno, California. The stories are entirely separate, although they are linked through their common setting and common themes, such as the feeling of insecurity regarding one’s impoverished social position. All of the stories focus on middle-school age children and their struggles, their emotions, and their daily experiences as they transcend the frequently-awkward years of early adolescence. For example, in “Broken Chain,” Alfonso feels embarrassed about his physical appearance, leading him to purchase new clothing, to get a radical haircut, and to spend hours pushing on his teeth in an attempt to make them less crooked. He does all of this with the hope of impressing a girl, which is a daunting task for a seventh-grade boy. In “Mother and Daughter,” Yollie is upset because her mother cannot afford to buy her a new dress for the school dance; she becomes even more upset when the dyed dress that her mother makes for her begins to lose its color in the rain. These are just two of the stories in the book; the other stories capture various other aspects of the lives of middle school children.

            Given that this book describes the lives of middle school children, it is incredibly relevant to middle school readers. Any classroom of middle school students reading this book will certainly have students in the class who have experienced at least some of the themes and conflicts present in these stories, and it is quite possible that for every story, there will be at least one student in the class who will be able to relate to it through an experience of his or her own. The stories explore budding romance, insecurity about physical appearance, conflict with siblings and parents, fear about trying new things, frustrations with one’s sense of maturity that others do not seem to understand, and guilt associated with deceit, among other themes that would make for excellent classroom discussions. This book would be a great book to teach; although it’s characters are poor Mexican-American youth, many of the short stories deal with themes (such as romance and guilt) that would be relevant to any race and any socioeconomic level. The book is easy to read, and the stories are rarely longer than ten pages, meaning that they could be read in class in literature circles and could be followed by writing or acting activities, all within one class period. There are instances of Spanish language in the book, but the Spanish words are generally either paraphrased in English immediately following the Spanish, or they are discernable through context clues. If not, Gary Soto has included a handy dictionary at the end of the book for translation purposes. Overall, this would make for an excellent book to study, either as a class or individually, in a middle school classroom.