The Boy Who Saved Baseball

1. Author: John H. Ritter
2. Title: The Boy Who Saved Baseball
3. Illustrator: John H. Ritter
4. Genre: Fiction
5. Subgenre: Baseball
6. Theme: Through hard work and inspiration, anything is possible.
7. Primary Characters: Tom Gallagher, Cruz de la Cruz, Maria, Dante Del Gato, Doc
8. Secondary Characters: Clifford, Mr. Gallagher, Mrs. Gallagher, Rachel, Ramon, Cody, Wil, Frankie, Graydog, Mr. LaRue, the Mayor
9. Award/Year: None/2005
10. Publisher: Puffin Books
11. Summary: The story begins with a man named Doc agreeing to enter into a land deal with the developers. Unfortunately, this happens to be the very land with the baseball field that Tom Gallagher and the whole community love so much. The deal is that if Tom's team wins, then the town keeps the baseball field and land. However, if the town loses, then the developers will be allowed to take over the land, which means there will be no more baseball field. The story follows the struggles of the team, which is not very good in the beginning, and their journey to trying to get better by getting a famous baseball player to coach them.
12. How used: First of all, this story would be a great book to get boys more interested in literature because it involves sports. Secondly, this story uses a lot of foreshadowing, which is an element of reading that helps to build a person's analytical skills. This story would be great to analyze for elements of literature as well as to analyze for entertainment.