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Baseball Saved Us

Written by Ken Mochizuki
Illustrated by Dom Lee
1993, 29 pages, hardback and paperback.
Front Cover Flap of the Hardback
Comments from Back Cover of the Paperback
About the Author and Illustrator

ORDER -- Item #2098, Price $15.95 HB
ORDER -- Item #2470, Price $6.95 PB

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Front Cover Flap of the Hardback

One day, my dad looked out at the endless desert and decided then and there to build a baseball field.

So begins Ken Mochizuki's moving tale of life in a Japanese American internment camp during World War II.

"Shorty" and his family, along with thousands of Japanese Americans, are forced to relocate from their home to a "camp" after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Fighting the heat, dust, and freezing cold nights of the desert, Shorty and the others at the camp need something to look forward to, even if only for nine innings. So they build a playing field, and in this unlikely place, a baseball league is formed.

Surrounded by barbed-wire fences and guards in towers, Shorty soon finds that he is playing not only to win, but to gain dignity and self-respect as well.

Inspired by actual events, Ken Mochizuki's story of hope and courage shows us an almost-forgotten part of the American past.

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Comments from Back Cover of the Paperback

1993 PARENTS' CHOICE AWARD

"A new dimension in…the traditional sport story."
- Booklist

"Captures the confusion, wonder and terror…
with convincing understatement."
- The New York Times

"Surrounded by guards, fences, and desert, Japanese-Americans in an internment camp create a baseball field. A young by tells how baseball gave them a purpose while enduring injustice and humiliation. The first person narrative is moving."
- American Bookseller, "Pick of the Lists"

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Background on Ken Mochizuki

Ken Mochizuki was born and raised in Seattle, Washington. A writer, journalist, and actor, he has a strong interest in Asian American history. During World War II, his parents were sent to the Minidoka internment camp in Idaho. This is his first picture book.

Background on Dom Lee

Dom Lee has been a baseball fan since he was a child growing up in Seoul, South Korea. He has a master's degree in illustration from the School of Visual Arts in New York City. This is first picture book. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and their two children.

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