Keeping Score

A historical novel from Newbery medalist Linda Sue Parks about life, faith, and Americas favorite pastime: baseball.

Both Maggie Fortini and her brother, Joey-Mick, were named for baseball great Joe DiMaggio. Unlike Joey-Mick, Maggie doesn’t play baseball—but at almost ten years old, she is a dyed-in-the-wool fan of the Brooklyn Dodgers. Maggie can recite all the players’ statistics and understands the subtleties of the game.

Unfortunately, Jim Maine is a Giants fan, but it’s Jim who teaches Maggie the fine art of scoring a baseball game. Not only can she revisit every play of every inning, but by keeping score she feels she’s more than just a fan: she’s helping her team.

Jim is drafted into the army and sent to Korea, and although Maggie writes to him often, his silence is just one of a string of disappointments—being a Brooklyn Dodgers fan in the early 1950s meant season after season of near misses and year after year of dashed hopes. But Maggie goes on trying to help the Dodgers, and when she finds out that Jim needs help, too, she’s determined to provide it. Against a background of major league baseball and the Korean War on the home front, Maggie looks for, and finds, a way to make a difference.

Even those readers who think they don’t care about baseball will be drawn into the world of the true and ardent fan. Linda Sue Park’s captivating story will, of course, delight those who are already keeping score.

This historical novel is from Newbery Medalist Linda Sue Park, whose beloved middle grade books include A Single Shard and A Long Walk to Water.

Maggie’s world is baseball, but when the Korean War calls her friend away, she discovers that some scores aren’t kept on a diamond.

A 1950s Baseball Story: Join ten-year-old Maggie Fortini, a die-hard Brooklyn Dodgers fan who knows every player’s stats by heart and lives for the crack of the bat on the radio. The Korean War on the Home Front: When her friend and mentor Jim is drafted and sent to Korea, Maggie’s letters are her only lifeline—until his replies suddenly stop. An Unlikely Friendship: She’s a Dodgers fan; he loves the Giants. But Jim teaches Maggie the art of keeping score, a skill that connects them across thousands of miles and the silence of war. A Powerful Coming of Age Story: As she tracks the highs and lows of her beloved Bums, Maggie discovers her own strength and learns that true support means more than just cheering for a team.