Module 2: Baseball Saved Us By Ken Mochizuki

    The book that I read was Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki. This book is a tale of a little boy who is of Japanese descent that is forced to move to camps in the western United States by American military in the early 1940's. The only thing that kept the families in the camps going was baseball. 

I believe this book would fall into the genre of Historical Fiction.  The characters may not necessarily be true to life but the book definitely reconstructs life in the past. It also takes place in the 1940's which is noted in the author note.  This book is an example of culturally diverse literature because the character in the book has to overcome stereotypes  established by the dominant culture. This book also falls into the picture book genre and I think that the pictures help to get the readers wrapped up in the story. One illustration that comes to mind is the tower guard who's sunglasses are reflecting the sunlight into the child's eyes.

The illustrator Dom Lee does an excellent job at depicting the situations expressed by the author. The pictures  in this book tend to be darker to evoke a deeper emotion than a regular picture book. A great example of the darkness would be the picture of the barracks in the camp. The technique I think Dom Lee used to illustrate is scratchboard.

If I were teaching this in my class I would have them write a newspaper article of the day that the little boy one for his team. I would also have them write a comparison paper or columns of similarities and differences in their lives and the lives of the children in the story. I feel that these would be very helpful in helping them to further their understanding of the story. I also feel that by using the comparison paper I can help them see that others are not always as fortunate as you. 

The author of the story Ken Mochizuki had  very emotional ties to this story. His parents were sent to the Minidoka internment camp in Idaho. Mochizuki has written three other picture books also about the struggles of Japanese Americans these books include titles such as Passage to Freedom and Heroes. He also has written some books for older children such as Be Water My Friend the Early Years of Bruce Lee and Beacon Hill Boys. The illustrator Dom Lee has worked with Mochizuki on all but one book, Beacon Hill Boys. 


Galda, L., Cullinan, B. E., & Sipe, L. R. (2010). Literature and the child (7th ed.). Belmont, CA:


       Wadsworths, Inc.

Mochizuki, K. (1993) Baseball Saved Us (D. Lee, Illustrator) New York, NY: LEE & LOW BOOKS Inc.

Mochizuki, K. Ken Mochizuki 
http://kenmochizuki.com/index.htm