STEAM
Graphic
Novel
High/Low
Chapter
Book
Large
Print
Series Tracker
Manga
Big
Book
Board
Book
Hot
Title
Adult
Language
Mature
Content
Ebook
Ebook
MUA (Multi User Access)
Light Novel
| Perma-Bound Edition ©2009 | -- |
| Paperback ©2009 | -- |
Baseball. History. Fiction.
Baseball. History. Juvenile fiction.
Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.). History. Fiction.
United States. History. Fiction.
Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.). History. Juvenile fiction.
United States. History. Juvenile fiction.
Starred Review Gratz (Samurai Shortstop, 2006) builds this novel upon a clever enough conceit ne stories (or innings), each following the successive generations in a single family, linked by baseball and Brooklyn d executes it with polish and precision. In the opening stories, there is something Scorsese-like (albeit with the focus on players, not gangsters) in Gratz's treatment of early New York: a fleet-footed German immigrant helps Alexander Cartwright (credited with creating modern baseball) during a massive 1845 factory fire; a young boy meets his hero, the great King Kelly, who by age 30 is a washed-up alcoholic scraping by as a vaudeville act. The pace lags a bit in the middle innings, where a talented young girl stars in the WW II era All-American Girls Baseball League and a card-collecting boy lives in fear of the Russians, Sputnik, and the atomic bomb. But the final two stories provide a flurry of late-inning heroics: a Little League pitcher's shot at a perfect game told with breathtaking verve; and a neat stitching-together effort to close the book. Each of the stories are outfitted with wide-ranging themes and characters that easily warrant more spacious confines, but taken together they present a sweeping diaspora of Americana, tracking the changes in a family through the generations, in society at large for more than a century and a half, and, not least, in that quintessential American pastime.
Horn Book (Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2009)Interlinked short stories set between 1845 and 2002 offer snapshots of nine generations of a New York City family of German Jewish immigrants and their involvement with America's favorite pastime. With an impressively cohesive mix of sports, historical fiction, and family history, Gratz has crafted a wonderful baseball book that is more than the sum of its parts.
Kirkus ReviewsNearly nine generations span the years from Alexander Cartwright's 1840s Knickerbocker Base Ball days to the present, and Gratz places a young character from a fictional family of Brooklynites in each, threading their stories together with the development of the American bat and ball game. Abner Doubleday makes a very brief appearance at a Union Army camp (even as the author discredits the myth that Doubleday founded modern baseball). An eager batboy from the Brooklyn Superbas persuades a talented Negro player to come to a tryout as an American Indian—and loses his love for his team when it's clear that no one on the team will give Cyclone "Smoky" Joe Williams (later described as the best pitcher in any league) a chance to play. John Kiernan, the legendary journalist and facts man, lends a hand to a young numbers runner following a Brooklyn Robins game in the 1930s. The fictional voice is sure and engaging, polished without being slick—an entertaining and compelling look at the deep roots of our national pastime. (author's notes) (Historical fiction. 9-13)
Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)The love of baseball links nine generations of the Schneider/Snider/Flint family in this story collection that tracks the national pastime from the 1840s to the present day. It's an ambitious work of research, weaving authentic details about the evolution of the sport into stories about nine fictional young people with baseball in their DNA. Louis Schneider carries his father's treasured souvenir baseball into battle during the Civil War (Abner Doubleday makes a cameo), trading it for an original Louisville Slugger from a wounded rebel. The bat then plays a role in his son's misplaced worship of a fading legend. Another descendant has his illusions shattered when the hometown team is unmasked as racist. Girls are represented, too: one leaves Brooklyn to play for the Grand Rapids Chicks during World War II. These are not sports stories so much as historical fiction built around a theme, and though billed as a “novel in nine innings,” there's no real narrative tension pulling the reader forward. But baseball fans will find satisfying glimpses of the game as it has been played in its various incarnations. Ages 8–12. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Mar.)
School Library Journal (Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 CST 2009)Gr 7-10 In loosely connected chapters, Gratz examines how one Brooklyn family is affected by the game of baseball. Ten-year-old German immigrant Felix Schneider arrives in America in the mid-19th century and uses his speed to good advantage both on the ball field and as a runner delivering the goods his uncle, a cloth cutter, produces. His fortunes and his family's take a turn for the worse, however, when his legs are badly injured in the great Manhattan fire of 1845 (where he encounters volunteer firefighter Alexander Cartwright, the father of modern baseball). Subsequent "innings" deal with Felix's son, Louis, who has compassion for a Confederate soldier because of their shared love of baseball; Walter Snider, a Brooklyn Superbas batboy who secures a tryout for legendary Negro Leagues star Cyclone Joe Williams and discovers the ugliness of anti-Semitism and racial prejudice; and Jimmy Flint, a 10-year-old in 1957, who worries about the class bully, Sputnik, nuclear annihilationand the Dodgers leaving Brooklyn. Curiously, the author passes over the team's glory years from the late 1940s to the mid-'50s. For the working-class Schneider/Snider family, baseball is an important part of their history, but it does little to mitigate the gritty reality of their lives. Economic uncertainty, prejudice, and the threat of violence are ever-present concerns, and the accurate, tough-minded depiction of these issues is the novel's greatest strength. Richard Luzer, Fair Haven Union High School, VT
Starred Review ALA Booklist (Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 CST 2009)
Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
Horn Book (Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2009)
Kirkus Reviews
Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)
School Library Journal (Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 CST 2009)
Voice of Youth Advocates
Wilson's Children's Catalog
Wilson's Junior High Catalog
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
First Inning: Play Ball - Manhattan, New York, 1845
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Second Inning: The Red-Legged Devil - Northern Virginia, 1864
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Third Inning: A Ballad of the Republic - Brooklyn, New York, 1894
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Fourth Inning: The Way Things Are Now - Coney Island, New York, 1908
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Fifth Inning: The Numbers Game - Brooklyn, New York, 1926
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Sixth Inning: Notes of a Star to Be - Fort Wayne, Indiana, 1945
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Seventh Inning: Duck and Cover - Brooklyn, New York, 1957
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Eighth Inning: The Perfectionist - Brooklyn, New York, 1981
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Ninth Inning: Provenance - Brooklyn, New York, 2002
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Author Notes
Special Thanks
DIAL BOOKS
A member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Published by The Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, NY 10014, U.S.A.
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M4P 2Y3 (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) • Penguin Books Ltd, 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England • Penguin Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd) • Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty Ltd) • Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd, 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi - 110 017, India • Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd) • Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty) Ltd, 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa • Penguin Books Ltd, Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
All rights reserved
The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any
responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gratz, Alan, date.
The Brooklyn nine : a novel in nine innings / by Alan Gratz.
p. cm.
Summary: Follows the fortunes of a German immigrant family through
nine generations, beginning in 1845, as they experience
American life and play baseball.
eISBN : 978-1-101-01480-6
[1. Baseball—History—Fiction. 2. United StatesvHistory—Fiction.] I.Title.
PZ7.G77224Br 2009 [Fic]—dc22 2008021263
For Mom and Dad, finally
First Inning: Play Ball
Manhattan, New York, 1845
1
Nine months ago, Felix Schneider was the fastest boy in Bremen, Germany. Now he was the fastest boy in Manhattan, New York. He was so fast, in fact, the ship that had brought him to America arrived a day early.
Now he stood on first base, waiting to run.
“Put the poreen just about here, ya rawney Dutchman!” the Striker called. English was difficult enough for Felix to understand, and almost unintelligible when spoken by the Irish. But the “Dutchman” at Feeder—another German boy like Felix—didn’t need to understand Cormac’s words to know where he wanted him to throw the ball. He lobbed it toward the plate and the Irish boy slapped the ball to the right side beyond first base.
Felix ran full out. His legs churned in the soft mud, but his shoes gave him traction, propelling him toward second base. He was a racehorse, a locomotive. The world was a blur when he ran, and he could feel his blood thumping through his veins like the steam pistons pounding out a rhythm on the fast ferry to Staten Island. Felix flew past the parcel that stood for second base and dug for third.
“Soak him!” one of the boys called. Felix glanced over his shoulder just in time to see an English boy hurl the baseball at him. He danced out of the way and the ball sailed past him, missing his vest by less than an inch. Felix laughed and charged on to third, turning on the cap there and heading for home.
“Soak the bloody devil!” one of the other Irish boys cried. The ball came at Felix again, but this time the throw was well wide. He pounced on the rock at home plate with both feet and celebrated the point.
“Ace!” Felix cried. “Ace, ace, ace!”
“No it weren’t,” called one of the buckwheats, a boy just back from the Ohio territory. “You missed second base!”
Felix ran straight to second base to argue, and was met there by the boys on both teams.
“You’re out, ya plonker!” said one of the Irish boys.
“The heck I was!” said Felix. He stepped forward to challenge him, and the boy laughed.
“You sure you want to get them fancy ones and twos there muddy, Dutchman?”
He was on again about Felix’s shoes, which were better than everyone else’s. Felix’s father, a cobbler, had made them for him—sturdy brown leather lace-ups with good thick heels. They were the only thing he still had to remind him of his family back in Bremen.
The boys looked down at Felix’s shoes. That’s when they all saw Felix’s footprints in the wet earth. He’d missed second base by a foot.
“Three out, all out,” the buckwheat said.
Felix snatched the ball from the boy’s hand and plunked him hard in the shoulder with it.
“Run!” Felix cried.
The lot became a battlefield as both teams went back and forth, tagging each other and dashing for home to see who would earn the right to bat next. Felix had just ducked out of the way of a ball aimed for his head when someone grabbed him by the ear and stood him up.
“Felix Schneider!” his uncle Albert yelled.
The game of tag ground to an abrupt halt and the boys shirked away as Felix’s uncle laid into him.
“I knew you would be here, you worthless boy! You should have been back an hour ago! Where is the parcel you were sent to deliver?”
Felix glanced meekly at second base.
“You’ve buried it in the mud!?” Felix’s uncle cuffed him. “If you’ve ruined those pieces, it’ll mean both our jobs! My family will be out on the streets, and you will never earn passage for yours. Is this why you stowed away aboard that ship? To come to America and play games?”
“N-no sir.”
Uncle Albert dragged Felix over to the parcel.
“Pick it up. Pick it up!”
“I didn’t step on it, see? I missed the bag—”
His uncle struck him again, and Felix said nothing more. With his speed he knew he still had plenty of time to deliver the fabric pieces, and time enough to go to the Neumans’, pick up their finished suits, and get them to Lord & Taylor by the close of business too. He also knew his uncle wouldn’t want to hear it.
“Now go. Go!” Uncle Albert told him. “If you were my son, I’d whip you!”
And if I were your son, thought Felix as he dashed off with the parcel, I’ d run away to California.
Felix ran to where the Neumans lived on East Eighth Street off Avenue B, in the heart of “Kleindeutschland,” Little Germany. Their tenement stood in the shadow of a fancier building facing the street on the same lot. The Neumans lived on the fourth floor, two brothers and their families squeezed into a one-family flat with three rooms and no windows. Felix hated visiting there. It made him think of those preachers who stood on street corners throughout Kleindeutschland yelling warnings of damnation and hell. As much as he disliked his uncle, Felix knew that but for Uncle Albert’s job as a cutter, their own Kleindeutschland flat would look like this. Or worse.
One of the Neuman boys, not much older than Felix, met him at the door. Felix only knew him from deliveries and pickups—he’d never seen any of the Neuman boys playing on Little Germany’s streets or empty lots.
“Guten tag,” the boy said.
“Good morning,” said Felix. He held out the parcel. “I’ve got your new pieces.”
The boy let Felix into the room. It was hot and dark, and Neumans young and old sweated as they sewed cut pieces of cloth into suits around the dim light of four flickering candles. Herr Neuman, the family “foreman,” came forward to take the package from Felix.
“Danke schön,” Herr Neuman said.
“You’re welcome,” Felix said. “Bitte.”
Herr Neuman set the parcel on a table and opened it, counting out the pieces. He nodded to let Felix know everything was in order.
“Do you have anything for me to take back?” Felix asked. “Haben Sie noch etwas fertig?”
Herr Neuman held up a finger and went into another room. Felix waved to one or two of the women who looked up at him with weak smiles. Felix knew this wasn’t what they had expected when they’d come to America. It wasn’t what any of them had expected. Felix’s own father had talked of New York as a promised land, where everyone had good jobs and plenty to eat. “Manhattan is a city of three hundred thousand,” he’d said, “and half of those are men who will need a good pair of shoes.” Herr Neuman, a skilled tailor, had probably said the same thing to his family about the men in Manhattan needing suits.
Excerpted from The Brooklyn Nine by Alan Gratz
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.
Baseball is in the Schneider family blood. Each member of this family, from family founder Felix Schneider in the 1800s to Snider Flint in the present day, has a strong tie to the game and to Brooklyn. Through the years this family has dodged bullets on a battlefield, pitched perfect games, and dealt with the devastating loss of family and the Brooklyn Dodgers. Nine innings--nine generations. One game--one family. Through it all, one thing remains true: the bonds of family are as strong as a love of the game.