Awards

• 2020 Children's Fiction Category Winner
• 2020 Northern Lights Book Awards Winner Middle-Grade Fiction Category
• 2021 Sakura Medal Longlist

Overview

Thirteen-year-old Satoshi Matsumoto spent the last three years living in Atlanta where he was the star of his middle-school baseball team—a slugger with pro potential, according to his coach. Now that his father's work in the US has come to an end, he's moved back to his hometown in rural Japan. Living abroad has changed him, and now his old friends in Japan are suspicious of his new foreign ways. Even worse, his childhood foe Shintaro, whose dad has ties to gangsters, is in his homeroom. After he joins his new school's baseball team, Satoshi has a chance to be a hero until he makes a major-league error. ""A heart-warming story about a baseball player who learns that teamwork is much more important than being the star of the team. I loved the family dynamics and depiction of life, and especially baseball, in Japan.""—Shauna Holyoak, author of Kazu Jones and the Denver Dognappers (Hyperion, 2019) ""A story set in Japan rich in details only Kamata, an insider, could share. With ease and respect, she weaves the pressures, agonies, and loyalties of Satoshi's life at home, at school and on a junior high baseball team with the practices and traditions of the game played in Japan. I am a big fan of this middle-grade homerun!""—Annie Donwerth Chikamatsu, award-winning author of Somewhere Among (Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books, 2017) ""Pop Flies really pops! A lively, fun, easy read that draws you in and keeps you guessing.""—Dori Jones Yang, award-winning author of The Forbidden Temptation of Baseball (SparkPress, 2017)

Full Product Details

9781947159365

Table of Contents

Reviews

A 13-year-old boy struggles to save his baseball team, help care for his grandfather, and avoid bullies in Tokushima, Japan, in this middle-grade novel. For Matsumoto Satoshi, his passion for baseball is the one thing he can count on to help him fit in at Tokushima Whirlpool Junior High School after growing up in Atlanta. It also connects him to Oji-chan, his grandfather, who is struggling with dementia but who still remembers vast amounts of baseball trivia. When Satoshi learns that his team might get cut if it fails to win a tournament, he becomes determined to help save it. But this isn't easy, especially since teammate Shintaro constantly finds reasons to harass him for his American habits. Satoshi's English teacher also singles him out in class, at one point hitting him with a notebook. Fearing further alienation, Satoshi pushes away Misa, a kind classmate whose mixed Japanese and American ancestry makes her a target of bullying, and he avoids the other English-speaking students. He also conceals his younger sister Momok's deafness and use of a wheelchair from his peers out of fear that he will be harassed--a concern that turns out to be justified. When a mistake in a game puts Satoshi's position on the team in question, he has to decide who and what really matters to him. Kamata (Indigo Girl, 2019, etc.) provides plenty of action-heavy baseball scenes for sports fans and includes details about the Japanese history and traditions of the game. At the same time, Satoshi's commitment to his grandfather and his anxieties about failing to conform are emotionally realistic and complex and will resonate with readers who are facing isolation in a new place. Passages about Momoko unfortunately focus more on what other people do to help her than on her individual voice. The characters are Japanese or part Japanese with the exception of one white American teacher. Bishop's (Great Grandpa Is Weird, 2016) intermittent manga-influenced, gray-tone illustrations deftly highlight action or emotion in key scenes, sometimes using multiple panels and comic-book dialogue; the style emphasizes the characters' youth. An engaging, sports-focused, family-driven Japanese spin on the new-kid-in-school narrative. --Kirkus Reviews --Journal

Author Information

Award-winning author Suzanne Kamata was born and raised in the United States, but has lived in Japan for more than half of her life. Suzanne raised two kids and now lives with her husband in Aizumi, Japan. Tracy Nishimura Bishop is a full-time illustrator with a passion for children's books. She has a degree in graphic design with a focus on animation and illustration. She lives in California.

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