Samurai Shortstop Book Report- Sawyer Reeves
Sawyer Reeves
Mrs. White
Honors World History
16 March, 2018
Samurai Shortstop by Alan Gratz
Main Characters-
Toyo Shimada- Toyo is the main character within this novel. He is a determined teeneager that is eager to find out information about what his family member(s) died for.
Sotaro Shimada- Sotaro is Toyo’s father and he is also his bushido trainer/coach. His motive for teaching Toyo bushido, the ways of the warrior, is so that Toyo will understand what his uncle died for and what his family lives for.
Futoshi- Futoshi is Toyo’s best friend throughout the story and he is also in the same room as Toyo. Futoshi is often witty and arrogant but he always happens to be there for Toyo when he needs it most.
Junzo- Junzo is an upperclassman at Ichiko and he is also the leader of the “storms” at the beginning of the novel (where the upperclassman beat up the lowerclassmen in the middle of the night). He is on Toyo’s baseball squad and he slowly starts to warm up to Toyo once he begins to get past his ego.
Koji- Koji is Toyo’s uncle who died early on in the novel and is also the one who begins an internal conflict within Toyo.
Main Conflict-
The main conflict within this story is an inner conflict within Toyo over his Uncle’s death as well as an inner conflict within Toyo to find peace and his inner samurai. One important action in this book that deals with this conflict is when Toyo’s father begins to teach him the ways of Bushido. This is a big step towards the direction of solving this conflict because it will teach him the reason why his uncle had to commit seppuku. Another important action is when Toyo must go to the place in which his uncle died and stay alone overnight, practicing the ways of the samurai. This is another big step for Toyo because it shows his beginning to overcome his fears and misunderstandings. Lastly, another big moment is when his father tells him that he is going to commit seppuku, just like his uncle did. This teaches Toyo the honor in this ceremony as well as the reasons to become a samurai and the reasons to leave this world in honor. (Another big action is when Toyo and his friends find their inner samurai through meditation.)
Quotes-
- “The warrior way is the twofold path of the brush and the sword.”- The importance of this quote is that it is the quote in which the samurai warriors lived by. I chose this quote because it is relevant to the time in which the samurai were beginning to lay down their swords, the time in which Samurai Shortstop was written, and pick up the pen which is equally as mighty as the sword.
- “The frog in the well never understands the ocean.”- The importance of this quote is that it represents the man who is ignorant and never understands anything other than what is going on his own world. I chose this quote because it is representative of the setting in which Toyo is placed. The people around him, especially Junzo, are ignorant and very consumed in their own world and own thoughts.
- “Follow the road behind the Emperor. We must build the world for Japan’s sake, heaven ordered Japan to achieve this great mission” Kingoro Hashimoto - This quote is important because it reveals the minds of Japanese people during the time in which Samurai Shortstop was written. I chose this quote because at the time, Japan was in a major economic, political, and social shift within their society. The Emperor of Japan was at the reign of this shift which is shown throughout Alan Gratz’s novel.
Historical Perspective-
- During the 1890s, the time in which this novel was written, the Emperor of Japan was Emperor Meiji. The significance of this character was that he was the one who transformed Japan from a feudal system into one of the greatest powers of the modern world. His ideas and movements are what led samurai of the time to commit seppuku because they were no longer needed due to the fact that the feudal system had fallen out of Japan’s government.
- In 1894-1895, just shortly after the time in which this book was written, Japan went to war with China. Japan was better equipped with military forces which led them to victory in just 9 months. The significance of this event is that the events happening in Japan in which Toyo lived lead to this war and it also meant that China ceded Taiwan and permitted Japan to trade on mainland.
- Just a year before the time in which this novel took place, Emperor Meiji adopted the Constitution of Empire of Japan. After the Meiji Restoration in 1868, Japan’s leaders sought to create a constitution that would define Japan as a capable, modern nation deserving of Western respect while preserving their own power. This was significant because this new system was just implemented when Toyo was lining in Ichiko in Japan.
Overall Success-
I believe that this was an overall success and I enjoyed reading it. It was a very fact-filled novel that was also a very relatable novel for me. I could relate to Toyo in the way that he was a teeneager in high school, he was a shortstop on the school baseball team, and he was constantly managing his time between school, baseball, and Bushido practice. Alan Gratz did a great job if incorporating the events that were going on in Japan at the time which contributed to the overall success of this book because it, in a way, takes the reader on a trip to the environment of Japan during the 1890s.
Author’s Facts and Statistics-
This author, Alan Gratz, did a very good job of incorporating factual events and settings of 1890 Japan. He made it to where the reader could experience 1890 Japan through the eyes of a teenager with just words on a page. Though he did not use many statistics in his work, his work was very fact-filled and attention grabbing. To be honest, there were not many statistic/numbers that were needed in this novel to improve its quality. Alan Gratz was born in Knoxville, Tennessee and he is the New York Times bestselling author of a number of novels for young readers. His first novel, Samurai Shortstop, was named one of the ALA’s 2007 Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults. He is the author of 14 novels. He was also rewarded Goodreads Choice Awards Best Middle Grade & Children's Award, and the Audie Award for Middle Grade.
Works Cited
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Meiji Constitution.” Encyclopædia Britannica,
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 30 Aug. 2011,
www.britannica.com/topic/Meiji-Constitution.
Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Meiji.” Encyclopædia Britannica,
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 4 Mar. 2016, www.britannica.com/biography/Meiji.
“Japan Profile - Timeline.” BBC News, BBC, 20 Feb. 2018,
www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-15219730.
Both of our books are alike because they both involve one of our characters looking for reasons or causes of why the things were happening.
ReplyDeleteOur books are alike in some ways. For example, your main character has to cope with a family death, just like my main character in my book.
ReplyDeleteBoth of our books relate to each other because of the challenges that our main characters had to face. Jackie Faber in my book, also had to try and find peace within herself after she lost a loved one.
ReplyDeleteOur books are pretty similar in a couple ways. Like your main character, mine also had to cope with a family death, but instead of her uncle, it was her mother. Both of our main characters had inner conflicts with themselves. Instead of finding her inner samurai, my character just struggled with finding herself after her mothers unfortunate death.
ReplyDeleteOur books are similar in the fact that the main character's are teenager's. Also both are characters are faced with death situatio s and overcoming that.
ReplyDeleteBoth of our books take place in Japan during the middle ages and are about the way of the samurai. They main characters both had to face death of someone they knew
ReplyDeleteOur books are similar because your main character was trained to be successful which was a momental point in your book, just like in mine when my character learned how to transform into a werewolf.
ReplyDeleteOur books are similar because both of our characters are teenagers that have a lot on their shoulders to get done. The difference between out books is that your book takes place in Japan while mine takes place in London.
ReplyDelete