You may know that there is a book reading competition in Oregon called Oregon Battle of the Books (OBOB). You have to read the 16 books assigned by OBOB, and remember some very specific details. Then, you and your team will have a battle against another team in which you see who can answer more “detail questions.” On my quest to read all the books, I stumbled upon Out Of Left Field by Ellen Klages. It was the third book in the series, about a girl named Katy (that uses the nickname Casey). She played baseball with the other boys. She was really good too. But she lived in San Francisco at a time where women baseball players were not accepted. So when she registered for Little League, she was rejected because she was female. However, they mentioned in the rejection letter that “[baseball] has always been the sole province of male athletes.” So, this sends Casey searching for a needle in a haystack, or in other words some professional women baseball players, while making a few friends along the way. The book is mostly wrapped around the idea that no matter how long it takes, inequality and injustice will be solved. This is helpful to remember in our hearts, especially for me, who at some points in life, just wants to break some rules like other kids. I watch kids who play video games when I study, and at some points, I wonder what I am missing out on, even though I know it is wrong. But, I always remember that in the end, I will get better grades, get a better education, get a better job, and turn out better. It also has an idea that no matter who you are, what you do, or what is your background, you are never alone. Casey found a network of females who felt the exact same way as her on baseball. I value these ideas and hope you will think well of them too. The book also has a very obvious motive of teaching us, the readers, that these women baseball players exist! I had never even heard of such a thing, and happy to support these characters in their route to fame. I also like how the author doesn’t mind adding some extra pages to talk about non-baseball related aspects of Casey’s life, like when she talked about the launch of Sputnik. Overall, I really liked the book for its morals, format, and plot. And if this book sounds appealing to you, look out for Out of Left Field by Ellen Klages in libraries and bookstores near you. Trust me. Your book will have a couple of creases by the time you put it down. Out of Left Field by Ellen Klages. Puffin Books, 2019. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process!
Book Reviews
Dan Bloom, Editor of The Cli-Fi Report, reviews “Three Days Till EOC” by Abhi Sukhdial
Stone Soup Editor’s note: We sent a copy of Three Days Till EOC by Abhimanyu Sukhdial, the winner of our 2019 book contest published in September 2020, to the (grand)father of cli-fi, Dan Bloom, in Taiwan. He wrote us a wonderful letter of recommendation which he has given us permission to publish on our website, since his own, cli-fi.net, is not currently being updated. SCI FI NOVELLA by 12 year old boy in Oklahoma gets rave review from 71-year-old book reviewer in Taiwan In a new 66-page science/climate fiction novella by a 12-year-old boy named Abhimanyu Sukhdial from Oklahoma, titled Three Days Till EOC, time is running out. “It is the year 2100 and water, the thing that matters to all life, is wiping out life itself. The ice sheets have melted, the Earth has passed its last cataclysmic tipping point, and now there are only three days until the ‘End of Civilization,'” as the notes on the back cover of this well-designed and easy-to-read novella tell us. “Climate scientist Graham Alison, one of the last 1,000 humans left on Earth, is racing against the odds to save the world before the last rescue shuttle leaves for the Mars colonies. Will he manage to persuade the leaders of the past to change their behavior so that the present can be different? Or will it be precious networks of family relationships across time and space that actually save humanity?” The publishers, Children’s Art Foundation–Stone Soup Inc., sent me a copy of his book by air-mail and although it took two months to arrive at my home in Taiwan during this global pandemic, it finally arrived last week and I immediately sat down to start reading it. I couldn’t stop. I couldn’t put the book down. It’s that’s good. It’s amazing that a 12-year-old boy in America could write such a well-plotted sci-fi story and get it published. You can order it via Amazon and other book ordering sites online. This is a science fiction book set in the future–some call it dystopian, although Abhi feels that such a label limits it to just a particular sub-genre. Among the people in the book: We meet the main character Graham Hart Alison and a cast of characters, including the first Indian-American U.S. president, Mr. Ram Singh who is in office in 2052. Teens and sci-fi geeks will love it, and so will YA readers and adults, too. Famous sci-fi writers like David Brin or Kim Stanley Robinson might even enjoy reading this book. It’s a novella that combines “science fiction” with “climate fiction” and I at the age of 71-going-on-72 enjoyed every single page. This is a young writer to watch! Signed – Dan Bloom, editor, The Cli-Fi Report www.cli-fi.net
Going Solo, Reviewed by Aarush, 12
I was given Going Solo when my family and I visited a family friend some time ago. Since they knew I like Roald Dahl books, they gave me his autobiography. Even though it was written by my favorite author, it took some time for me to read them for the first time. I regret that I didn’t do it sooner. This book is, as you would expect, about Roald Dahl when he was a young adult. The book starts with Dahl on a boat to Africa. Right before this, he decided that he wanted to work for Shell because he wanted to see the world. Shell being the gas company. However, his plans get interrupted by war: World War II. In his words, “A life is made up of a great number of small incidents and a small number of great ones.” The book detailed many other things as well like the eccentricity of the people around him and other interesting bits of life. Some examples include the snake man, an Englishman (in Africa) who can catch snakes, a stray lion, and a moment in war he described as a piece of cake: firmly strapped into the cockpit of his Gladiator with a fractured skull and a bashed-in face and a fuzzy mind while the crashed plane was going up in flames on the sand of the western desert. This book was very easy to connect to because even though it was the story of his life, it was like reading fiction, not because it wasn’t believable but rather because it was so easy to understand. I then wonder whether his books were that good because life sure was. This book was quite the page turner and if you decide to read it, I hope you think so, too. One thing I liked about the book with that road all included maps of where he went, which works well with the book since he traveled a lot because of the war. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to see a different perspective of World War II. If you want to have a look through the window into Roald Dahl’s life read his autobiography, illustrated by Quentin Blake to find out more. Going Solo by Roald Dahl. Puffin Books, 1986. Buy the book here and support Stone Soup in the process!
