About Bat 6

Bat 6 by Virginia Euwer Wolff

Oregon Reads 2009

Since the turn of the century, two rival Oregon farm communities have put their differences behind them and come together once a year to watch their sixth-grade girls’ teams play softball.

In the spring of 1949, the “50-year girls” excitedly anticipate their moment of glory. Bat 6 is their story, reconstructed just after it happened. The narrative is comprised of firsthand reporting from girls on both sides.

cover, Bat 6

This year, each team has a ringer. For the Bear Creek Ridge Mountaineers, it’s Japanese-American firstbaseman Aki, whose family has just moved back to the community after spending most of the war years in an internment camp. The Barlow Pioneers’ marvel is their center fielder who calls herself Shazam, a troubled youngster who does everything, except her schoolwork, with an unsettling, single-minded intensity. Her father was killed at Pearl Harbor and she has maintained a deep-seeded hatred of the Japanese ever since.

In the book’s pivotal scene, Shazam violently attacks Aki during the big game, and play (and time itself, for that matter) is suspended.

The period details and use of the vernacular are right on the money and always reflect the adolescent female point of view. At some point comes the liberating realization that it isn’t necessary to keep the multiple voices straight and that the well-crafted account has taken on a life of its own.

Wolff delves into the irreversible consequences of war and the necessity to cultivate peace and speaks volumes about courage, responsibility, and reconciliation — all in a book about softball.
—Luann Toth, School Library Journal

Other novels by Virginia Euwer Wolff