The Prince of Fenway Park

May 1, 2009
Gr 5-7-To baseball fans, "The Curse" means only one thing: the Red Sox's 86-year-long failure to win a World Series because their owner sold a young Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1919. Working from the brilliant premise that an enraged half-elven fan actually did curse the team, Baggott populates tunnels and back rooms around Fenway Park with a cast of magical creatures from the Banshee ("The Lost Soul of the Lost and Found") to a two-headed sportscaster named The Bobsand sends into their midst 12-year-old Oscar Egg, a human child destined to break The Curse at last. Baseball is, however, only the context here; the story is really about racism, as exemplified both in Oscar's ruminations over his own mixed ancestry and in what he knows or discovers about the Sox's (and Major League Baseball's) dismal historical reluctance to break the color line. Traveling into the past, Oscar gathers up 12-year-old versions of Babe Ruth, Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams, Willie Mays and other stars for a climactic game against the less-worthy likes of Ty Cobb, Gaylord Perry, and Pete Rose at the same age. Before stands filled with the ghosts of taunting bigots and cheering supporters, that game plays out in tandem with the classic 2004 contest that turned the Yankees-Red Sox playoffs, and the Curse, around. Both whimsical and provocative (the "N" word crops up in some historical references), this story will engage readers who like clever tales, and also those who enjoy chewing over controversial themes."John Peters, New York Public Library"

Copyright 2009 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2009
A banshee, a pooka, and some fairies help (and hinder) main character Oscar as he time-travels, recruiting long-dead baseballers to play a shadow game that affects real life. Baggott's conflation of the Boston Red Sox's curse-breaking 2004 win with a fantastical renunciation of racism in Major League Baseball may be embraced by Sox fans, but it's too confusing to satisfy other mortals.

(Copyright 2009 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

May 15, 2009
Grades 5-8 While cursed creatures of Fenway Park might conjure up an image of pre2004 World Series Red Sox fans, the cursed creatures in Baggotts novel actually live in the underbelly of the famous ballpark. Oscar, a biracial adoptee and serious baseball fan, is stunned to find out that his father lives among them.In awritten curse it is explained that theres only one person who can break it, and if he doesnt succeed then the creatures and the Red Sox will remain cursed forever. With the aid of a door to the past, mythical Celtic creatures, and 12-year-old versions of baseballs greatest players, Oscar proves he is the one. Readers not paying attention might be startledas this absorbing sports romp quickly becomes a fantasy novel. In another nice twist, race figures prominently in this book, and in her authors note, Baggott attempts to explain her use of the n-word, refusing to sanitize the racist behaviors of baseballs past. This bookoffers an intriguing angle to spark discussions on that history.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2009, American Library Association.)