Baseball Saved Us is written by Ken Mochizuki and is illustrated by Dom Lee.
Baseball Saved Us is a story about a boy who was forced to go to an internment camp with his family during WWII. A young boy is sent to an internment camp during WWII because he and his family are Japanese-American. Many families are held here during the war because the government did not trust that they would be loyal to the United States. Life was turned upside down for these families, they could not work or do any of the activities they were use to. One young boy's father decides to make a baseball diamond in the camp so his son and others could regain some sort of normalcy. The boy is not very popular before he goes to the camp and is not very good at baseball. He is never given a chance since he is shorter than most boys his age. While in the camp he is among boys that are mostly the same size. They let him play ball, and he surprises them when he hits a homerun. After the people were let out of the internment camps the young boy has more confidence in his ball playing skills. Blocking out the racist chants he hit another homerun and proved himself to his peers on the outside.
This book is a good way to show how people were discriminated against during the World Wars. It shows that people strive for normalcy in adverse situations. Setting up a baseball field and playing the game probably made life bearable for the people who were confined unjustly. This book also illustrates that a whole community can rally together and help each other.
