Characters: “I” - Emma, Jamal, Nikki, Brother Greg
Setting: Spring
Plot: Emma wants to play as a shortstop in her baseball team but her friend, Jamal, wants to be a shortstop too.
Perspective: First person viewpoint.
Genre: Realistic Fiction
The story “There Is Nothing Like Baseball” was written by Angela Johnson and illustrated by Eric Velaquez. The story talks about a girl named Emma who was born in a baseball family and unsurprisingly she loves to play baseball. She can even see and smell and touch it when she is not playing. She plays in a baseball team named “Rex’s House of Fins” and it is sponsored by Rex and his wife Sophie. They believe that players should try their best and also that everybody gets to play. Emma’s friend, Jamal, is in her team too. She got her baseball uniform and Emma was looking in the mirror admiring it. But the problem came when it was time to do tryouts, Emma wanted to be the shortstop and Jamal wanted to be it too. So, it was the tryouts and there were three people competing for the shortstop spot it was Emma, Jamal and Nikki. Everyone was exhausted and the results came. The person who will play shortstop is … Nikki! Emma and Jamal walked home and they were all happy and Emma was thinking that there was nothing like baseball.
First, I learnt from the book that friends and happiness are more important than baseball and mostly anything. Any sport like basketball, football, hockey and more uses teamwork and from teamwork you can expand on friendship, trust ,caringness and cooperation. If you know how to use teamwork and cooperate then you will enjoy it more and you will be more likely to win. In the story Emma and Jamal were competing and Emma was feeling bad because in her dream she was happy but Jamal was not. Emma does not want to make her friend, Jamal, feel bad. But eventually Emma’s other friend , Nikki, won but neither Emma nor Jamal was jealous about Nikki and they continued to be friends without interruption. In the story Emma and Jamal both lost and Nikki won but they were still friends. From this we can understand that friendship is more important than winning or losing. Furthermore we can learn that friendship and happiness is important because if we don’t have friendship then we don’t have friends and if we don't have friends there will be no one to support you.
Second, I believe that in sports we should try our best and also that everybody gets to play even if he or she is not good at it. If we all try our best in a team sport it can bring lots of things to us, not just victory. It can bring us enjoyment, we can learn how to be a team, we also need good sportsmanship and more. In the story Rex and Sophie who are the sponsors of Emma's team they believe that every player no matter who is playing or what sport they are playing they should all try their best. Rex and Sophie also cheer for every one no matter how good they play. It is vital to always try our best in no matter what situation and when. Everybody gets to play and enjoy their time. We should cheer them on, not mock at them and make them feel bad. From this we can learn that we always need to try our best and no matter what and we also can and enjoy and have lots of fun with the process of trying anything. The real reason to try anything is not the result but the process, the process is where you really learn and enjoy but the result is merely just a portion of what you leant.
Last but not least, I learnt some writing skills from this author, Angela Johnson. The writing skills that I learnt is how to use the five senses in a sentence and how to make long sentences. Long sentences are more beautiful than shorter ones; it can also make sentences more vivid and intriguing and it can make the readers imagine pictures inside their head. In the book it says “Baseball was coming when the tulips in the park poked through the ground.” The author does not tell us directly what the season’s name is but the reader can infer from the beautiful descriptions that it was Spring. One of the main things that tells us that it was Spring was that the tulips poked through the ground. The author uses the five senses of the body to express Emma’s feelings. When Emma feels fantastic the author says that she can smell the freshly cut grass and she can also hear the satisfying sound of the bats rattling against each other. But when Emma is worried about her friend's feelings, the author says the grass doesn't smell as good and the sound of bats did not make her smile. All the sentences point to one meaning and that meaning is that Emma loves baseball. It describes it but it never uses like or love. The author uses indirect description because it can draw readers in and it can create pictures in their head. Indirect descriptions also make sentences more vivid and intriguing.
In conclusion, this story tells us that friendship and happiness is more important than anything because friends can help and support you in the future. Also, in sports we should all remember two things, we should all try our best no matter if it is sports or something we do. And we should enjoy and in the process of trying anything. Last but not least, the writing skills that I learnt from the author is the use of the five senses and long sentences. We can use the five senses to give further detail to the reader and to make the reader imagine a picture in his or her mind. Long sentences also can describe more things and the more things you describe the more easily the reader can imagine it. We should use these fantastic writing skills in everyday writing. And I am very happy to share this book with you and it will be great to share it with everyone else like I am right now.
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