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    Barbed Wire Baseball
    Barbed Wire Baseball
    Barbed Wire Baseball
    Audiobook17 minutes

    Barbed Wire Baseball

    Written by Marissa Moss and Yuko Shimizu

    Narrated by Brian Nishii

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Barbed Wire Baseball tells the awe-inspiring tale of Kenichi “Zeni” Zenimura, who never gave up hope or let go of a dream. As a young boy in Hawaii, Zeni knew that he wanted to be a baseball player, even though most people thought he was too
    small to play. As he grew older, his parents suggested other careers for him, like medicine or law. But Zeni kept playing baseball and grew up to be a successful player and manager, eventually playing in games with baseball legends Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.

    But after the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941, Zeni, his wife, and their two sons, along with more than 100,000 other American citizens of Japanese descent, were sent to internment camps in the American Midwest and West. They were
    imprisoned not for any wrongdoing but simply because of their ancestry.

    At the Gila River War Relocation Center in Arizona, Zeni did not allow his situation to overcome him. Instead, with his sons and friends, he built a baseball field that gave all the imprisoned a sense of pride and hope for the future.

    The life of Kenichi Zenimura, who was later named the father of Japanese American baseball, offers an inspiring true story from a little discussed segment of American history.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateMay 10, 2022
    ISBN9781705069219
    Author

    Marissa Moss

    Marissa Moss is the award-winning author-illustrator of more than 75 books, from picture books to middle-grade to graphic novels. She is best known for the Amelia's Notebook series, which has sold millions of copies. She lives in California.

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    Reviews for Barbed Wire Baseball

    4/5

    21 ratings3 reviews

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    • 4/5
      A hard to find biography retelling the struggle of a Zeni, an American detained in an internment camp during WWII, this book tells the story of Zeni's quest to return to professional baseball. Illustrations from a variety of angles let the reader feel like they are part of the story, Light also plays a role in the illustrations. Barbed wire cannot restrict the freedom he feels when he plays. Finding ways to bring joy into bad situations is one of many lessons children will earn from this book.
    • 4/5
      Author Marissa Moss and illustrator Yuko Shimizu tell the story of Kenichi "Zeni" Zenimura, a Japanese-American baseball player and team manager in this poignant and inspirational picture-book biography. Having loved the sport since he was an eight-year-old boy, when he saw his first game, Zeni grew up to play the sport, becoming a champion in California's Japanese-American leagues during the 1920s and 30s. He played with Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth in exhibition games, and took the latter on a baseball exhibition tour of Japan. But when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, everything changed. Zeni was sent, along with his family and more than 100,000 other Americans of Japanese descent, to an internment camp for the duration of World War II. Here, at Gila River War Relocation Center, he spearheaded a movement to build a baseball diamond, organizing the camp inmates into teams, and starting a camp league. Taking part in "America's Pastime" helped these wrongfully imprisoned citizens to feel free, even if only for a short time, and made them feel like they belonged in their own country. The book concludes with a detailed afterword about Zenimura, with an author's note, illustrator's note, bibliography and index...I initially sought out Barbed Wire Baseball (which gained the sub-title "How One Man Brought Hope to the Japanese Internment Camps of WWII" in its paperback edition) after reading and enjoying The Cat Man of Aleppo, a title chosen earlier this year (2021) as a Caldecott Honor book. I was impressed to learn that The Cat Man of Aleppo was only expatriate Japanese illustrator Yuko Shimizu's second picture-book, and, finding the artwork in it so striking and appealing, decided to track down this first book she illustrated. I'm so glad I did, as I found both story and artwork here immensely appealing. The true story of Zenimura's actions, in building and managing a baseball league inside the internment camp, reminded me of the similar but fictional narrative in Ken Mochizuki's Baseball Saved Us, which I read years ago. Apparently there is a documentary about Zenimura, "Diamonds in the Rough: Zeni and the Legacy of Japanese-American Baseball," that includes the testimony of actor Pat Morita (of Karate Kid fame), who was also an internee at Gila River. I will have to see if I can track that down and watch it. In any case, I highly recommend this one to picture-book readers looking for baseball stories, stories of the internment of Japanese-Americans during WWII, or tales of inspirational people who, no matter how terrible the circumstance, never give up.
    • 5/5
      Great story and superb illustrations. See also Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki and Dom Lee.