“Toyo watched carefully as his uncle prepared to kill himself.” From an opening sentence that commands full attention, readers are plunged into a story of cultural change, peer pressure, a faltering father-son relationship, and baseball. In 1890 Japan was in the Meiji Restoration period, transitioning from a feudal society to an industrial nation. Samurai struggled to find a place within this rapidly evolving culture. Fifteen-year-old Toyo is from a family of samurai, and he is both honored and horrified to watch his Uncle Koji commit seppuku . Permission for this ritual suicide has been granted by the emperor for Koji’s participation in a samurai uprising, as an honorable alternative to execution. Toyo fears his father’s seppuku will be next, and that anxiety is compounded by his entry into a prestigious boarding school, where violent hazing is a tradition endured by all first-year students. Toyo’s love of (and skill for) the emerging sport of baseball helps sustain him during this difficult time. Compelling sports scenes are deftly balanced with Toyo’s school and family life, combining into a finely crafted historical novel. A welcome note at the conclusion provides additional insight into the evolution of baseball in Japan, as well as the author’s choices in writing a historical novel that will resonate with contemporary teens. (Ages 13–16)

Tokyo, 1890. Toyo is caught up in the competitive world of boarding school, and must prove himself to make the team in a new sport called besuboru. But he grieves for his uncle, a samurai who sacrificed himself for his beliefs, at a time when most of Japan is eager to shed ancient traditions. It's only when his father decides to teach him the way of the samurai that Toyo grows to better understand his uncle and father. And to his surprise, the warrior training guides him to excel at baseball, a sport his father despises as yet another modern Western menace. Toyo searches desperately for a way to prove there is a place for his family's samurai values in modern Japan. Baseball might just be the answer, but will his father ever accept a Western game that stands for everything he despises?