The Prince of Fenway Park [Hardcover]

Julianna Baggott (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 24, 2009 | Age Level: 8 and up | Grade Level: 4 and up

It's been eighty-six years since the Red Sox won a World Series. Eighty-six years cursed.

Twelve-year-old Oscar Egg be-lieves he is cursed, just like the Red Sox. His real parents didn't want him, and now his adopted mom has dumped him off to live with his strange, sickly dad.

But there's something Oscar doesn't know. The Boston Red Sox really are cursed, and not just because they sold Babe Ruth in 1919. Someone deliberately jinxed the team, and the secret to breaking the Curse lies deep below Fenway Park, with Oscar's dad and the Cursed Creatures, a group that has been doomed to live out their miserable lives below Fenway until the Curse is broken.

Oscar knows he can be the one to break the Curse, allowing the Red Sox to finally win the World Series and setting the Cursed Creatures free. But some of the creatures are angry. Some don't want the Curse broken. Some want Oscar, and the Red Sox, to fail and remain cursed forever.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 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 Bobs—and 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
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Review

“Offers an intriguing angle to spark discussions” (ALA Booklist )

“Both whimsical and provocative” (School Library Journal )

“Young sports fans will revel in Baggott’s underworld…[and] will dig their cleats in for a thoroughly involving tale.” (Kirkus Reviews )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 8 and up
  
• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins (March 24, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006087242X
• ISBN-13: 978-0060872427
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #785,606 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Critically acclaimed, bestselling author, Julianna Baggott -- who also writes under the pen names Bridget Asher (The Provence Cure for the Brokenhearted) and N.E. Bode (The Anybodies) -- has published 17 books, including novels for adults, younger readers, and collections of poetry. Her latest novel, PURE, is the first of a trilogy; film rights have sold to Fox2000 -- www.pure-book.com. Her work has appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Best American Poetry, Best Creative Nonfiction, Real Simple, on NPR.org, as well as read on NPR's "Talk of the Nation" and "Here and Now." Her novels have been book-pick selections by People Magazine's summer reading, Washington Post book-of-the-week, a Booksense selection, a Boston Herald Book Club selection, and a Kirkus Best Books of the Year list. Her novels have been published in over 50 overseas editions. She's a professor in the Creative Writing Program at Florida State University and the founder of the nonprofit Kids in Need - Books in Deed. For more, visit www.juliannabaggott.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must for baseball fans, April 8, 2009

By 

Nutty "Sawx Fan" (Portland, OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Prince of Fenway Park (Hardcover)

In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that I've been a Red Sox fan my whole life, which is why I picked up the book.
The path that the protagonist takes, a mixed-race adopted child of what turns out to be a mixed-race (though not how you'd expect) parents goes from our reality to the fantasy world of Irish folklore to be entwined with baseball history and then back to our present reality.
Although this book is targeted at young adults (Oscar, the title-character has his 12th birthday during the course of the story), the book deals with issues that anyone with a love for the game and a respect for its history will understand as central to the game's importance in American history.
And then there's a baseball game of 12-year-old greats and how cool is that!

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Kids' Baseball book...A must read!, April 4, 2009

By 

floridaminnie "teacher...mommy" (Tampa, Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Prince of Fenway Park (Hardcover)

I'm a Tampa Bay Ray's fan here and was a little hesitate about a tween book that promotes the Red Socks. The story begins with a orphan, Oscar that just does not fit in at school or at home. He finally finds a "home" after being deserted and unwated once more and discovers that he has gift. He could be the one to break the curse. This book continues with Jullianna Baggott's aka N.E. Bode's style of writing. There are twists and turns with magical creatures that live underneath Fenway Park. There is a battle between good and evil to release the curse. Some history is also sprinkled in. Overall a must read for those that enjoy a baseball adventure and root for the underdog!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great read for fans, July 9, 2009

By 

C. Junco (San Antonio, TX USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Prince of Fenway Park (Hardcover)

As a lifelong baseball fan, and in particular, as a Red Sox fan, I thoroughly enjoyed The Prince of Fenway Park. It was a wonderful mix of fantasy, family relationships, and baseball. I was especially pleased that the author directly addressed the issue of race within the Red Sox organization. It's almost never talked about, but deserves to be. I plan to read it to my class this year, and use it as a springboard for discussions about America's problem dealing with race.