Customer Reviews

The Year They Won: A Tale of the Boston Red Sox

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book made me want to spend all day playing with my friends again and dreaming up outrageous schemes. It made me want to lie in the grass and listen to cicadas in the trees, and bats cracking on balls.

Chock full of funny characters and scary chases through dark tunnels! Exciting behind the scenes glimpses at a Fenway Park we only dream about.
Made me smell the hot dogs. A kids book that grown-ups will love.

I knew I was going to like this book after just a couple of pages. The characters reminded me of my own childhood friends and the fun we had playing stickball and impersonating our heroes. The story was very creative (I was getting tired of reading recaps of the 2004 Red Sox season - this isn't one of them) and makes you want to grab your son or dad and go watch a game.

Can't wait to read more books by Purciello.

This is a lively and fun book about four friends (Jerry "Tags" Taglia, Peter "Capisce" Capiscio, Paul "Paulie" Beacon, and Paul's twin brother, Joe "Lights" Beacon) and the Boston Red Sox. The friends come up with a wild plan to steal the World Series of 2024 for the Sox, who haven't won the Series in twenty years. They spend their whole summer working on the Plan, but the Plan goes hilariously wrong! (Turns out that the boys are brave enough to face the cannibal in the sewer, but they're no match for an elderly security guard.)

What do a robotic umpire, the "Cleanerama," a button salesman, and the "World's Best Sausage" have in common? Not much, but they all come into play in this wacky and entertaining novel about buddies, baseball, and the Boston Red Sox. (Did I mention the cannibal in the sewer?)

One might describe this book as a wonderful Sox adventure. Gerard Purciello is an amazing author. I would read other books by Mr. Purciello. (However, the language could have been chosen more wisely for the displayed age group.) All and all, I loved THE YEAR THEY WON. It's a great book, not only for Red Sox fans, but for all baseball fans'well, maybe not Yankee fans (just kidding)!

By a Flamingnet Book Reviewer for www.flamingnet.com

This book took me back to my summer vacations and hanging out with the kids in the neighborhood. Summer vacation...We never wanted it to end...And this book has magically captured those childhood days.
It is just terrific!
I should also mention, that my son, a very reluctant reader loved it. As a parent in search of books for a young boy (he's 11) who doesn't like to read, I found The Year They Won to be a real winner!

Reviewed by Nick Gauvin (age 12) for Reader Views (8/07)


It's the year 2024, 20 years since your favorite baseball team (the Boston Red Sox) won the World Series, and you and your friends are worried that the 86-year Curse has once again settled on the Red Sox. So during the summer you and your friends (Peter "capisce" Capiscio, Joe "lights" and Paul "paulie" Beacon and you, Jerry "tags" Taglia) come up with a crazy plan to steal it for them. The Plan includes a new system of umpping called the "Cleanerama" which is controlled by cameras and sensors around and on the field called "the Brain," your dad who is a button salesman, a cannibal who lives in the sewer, and a hot dog.

Now let me tell you more about the characters. Capisce is twice the size of everyone else and is stronger than the rest. Lights is the fastest of all of them and is twins with paulie. Tags' dad is a button salesman and one day buys him a Louie Cardinale series glove (and by the way, he's his idol) and tells him to rub baby oil on it to help it squeeze easier. Then, about two weeks later, he and his friends get together and his friends are shocked by the glove. By that time, it is the second half of the season and the red sox are ten games ahead of everyone else and they think that even the Red Sox can't lose this lead.

Overall, I think that "The Year They Won" is an excellent book for anyone who likes baseball. Great job, Gerard Purciello!

Book received at no charge to Reader Views