The Forbidden Temptation of Baseball

Dori Jones Yang

• Publisher: SparkPress
• eBook ISBN:
  9781943006335
• Year: 2017

A Chinese boy struggles to adapt to American life—and discovers baseball. Despite his impulsive and curious nature, twelve-year-old Leon is determined to follow the Emperor’s rules—to live with an American family, study hard, and return home to modernize China. But he also must keep the braid that shows his loyalty—and resist such forbidden American temptations as baseball. As Leon overcomes teasing and makes friends, his elder brother becomes increasingly alienated. Eventually, Leon faces a tough decision, torn between his loyalty to his birth country—and his growing love for his new home. The Forbidden Temptation of Baseball is a lively, poignant, and nuanced novel based on a little-known episode from history, when 120 boys were sent to New England by the Emperor of China in the 1870s. This story dramatizes both the rigid expectations and the wrenching alienation felt by many foreign children in America today—and richly captures that tension between love and hate that is culture shock. It gives American readers a glimpse into what it feels like to be a foreigner in the United States and will spark thoughtful discussions.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Chapter One: Can This Be America?
• Chapter Two: Arrival Disaster
• Chapter Three: Suffield Sport
• Chapter Four: American Home
• Chapter Five: First Impressions
• Chapter Six: Object Lessons
• Chapter Seven: Sunday Sneers
• Chapter Eight: Chinese Boy in America
• Chapter Nine: Sickness and Ghosts
• Chapter Ten: Oh, Christmas Tree
• Chapter Eleven: Christmas Eve Surprise
• Chapter Twelve: Hell House
• Chapter Thirteen: New Year Celebration
• Chapter Fourteen: Consequences
• Chapter Fifteen: A Ray of Hope
• Chapter Sixteen: Spring Training
• Chapter Seventeen: The Redheaded Rascal
• Chapter Eighteen: Playing for Real
• Chapter Nineteen: A Good Scrubbing
• Chapter Twenty: Clouds and Rain
• Chapter Twenty-One: Howling
• Chapter Twenty-Two: Doing Good
• Chapter Twenty-Three: Changes Underfoot
• Chapter Twenty-Four: Proposals
• Chapter Twenty-Five: Summer Heat, Dark Clouds
• Chapter Twenty-Six: The Centennial Exhibition
• Chapter Twenty-Seven: Over the Edge
• Chapter Twenty-Eight: More Consequences
• Chapter Twenty-Nine: Good News, Bad News
• Chapter Thirty: Elder Brother
• Chapter Thirty-One: Leon Decides
• Chapter Thirty-Two: Good-Bye
• Chapter Thirty-Three: The Play-Offs
• Epilogue
• Resources
• Acknowledgments
• Questions for Classroom Discussion
• Fun Facts
• About the Author
• About SparkPress