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Brooklyn Dodgers #5
The Kid Comes Back
"Packs an extra quota of excitement and suspense. The slam-bang climax makes just the right finale for a grand baseball-and-adventure yarn."--New York Times. "Baseball fans will welcome a new book about a favorite character by a favorite writer of sports stories."--Horn Book.
245 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1946
6 people are currently reading
40 people want to read
About the author
John R. Tunis
47 books10 followersJohn Roberts Tunis "the 'inventor' of the modern sports story",was an American writer and broadcaster. Known for his juvenile sports novels, Tunis also wrote short stories and non-fiction, including a weekly sports column for the New Yorker magazine. As a commentator Tunis was part of the first trans-Atlantic sports cast and the first broadcast of the Wimbledon Tennis Tournament to the United States.
After graduating from Harvard and serving in the Army during World War I, Tunis began his writing career freelancing for American sports magazines while playing tennis in the Rivera. For the next two decades he wrote short stories and articles about sports and education for magazines including Reader's Digest, The Saturday Evening Post and Esquire.
Tunis' work often protested the increasing professionalization of sports in America. He believed that amateur participation in sports taught values important for good citizenship like perseverance, fair play and equality, and that the emphasis on professional sports was turning America into a country of spectators. His sports books also tackled current social issues such as antisemitism and racial equality.
Though Tunis never considered himself a children's writer, all but one of his twenty-four books were published for juveniles; their success helped create the juvenile fiction book market in the 1940s. Books like Iron Duke (1938), All American (1942) and Keystone Kids (1943) were well received by readers and critics. Iron Duke received the New York Herald Tribune Spring Book Festival Award for best juvenile novel and was named a The Horn Book Magazine Best Book. The Child Study Association of America gave its Golden Scroll Award to Keystone Kids.
In his tribute to the writer, Bernard Hayes said "Tunis has probably made good readers of millions of young people." His success with the juvenile audience helped change the publishing industry. Along with writers like Howard Pease, his books demonstrated to publishers that there was money to be made in targeting books for teenagers. His influence went beyond simply creating a market for young adult books. "In his attempt to link sports with the communities in which they are played, he broached some highly significant issues in the literature written for and about America's youth", according to John S. Simmons in John R. Tunis and the Sports Novels for Adolescents: A Little Ahead of His Time. Tunis never considered himself a writer of boys' books, insisting his stories could be read and enjoyed by adults. He felt that the word "juvenile" was an "odious... product of a merchandising age". Despite his dislike of the term, Tunis' novels helped create and shape the juvenile fiction book market.
After graduating from Harvard and serving in the Army during World War I, Tunis began his writing career freelancing for American sports magazines while playing tennis in the Rivera. For the next two decades he wrote short stories and articles about sports and education for magazines including Reader's Digest, The Saturday Evening Post and Esquire.
Tunis' work often protested the increasing professionalization of sports in America. He believed that amateur participation in sports taught values important for good citizenship like perseverance, fair play and equality, and that the emphasis on professional sports was turning America into a country of spectators. His sports books also tackled current social issues such as antisemitism and racial equality.
Though Tunis never considered himself a children's writer, all but one of his twenty-four books were published for juveniles; their success helped create the juvenile fiction book market in the 1940s. Books like Iron Duke (1938), All American (1942) and Keystone Kids (1943) were well received by readers and critics. Iron Duke received the New York Herald Tribune Spring Book Festival Award for best juvenile novel and was named a The Horn Book Magazine Best Book. The Child Study Association of America gave its Golden Scroll Award to Keystone Kids.
In his tribute to the writer, Bernard Hayes said "Tunis has probably made good readers of millions of young people." His success with the juvenile audience helped change the publishing industry. Along with writers like Howard Pease, his books demonstrated to publishers that there was money to be made in targeting books for teenagers. His influence went beyond simply creating a market for young adult books. "In his attempt to link sports with the communities in which they are played, he broached some highly significant issues in the literature written for and about America's youth", according to John S. Simmons in John R. Tunis and the Sports Novels for Adolescents: A Little Ahead of His Time. Tunis never considered himself a writer of boys' books, insisting his stories could be read and enjoyed by adults. He felt that the word "juvenile" was an "odious... product of a merchandising age". Despite his dislike of the term, Tunis' novels helped create and shape the juvenile fiction book market.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 25, 2020
You ever just . . . read something because it was there?
March 5, 2022
They just don't write them like John R. Tunis any more. I am revisiting books that I read as a child, books that not only entertained an only child, but taught him character through stories about the games he loved.
Some things in this book that's even older than me might be dated. But the important stuff never loses its relevance.
P.S. If you enjoy Tunis, treat yourself to the Chip Hilton books by Clair Bee.
Some things in this book that's even older than me might be dated. But the important stuff never loses its relevance.
P.S. If you enjoy Tunis, treat yourself to the Chip Hilton books by Clair Bee.
April 22, 2018
I don't believe that I've ever read anything John R. Tunis has written, but this is a good baseball yarn for kids and makes me want to search out the other books in the series.
October 27, 2020
I really liked this book and was surprised and interested that it began with WWII chapters scenes -- two of my favorite topics, baseball and WWII in one book. I want to read others in this series.
November 24, 2020
C. fiction, teen, WWII, sports, baseball, overcoming adversity, from stash, discard
October 27, 2009
Before I was aware that it was part of a series, I read Rookie of the Year. It's the story of the feckless rookie pitcher Bones Hathaway.
The I started to read the series in order. Keystone Kids also features Bones Hathaway, as someone who's on the team when ... oh never mind. Let's just say there's a Series Continuity Error that leads to what is nearly a Continuity Snarl (consult the TV Tropes wiki for more info), and knowing this makes reading these books a little ... Timey Wimey.
It's almost like Tunis is writing Alternate Continuities. That might be the best way to think of it. Anyway, this is a good and interesting story of how Roy Tucker (The Kid from Tomkinsville) comes back from serving as a tailgunner in Europe during World War II to play ball. (Think Rocky Bleier.) Unfortunately, toward the end it loses focus. And, I'm realizing, since Tunis has a tendency to end the book with his fictional Dodgers winning the pennant, it feels like an anticlimax. (I, as a person who was born in the second half of the 20th century, expect a baseball series like this to end with the World Series.)
The I started to read the series in order. Keystone Kids also features Bones Hathaway, as someone who's on the team when ... oh never mind. Let's just say there's a Series Continuity Error that leads to what is nearly a Continuity Snarl (consult the TV Tropes wiki for more info), and knowing this makes reading these books a little ... Timey Wimey.
It's almost like Tunis is writing Alternate Continuities. That might be the best way to think of it. Anyway, this is a good and interesting story of how Roy Tucker (The Kid from Tomkinsville) comes back from serving as a tailgunner in Europe during World War II to play ball. (Think Rocky Bleier.) Unfortunately, toward the end it loses focus. And, I'm realizing, since Tunis has a tendency to end the book with his fictional Dodgers winning the pennant, it feels like an anticlimax. (I, as a person who was born in the second half of the 20th century, expect a baseball series like this to end with the World Series.)
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December 19, 2008More nostalgia
January 13, 2012
I couldn't get into this book, but I think it's because fiction isn't my bag. If you dig baseball and WWII you'll prob like this.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews