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Brooklyn Dodgers #8
Schoolboy Johnson
Baseball veteran of nineteen years returns for his last season and finds club's chances for a pennant depend on a tempermental rookie.
This is another sports book that will bring the boys and girls into home with delight. "Baseball fans will welcome a new major-league story, marked by tense action and authentic diamond atmosphere from a long-established sports writer".--Booklist.
This is another sports book that will bring the boys and girls into home with delight. "Baseball fans will welcome a new major-league story, marked by tense action and authentic diamond atmosphere from a long-established sports writer".--Booklist.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1958
20 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 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 12, 2025
The setting is the Brooklyn Dodgers team created by Tunis where Spike Russell is the manager. The years have passed where Jocko Conlon is gone, and Roy Tucker is an aging ballplayer trying to rejoin the Dodgers. Speedy Mason is a pitcher that is also trying to make it back to the big leagues and he is put in charge of the young hotshot pitcher named Schoolboy Johnson.
Johnson is very talented, but he has an unsettled nature, blaming everyone but himself when things don’t go well. In his mind, his fielders should snag every ball that is hit, and he makes no bad pitches. Once his temper arises, he is almost useless on the mound. Meanwhile, Speedy is given Johnson as a roommate with the hope that Speedy will be able to tame the wild streak in Johnson.
At first it does not go well but using a plot device that is rarely used in sports fiction, Tunis manages to find a way to tame the wild Johnson. That device is the introduction of a female character that sees through Johnson’s antics and speaks to him in ways that makes Johnson rethink his negative attitude towards others. To make the plot more interesting, the woman has a close link with the Dodgers.
While there is the backdrop of baseball, this story is just as much about the young and rising star discovering the reality of the concept of a team and playing within their abilities. It is a sound lesson that encapsulates the up-and-coming with sound veterans that work to hold the club together through the challenges of a pennant race.
Johnson is very talented, but he has an unsettled nature, blaming everyone but himself when things don’t go well. In his mind, his fielders should snag every ball that is hit, and he makes no bad pitches. Once his temper arises, he is almost useless on the mound. Meanwhile, Speedy is given Johnson as a roommate with the hope that Speedy will be able to tame the wild streak in Johnson.
At first it does not go well but using a plot device that is rarely used in sports fiction, Tunis manages to find a way to tame the wild Johnson. That device is the introduction of a female character that sees through Johnson’s antics and speaks to him in ways that makes Johnson rethink his negative attitude towards others. To make the plot more interesting, the woman has a close link with the Dodgers.
While there is the backdrop of baseball, this story is just as much about the young and rising star discovering the reality of the concept of a team and playing within their abilities. It is a sound lesson that encapsulates the up-and-coming with sound veterans that work to hold the club together through the challenges of a pennant race.
December 2, 2018
Another solid entry to end the Brooklyn Dodgers series.I enjoyed it, even if John Tunis has used this theme quite a few times before.
October 29, 2009
The last book in this series; the last hurrah for veteran Roy Tucker, and the coming out party for the brash busher title character. The Kid from Tompkinsville's daughter is old enough to take a romantic interest in the Schoolboy, and Dave Leonard makes a brief appearance at the beginning. (Leonard may have been my favorite character in The Kid from Tomkinsville. But anyway.) Not as strong as some of the other books, but not a bad read.
January 24, 2011
Deja vu all over again. Another rookie. Another pig headed rookie. Another pig headed rookie who has to learn to in order to play better rather than just depending on raw talent. Schoolboy Johnson is a rookie pitcher, pretty much filled with himself. By this point in the series, Tunis has worn this theme a little out. Still, well written and engaging. . . .
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews