Retrato do autor

John R. Tunis (1889–1975)

Autor(a) de The Kid from Tomkinsville

32+ Works 1,272 Membros 8 Críticas 2 Favorited

About the Author

Séries

Obras por John R. Tunis

The Kid from Tomkinsville (1940) 253 exemplares
Keystone Kids (1943) 120 exemplares
The Kid Comes Back (1946) 98 exemplares
Silence Over Dunkerque (1962) 88 exemplares
Highpockets (1948) 72 exemplares
Schoolboy Johnson (1958) 52 exemplares
Young Razzle (1949) 44 exemplares
Go, Team, Go! (1964) 41 exemplares
Iron Duke (1966) 34 exemplares
Champion's Choice (1874) 30 exemplares
His Enemy, His Friend (1967) 23 exemplares
Duke Decides (Odyssey Classic) (1939) 20 exemplares
All-American (1942) 16 exemplares

Associated Works

The Young Folks' Shelf of Books, Volume 09: Call of Adventure (1900) — Contribuidor — 152 exemplares

Etiquetado

Conhecimento Comum

Nome canónico
Tunis, John R.
Nome legal
Tunis, John Roberts
Data de nascimento
1889-12-07
Data de falecimento
1975-02-04
Sexo
male
Nacionalidade
USA
Local de nascimento
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Local de falecimento
Essex, Connecticut, USA
Educação
Harvard University
Boston University (Law School)

Membros

Críticas

There’s a fair amount of the generalized negativity of American guys in the 1940s, although nothing that rises to the level of a scandal, not the way it’s written—if there was, it got clipped out, you know. (In one of two possible ways, by the editors, or, probably, by the author. Or, occasionally, neither. A “Chinese home run”? What’s that, you ask, Virginia? Well, a long time ago, wise men passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, but a little boy named Home Run, from Hong Kong….) So I guess in that sense it’s a sort of respectful. (It’s generally not intentionally disrespectful, anyway.) I guess that is a sort of accomplishment for 1940; even today baseball and sports guys often like to mouth off about all sorts of things and sometimes get carried away. But it’s not like it’s the best book I’ve ever read either, or the best, you know, entertainment book, right. Entertainment books per se aren’t worse than lit-style ones, but sometimes one’s not as fun as another, of course.

…. But it’s not a bad book; I wouldn’t call it bad….

Boy finds baseball. Boy loses baseball. Boy gets baseball back. I wouldn’t call it bad.

Of course, I probably won’t read the rest of the series, since baseball and the Forties both really aren’t the centerpiece type of thing on my mental table, you know. But sports stories can be interesting. It bridges the gap between the constructed world of (say) baseball, and…. Well, whatever the rest of it is, you know. Is it a natural world, that we live in? Is it constructed, and we forgot?…. Not that you’ll get that in a baseball book, you know: The Book of the American Boy, right….. But yeah, I know I started this book as a child, but I don’t think I ever finished. Then, I’d rather stay in the world-of-baseball proper, say by playing a baseball video game—which is the mental, if not the physical, world of baseball proper, you know, and not about the (metaphorical) port city where you meet the rest of life. Any novel gives you that latter aspect, the constructed/sport aspect meets the non-sport, and as a child I wanted very little of what perhaps it is not such a bad thing to call real life. Even when I watched, say, the movie ‘The Natural’—of course a child cannot know a man’s love life beyond a certain extent, anymore than I can know what it’s like to grow up in Wales, but a child open to experience probably can figure out, if they’re nine or ten and not three or four, that something other than a man hitting a ball with a stick is going on, but as a child I was afraid of life, you know. A sports story of any decade, watched openly and with a minimum of disrespect, will give you that aspect of ‘the rest of life’ in a way that a video game, or anything within and only within the mental (constructed) world of sport and nothing else, clearly doesn’t, you know.

…. The writer doesn’t create the social world he reports on, but it is funny how men, both now and certainly back then, socialized by saying that other men weren’t good enough, right.

Still, there’s the odd interlude with some wise old mentor, of course.

…. It is kinda a how-one-boy-makes-a-difference (for the collective!) type story, though, and has little to do with his ‘civilian’ life. I guess sports is right there on the edge of the whole civilian thing, sometimes.

But yeah: it is a story about rather hairy men, but it is still kinda cute, in the end. Hirsute-cuties. 😉 ….

Which I guess is me, sometimes. I don’t wait to shave until people start to make fun of me, anymore, but to look 100% your best, every day, that’s just—wasted energy….

Ok.
… (mais)
 
Assinalado
goosecap | 3 outras críticas | Dec 27, 2023 |
5649. Silence Over Dunkerque, by John R. Tunis (read 11 Sep 2019) Well, I think this is juvenile fiction and there are many not too credible things in the story but, old though I am, I found it quite readable and enjoyable. Two British soldiers are trapped in Dunkerque and when they (and a dog who has attached itself to them) finally get aboard a British ship it hits a mine and they end up back in France where they meet amazing people. And lo and behold the dog has survived the blown up ship as well (we are never told how) and doggedly stays with them. They have many harrowing adventures and I was amazed to find the ending most poignant. A fun to read story, even for an adult, especially if you insist the dog must survive in a good adventure story..… (mais)
½
2 vote
Assinalado
Schmerguls | 2 outras críticas | Sep 11, 2019 |
A very exciting story about the Dunkirk evacuation and its aftermath. Laudably, it even has a female protagonist, a young Frenchwoman whose courage makes possible the escape of two British infantrymen trapped in occupied France. She insists that it's what any "Scout" would do. I don't want to quibble about the author's research, or perhaps it was an editor's blatant error, nor do I know anything about Guiding and Scouting in France, but when Sergeant Williams recalls his own daughter wearing her "Scout uniform", that cannot be attributed to Gisele's difficulty with English. No. Queen Elizabeth and Princess Margaret were Guides, and the British organization has been called Girl Guides since its formal inception. It made me wonder if the rest of the book was any more accurate and factual. It seemed authentic, but I don't know.… (mais)
½
1 vote
Assinalado
muumi | 2 outras críticas | Feb 25, 2019 |
This is the third and, as far as I know, final installment of this classis YA trilogy about Roy Tucker, ballplayer on the Brooklyn Dodgers of the 1940s. The first book, [The Kid from Tompkinsville], shows us Tucker's growth from a wet behind the ears youngster from a Connecticut farming town to a major leaguer. There are many of hard knocks along the way for young Roy, lots of adversity to overcome. Along the way, there's lot of exciting baseall described, as well. The second book, [World Series], takes Tucker and the Dodgers through an exciting fall classic.

The Kid Comes Back may well be the darkest of the three books. The first two were written in 1941, with WWII still a cloud looming on the horizon for America. This third book was written in 1946, and where the Kid comes back from is several years of hazardous and harrowing combat duty, some of which is described quite excitingly in the first third of the book. The next third of the book is the Kid trying to overcome a painful war injury. Finally we get Roy back on the field, where the problems of the ballplayers returning from the war that's interrupted their careers is explored somewhat. But now, also, we get back to baseball, and the tumult of a difficult multi-team pennant race.

These are, as I said, YA books. None of the characters, including Tucker, are drawn very deeply. The books, in addition to being exciting action/baseball stories, generally follow the theme of the value of hard work, to sticking to your goal despite any adversity a cruel universe might throw your way, and to remaining loyal to your friends and teammates.

As a set, they are a period piece, no doubt. I read them first when I was in the sixth grade or so, with WWII, and world portrayed in these books, while certainly part of the past, still seemed very much alive. WWII veterans, my parents' generation and, not coincidentally, the people who clearly remembered the Brooklyn Dodgers, were still very much an active force in the nation's daily consciousness.

Reading them now again as an adult, I frequently found myself wondering, "I wonder what I made of this scene as a kid? I wonder what I thought about that one?" Anyway, I don't want to make too much of all this. Essentially, it was lots of fun rereading these three books 45 or so years after my first reading. The writing is mannered, geared to a younger audience, and not all of the dialogue and colloquialisms ring true. Also, Tunis certainly takes the color line in baseball for granted, even dropping in a wince-inducing comments about "coloreds" once or twice per book. Nevertheless, I would recommend these three books, and certainly the first one, for anyone who loves baseball and baseball history, and who is also young at heart.
… (mais)
1 vote
Assinalado
rocketjk | Nov 6, 2009 |

Listas

Prémios

You May Also Like

Associated Authors

Estatísticas

Obras
32
Also by
1
Membros
1,272
Popularidade
#20,158
Avaliação
3.9
Críticas
8
ISBN
103
Marcado como favorito
2

Tabelas & Gráficos