Review of Mickey Mantle's Last Home Run.

[Vivian Stones]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Mickey Mantle's Last Home Run." by Steven A. Falco.]

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4 out of 4 stars

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Mickey Mantle's Last Home Run by Steven A. Falco deserves a 4 out of 4 stars. There are different positive aspects of this book to justify this rating. First, the book is a product of good research and personal experience of Steven. This inference is made from the brief profile of the author on the last page of the book, which reveals that Steven had played baseball while growing up. Also, this book is professionally edited; I could only spot one error in it.

Another positivity of the book is that Steven exercised care and diligence in ensuring that no vulgar words or profanities were used in the book. Despite the book's setting and the license given to authors to use words as they please, no matter how displeasing it might be to some readers, Steven still ensured that he considered all persons who would be interested in reading the book. Ordinarily, it is expected that one of the results of an average American's outburst is the use of vulgar words. Nevertheless, the author ensured that he depicted the emotions of his characters perfectly without the use of such words. I must say that this is quite rare and commendable. Another good side of the book is the beautiful lesson that Steven had sought to teach his readers through his lead character, T.J. This lesson is that racial discrimination and, by extension, other forms of discrimination are wrong. Another plus of the book is the language of the book, which is very easy to understand to readers of all ages.

Another reason for this rating above is that there are no negative aspects of the book.

Another positive aspect of this book is its simple plot. The book is a story of a 15-years old boy popularly known as T.J. who has a near-obsession with baseball. This book contains subplots that teach lessons against racial prejudice and discrimination. T.J's obsession for Mick makes him frequent the Yankees Stadium, sometimes alone, with Jonathan, Frankie, and Phil, or at other times, with his father and brother. However, he breaks this practice when he has to wait at St. Patrick's Cathedral, together with Jonathan, Maggie, and her friend, to pay his last respect to the corpse of Robert Kennedy.

Meanwhile, Jonathan devices ways to ease the pain of other students during boring classes by creating school clubs for interested students. The strife between the Blacks and the Whites heightened when T.J mistakenly hit a Black kid named Darrell during baseball practice and when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. T.J's life is endangered as it seems that the Black kids would like to revenge both incidents on him. Will he survive this plan, or will he be assassinated like Robert Kennedy?

This book is exceptional, and it is recommended to young adults because there are lessons contained in the book that would be of help to them. Lovers of fictional books would also have a fantastic time reading this book.

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Mickey Mantle's Last Home Run.
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[Aisha Yakub]

Generous of the author to exercise restraint and ensure many readers can go through this book without dealing with profanities. I enjoyed reading your review.

[Pauline Parnell]

For a lot of people, Sports is an enjoyable pastime. It's even more so for youngsters, like TJ. I note that there are lessons to learn from the book. Thanks for the review.

[cutemami]

I love that this book teaches about discrimination. That is still a prevalent form of injustice and more light should be shed on it do that it can hopefully be stopped.

[Amy Luman]

I think that the lessons about discrimination and determination are good ones to teach. I do, however, think that teaching that it is not necessary to get one’s point across is worthy also.

[Essy Nma]

Some of these lessons are important for rightful living. Thanks for the review.