Search - Camp Ford

This was one of the most enjoyable and informative (educational) novels I ever read. The characters and story are fictional but the author brings them to life so much I had to keep reminding myself that it was fiction. I love Civil War history which attracted me to the book in the first place. Baseball I like but I'm not a huge fan. But the history of baseball is fascinating when you consider how much has changed over the years. You would hardly believe that it was the same game back then. However the enthusiasm and pure fun of competition that the characters revel in have not really changed. I love this book and recommend it to anyone who likes historical novels and has at least a slight interest in baseball. This book would make a good movie. And if you like this book then you should read First into Nagasaki. Only one chapter has to do with baseball but in my opinion it was the greatest game ever played.

This Spur Award-winning novel is an excellent story of a too-young-to-enlist New England boy who lies about his age to join the Union Army in the Civil War. He is also an avid player of a new game, baseball, which is just beginning to become known. Soon he finds himself as a prisoner of war in Camp Ford, a large Texas POW camp. Intertwining baseball memories and the story of the boy's life in the camp--where a baseball game between the prisoners and the guards plays a big part--Boggs delivers an interesting coming-of-age story with some good, solid Civil War era history and a nice dollop of early baseball lore.

I loved it.