Under ordinary circumstances, the odds of being struck by lightning are greater than the odds of becoming a Major League Baseball player, but Felipe Alou's circumstances in 1955 were anything but 'ordinary'... He was a black athlete living in the Dominican Republic, and he spoke no English- not exactly a recipe for success in the U.S., especially during the height of the civil rights movement. This is Felipe's amazing (true) story of perseverance and determination to beat overwhelming odds and insurmountable obstacles to become one of baseball's greatest players and managers.

Specifications

• 185 unique words; total word count: 7500
• 53 pages of text
• written in present tense
• Neutral Spanish with several Latin-American characteristics: more use of personal pronouns than in Spain, and the use of 'ustedes' instead of 'vosotros'.
• setting: Cuba and the Caribean sea

Information for teachers

This novel was written in the passé simple. The writing team felt that this tense was the one that captured most authentically the genre of the story. The passé simple generally replaces the passé composé in formal writing and formal speech. It describes an action that has ended in a specific time, whereas the passé composé describes an action that may still be in contact with the present.

To prepare your classes for this book, use the practical teacher’s guide.