It's the time of year when bats and mitts come out, and a multitude of new books about baseball appear on the marketplace. Baseball is an American icon and judging from all the new books, it's a symbol that the children's book marketplace loves. So let me throw out a few new titles that may lead to home run reading in your house.
Little Leaguers Begin a Lifelong Love of Baseball
Several new books introduce the sport in ways that younger children can understand, appreciate, and learn from. These authors find a familiar format to slide in information and pass on their passion for baseball.
*When math-writer, Barbara McGrath, adds numbers, rhymes, baseball terms, and the excitement of a game, they equal The Baseball Counting Book (Charlesbridge, $6.95; ages 5-7). Short rhymes show how numbers are integral to baseball and give support to make this an easy-read hit. Illustrator Brian Shaw adds the last crucial element. In his pictures, we see a small boy enjoying baseball from one bat and ball to the nineteen ice cream cones he shares with other players at game's end.
* Leslie Tryon's character Albert, the goose, stars in his fifth book, Albert's Ballgame (Aladdin, $5.99; ages 5-7) which makes a spring paperback appearance. Tryon's animals bring humor to a stadium game where the monkey pitcher throws "bean balls and mean balls", a bunny shags a ball in his trumpet, and beaver fans rise enthusiastically in the stands to become part of a wave.
*Songwriter Tom Paxton applies his musical gifts in a new baseball songbook, The Jungle Baseball Game (Morrow, $16.00; ages 4-7). This rhythmic recounting of a game between the hippos and monkeys is filled with the excitement of a close game, bright illustrations by Karen Lee Schmidt, and an underdog team you gotta love!
* Jack Norworth's classic song Take me out to the Ballgame,(Aladdin, $5.99; all ages) illustrated by Alec Gillman is new in paperback. Between its covers, you'll find music, original lyrics, history of the composer, and illustrations that remember the 1947 World Series game between the Dodgers and Yankees at Ebbets field .
What You Play, You Can Read
A fan who's more reluctant to read than play ball, might join the reading game if you pitch baseball books. One of the most exciting discoveries for beginning readers is understanding they can find books to match their interests. There are quite a few new books to support baseball enthusiasts.
*Cal Ripken, Jr. Play Ball! by Cal Ripken, Jr and Mike Bryan (Dial, $13.99; ages 5-8) has game rundowns, lots of photos, and a reasonable number of words. Ripkin writes in a highly personal style. He remembers growing up with his famous dad, weathering slumps, and the joy he's found in his own children and his favorite sport.
Sosa, last year's big baseball hero, is the subject of Laura Driscoll's Sammy Sosa: Home-Run Hero (Grosset & Dunlap,$3.99; ages 7-9) . Available in Spanish and English, both versions have full-color photos and lots of information on Sosa's sports and personal styles.
*Realistic fiction, beginning reading, and baseball meet in Baseball Brother , a collaboration by Jean, Dan, and Dave Marzollo. (Scholastic, $3.50; ages 5-7) . Sibling struggles, the difficulty of paying attention, and stress of a first game are all themes in this story where a young boy bumbles his way to a home run despite his bit older brother's doubt.
*Matt Christopher is a name synonymous with children's sports books. Beginning novel readers can catch another great story in the eighth book of his Peach Street Mudders series, The Catcher's Mask (Little Brown, $4.50; ages 7-9). When Rudy Calhoun's baseball career changes dramatically, he begins to wonder if his new second-hand mask is still filled with the talents of its former owner.
*Readers who are more advanced in both baseball and reading will enjoy Dean Hughes' new series. Hughes leads off his "Scrappers" series with Play Ball (Aladdin, $3.99; ages 8-12) where we find third baseman Robbie Marquez struggling for his short stop position with a girl. Through the series we'll follow an unlikely team of kids who are fighting their way to the championship. Each book includes lots of sports writing, an emotional issue, and even trivia trading cards!
Just Gimme the Stats
Let's face it, sometimes only baseball non-fiction can get the more reluctant readers on base with books. There are several new non-fictions filled with more information and photos than words. That's a pleasing book stat for hardcore baseball fans.
*Richard Brenner's Baseball Superstars Album 1999 (Beech Tree Books, $4.50; ages 7 and up) boasts sixteen superstar posters, team and individual stats, and newsy writeups of best loved heroes.
*James Preller recounts last year's amazing baseball in McGwire & Sosa: A Season to Remember (Aladdin, $5.99; ages 6 and up). Full color, action-filled photographs dominate this paperback, but there's also plenty of facts, history, and background information about the two players and the relationship that grew between them.
*Avid ball hounds, must score How to Snag Major League Baseballs: More Than 100 Tested Tips That Really Work (Simon and Schuster, $3.99; ages 8 and up). The book is written by Zack Hample, a North Carolina college student whose collection of 1,266 major league baseballs has earned him the title "The King of Snagging". His writing is humorous and helpful. Zack tells all....from which ticket to buy to "excuses to give fans who want balls from you."
Baseball, A History Home run
*History, not always of interest to children, might become a hit when you put it in the context of baseball's past. Jonah Winter's Fair Ball: 14 Great Stars from Baseballs Negro Leagues (Scholastic, $15.95; ages 6-9) exposes children to facts about lesser known heroes. Winters highlights men like pitcher Rube Foster who organized the Negro National League and won 54 games in one season only losing one. He tells how Jesse Owens wouldn't race the amazingly fast Cool Papa Bell and gives other anecdotal stories of early black heroes. Winters reveals their relationships with each other, delivers quotable sayings, describes their personalities and styles, and of course, recounts their contributions to the games.
*Lawrence Ritter gives a history of baseball from turn of the century to the present in The Story of Baseball (Morrow, $16.00, $7.95 ages 10 and up) which has just been newly published in a third addition. The history is told mostly through the players that drove the sport and collectively made it what it is today. The book is filled with black and white pictures and stories that characterize players and their contributions.
Sports Stories
I have to admit, I'm more of a fiction than sports fan. This became clear when I realized my favorite books this season are the ones that have all star stories. Every year, I find some new baseball story to love. I'm convinced that the symbol of baseball always makes for a powerful tale.
*For young fans, who may love dinosaurs as much as baseball, there's William Joyce's Baseball Bob (HarperCollins, $6.95; ages 3-5), a newly adapted board book from the longer Dinosaur Bob and His Adventures with the Family Lazardo (HaperCollins, $4.95). When the Lazardo's pet dinosaur joins a local team, he sends a ball cracking out of the park to win the game. Bob's team, his family, and the whole town celebrate and sing "The Ballad of Dinosaur Bob". Your family, too, can become part of the party because the lyrics are listed in the book so the whole family can sing the ballad to the familiar tune of "Auld Lang Syne".
*Poor Danny! He strikes out again, the opposing team calls him the "Hitless Wonder", his own team groans, and the young boy trudges home, and falls into bed exhausted with effort and defeat. That night a dramatic turn around occurs in Jane Yolen's Moon Ball (Simon and Schuster, $16.00; ages 4-8) when Danny floats out into the evening sky to play with the All-Stars...that's Orion, the Gemini twins, and the gang. When his team takes on Moon and his Orbits, Danny nearly strikes out until Rigel sings out "eye on the ball is all". Then Danny hits a home run, zooms around the bases, and floats "on to home plate...as soft as his own bed and somehow just as familiar." Greg Couch's dreamy illustrations show the night ballplayer landed safely in his own bed. The blend of baseball, stars, and poetry is a winning combination. Yolen skillfully blends stars and sports metaphors that work beautifully in this stellar book.
*David Adler's The Babe & I (HBJ, $16.00; ages 8-10)is a picture book which takes takes place during 1932 depression. The young hero is angry when he receives a dime, rather than a new bike, for his birthday. His opinion shifts quickly when he discovers his father has lost his job, is selling apples on a corner, and hiding the fact from the family. The boy's friend Jacob, a newsie teaches him the secret to his success. The two boys travel to Yankee Stadium because Jacob knows baseball sells more papers than tragedy. Emotions run strong in this story which shows an era where a boy can earn more than his father. Other story strengths are it's ability to show how shame makes for secrecy, and how baseball and Babe Ruth provide a magic that helps this young boy, like many others in the 1930's, transcend troubled times and realize teamwork can conquer any difficulty.
* Sports novels connect with many young adults. One of the most successful series is Will Weavers' stories about a baseball-fiction star named Billy Baggs. Baggs is a farm boy with a troubled past and difficult father. In Weaver's first book, Striking Out (HarperCollins, $4.95; ages 11 and up), Billy's big brother Robert lets him try driving the tractor. Billy's foot slips, his brother is killed, and only his natural ability in baseball saves him from his angry father and the poverty of his rural Minnesota life. There are two more books in the series, Farm Team (HarperCollins, $4.95) is followed by the newly released third novel, Hard Ball (HarperCollins, $15.95) . Now Baggs takes on his arch rival, King Kenwood, and tackles inner issues that pose an even greater threat to both boys.
* Many times baseball lovers would rather gaze at pictures than wade their way through words. Mark Alan Stanley, political cartoonist, has developed a story where pictures tell an imaginative sports science-fiction in Too Many Time Machines: Or, the Incredible Story of How I Went Back in Time, Met Babe Ruth, and Discovered the Secret of Homerun Hitting (Viking, $13.99, $6.99; ages 8 and up. There are almost more words in the title than in this "graphic novel" where full-spread comic book style illustrations show and tell the story of Roger who travels back to 1927 to get coaching from the Babe.