Skip to main content

There Goes Ted Williams

By

There Goes Ted Williams:  the Greatest Hitter who Ever Lived
by Matt Tavares
Candlewick, 2012.  Unpaged.  Biography

     This splendid book aptly sums the "Splendid Splinter," Ted Williams, only player ever to finish a Major League season batting over .400, and a war hero as well. Baseball fans will know of Williams' exploits on the field for the Boston Red Sox (yay!), but who knew that the Yankees tried to get him first only to be put off by Ted's mother who wanted him closer to home so he first played professional ball for the San Diego Padres, then a minor league team. Ted enlisted in the Navy during World War II and trained as a fighter pilot where he made it through advanced pilot training and was waiting for orders when the war ended.  Back to baseball, and then back to war as he is called up as a fighter pilot in the Korean war.  On his first combat mission his plane is hit by enemy fire.  If he ejects, he will probably break both legs, ending his baseball career.  He decides to crash-land, hitting the landing strip at 225 miles per hour.  He skids 9,000 feet with everything but the cockpit on fire.  When the plane finally stops, Ted jumps out and lives to tell the tale.  But when he comes back home, can he still play baseball as an "old" man?  You betcha!  Text is great.  Pictures are great.  Play ball!
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dude, That's Rude! (Get Some Manners) by Pamela Espeland & Elizabeth Verdick

By
If there's one book today's kids need to read, it is Dude, That's Rude! (Get Some Manners) . The authors provide a fun format for teaching etiquette to children. They discuss proper behavior at home, at school, at other people's homes and in public places. The information is completely up-to-date with cellphone manners and netiquette included. Fun, cartoony illustrations are on practically every page giving the book great visual appeal. This book is perfect for boys and girls in the fourth grade or older. WARNING: Bodily functions are discussed.
Post a Comment
Read more

Faces of the Moon by Bob Crelin

By loo
Faces of the Moon by Bob Crelin Illustrated by Leslie Evans Charlesburg; 2009; unpaged Faces of the Moon is a short nonfiction book that describes the different phases of the moon and why the moon appears like it does on certain nights. This book is short and sweet so even the youngest of moon lovers will enjoy it. The layout is simplistic and easy to follow. I don’t know much about the moon so I found it very interesting.
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: The Factory

By
The Factory By Catherine Egan New York, NY : Scholastic Inc., 2025. Fiction. 306 pages.  Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle has been invited to join the Factory, a secretive research facility in the desert which ostensibly extracts renewable energy from the electromagnetic fields of its young recruits. But Asher soon realizes something sinister is going on. Kids are getting sick. The adults who run the Factory seem to be keeping secrets. And the extraction process is not only painful and exhausting, but existentially troubling. Asher makes a handful of new friends who help him with an investigation that turns into a resistance, which turns into...a cliffhanger! The Factory is a page-turning sci-fi with multidimensional characters, an intriguing plot, and refreshingly straight-forward writing. Egan weaves in detail about climate crises and social unrest, making the story's dystopian setting feel rich and plausible. With its sophisticated themes and accessible storytelling, I would recomm...
Post a Comment
Read more