Skip to main content

If You Like... Baseball

We're just beginning baseball season and I can already smell the stadium food! If you love America's favorite pastime as much as we do, take a look at these books about baseball. They will definitely have you itching for some peanuts and crackerjacks. 

Written by Myron Uhlberg
Illustrated by Daniela Sosas
Chicago, Illinois: Albert Whitman & Company, 2020. Picture Book.

McGee is the best batter in the league and brings his team, the Catbirds, to victory in the championship game. The pitcher in this story practices all winter long for a second chance to beat McGee in the championship. This fun picture book gets you right in the mood for some friendly competition.

Written by Andrew Larsen
Illustrated by Milan Pavlovic
Toronto: Kids Can Press, 2021. Picture Book.

Lenny loves to play and learn about baseball. He has a Big Book of Baseball Facts that inspires him to look at the game in a new way. It fills him with hope that practice can improve his game. This book captures the excitement that all baseball fans feel as they learn more about the sport.

Written by Mac Barnett
Illustrated by Greg Pizzoli
New York: Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House, LLC, 2020. Easy Reader.

Jack is a bat boy and is not allowed to swing a bat. But when the Lady Town Ladies and the Big City Brats are all tied up, it might be up to Jack to swing the game in their favor. This adorable Easy Reader is perfect for baseball fans who are learning to read.

Written by Derrick Barnes
Illustrated by John John Bajet
New York: Workman Publishing, 2020. Informational. 172 pages.

This is the ultimate fact book for baseball lovers. The author has included stories about famous baseball players and random facts such as trends of specific teams and the history of the sport. Check out this book if you have a young baseball fan. An enthusiastic little reader could spend hours pouring over these pages.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Funny Farm by Mark Teague 2009

There are things I liked about Mark Teague's newest book, Funny Farm , and things I didn't like. Where should I start? I'll do the "didn'ts" first. The illustrations show animals personified. Well, some of the animals are. The main characters, Edward, and his farm family relatives, all dogs, are humanized. They stand upright, do farm chores, eat at a table, wear clothes, knit (yes, with paws) and sleep in beds. Most everybody else on and around the farm, who are also animals, act like animals. They are outside, roll in mud, live in the barn, and require care from their owners. It struck me the most on the page spread where there are pigs playing in puddle in the rain and Edward, a black and white boxer, watches from inside the house. I thought "You're a dog! Go play with them!" But, alas, he can't, seeing as how he goes through his entire visit to the farm wearing a suit and red bow tie. Another picture that bothered me was the maple syrup pa...

The Girl Who Could Fly by Victoria Forester 2008

J Fiction 328 pages I almost didn't finish this book. I got to Chapter 4, and was just about ready to quit (a kind of slow story about a girl, name of Piper McCloud, who discovers she can fly, parents freak out, she becomes a social outcast, yadda, yadda) but suddenly, right there in Chapter 4, the story takes a sharp turn and becomes really interesting . Piper finds herself in the company of others like her, but not "fliers", and under the care and authority of Dr. Hellion. I won't even tell you any more. Read this book. Forester does a great job of keeping you wondering who's the good guy and who's the bad? Piper is a likeable, strong, endearing character that girl readers will enjoy. But don't NOT give it to boys! The main male character is an extremely intelligent young man who is one of the ones you wonder about . . . good or bad? This is a good one, well worth your time.

Review: The Factory

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...