This Is the Game
In this picture-book celebration of baseball, aspects of the game are described in verse and illustrated with, bold double-page spreads. While the rhyming text often has an off-beat, disjointed feel, the stand-out illustrations, set in the 1920s and ’30s, feature images of American streets and stadiums of the time and capture the excitement of the sport, and each picture is striking. Many scenes show heroic figures in the foreground, posed against a misty backdrop of a crowded ball park. Other pictures show people gathered around a radio, listening to a game, as well as kids playing their own version of the game, stick ball, on crowded urban streets. Both words and pictures reinforce the fact that baseball was shamefully segregated during this time period, and while many books introduce the national pastime to young readers, the welcome twist here is this title’s historical perspective. Grades K-3. --Todd Morning