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Hit a Home
Run with Baseball Books
By Holly
E. Newton
Take me out to the ball game! Yes,
it’s time once again for that good old American pastime, providing
summer one of its great family activities. Here are four outstanding
fiction books involving baseball that would be enjoyable to read
aloud for any age.
Click to Buy
 The
Aurora County All-Stars, by Deborah Wiles, is a beautifully
written story about 12-year-old House Jackson, who lives for baseball.
He’s the captain and pitcher of the Aurora County team and
is about to take on the nemesis of the season. (Actually it’s
the only game the team plays, making it especially important.)
But there are complications that may
prevent the game from taking place. One big snag is that the 200-year
celebration pageant to recognize the town’s beginning is scheduled
to take place at the very same time as the game, and the parents
have enlisted their children (including all of the members of the
team) to be part of the pageant.
House couldn’t participate in
baseball for more than a year due to a broken elbow, so this year
is very important to him. His father arranged for him to become
involved in an indoor humanitarian project to help keep his mind
and sorrow off of baseball — he went to Mr. Boyd’s house,
an elderly recluse, and read to him in the early evenings. However,
now that his elbow has healed and the game is quickly approaching,
House has come to the man’s home only to discover that Mr.
Boyd has passed on. House is about to discover some amazing and
important things about this man and that he is somehow connected
to him. He also is bequeathed some invaluable mementos.
The interaction between House and his
teammates, his father and Mr. Boyd is poised in elegant descriptions.
Wiles writes with meaningful eloquence that heightens the senses,
images, sights and sounds of a summer evening at the ballpark. “Cicadas
called from the trees. Frogs sang from the pond in the back pasture.
The sky was now a brilliant, empty, bright-morning blue.”
She has utilized quotes and inferences to expressively connect deeper
meanings from the famous writer, Walt Whitman. And Wiles has injected
her own visual imagery and vivid character development to move the
story to its surprise conclusion and wrap its contents around your
heart.
Safe At Home,
by Sharon Robinson, is a story about 10-year-old Jumper, who has
just recently moved from Connecticut to Harlem to live with his
grandma. He and his mom are having difficulties dealing with life
after his father died from a heart attack. So his mom decides to
move back with her mother, where she can better cope.
But the move is difficult on Jumper
because he’s never lived in the inner city or dealt with kids
that are tough and mean-spirited. His grandma has signed him up
to play baseball even though he dislikes it. She hopes the sport
will help him make new friends and teach him the value of hard work
in a sport his father loved.
Unfortunately for Jumper, he’s
already met a kid, Marcus, who is very rude to Jumper. It’s
also unfortunate for Jumper that Marcus has also signed up for baseball
and is going to be Jumper’s new captain on his team.
How can Jumper survive this summer?
He can’t catch, hit or field. He already feels like such a
loser. But, as his great and patient coach teaches him, there’s
much more to baseball than having natural ability. “Marcus
has baseball skills and experiences as a team leader. Jumper’s
newer at the game, but is willing to work hard to gain some skills.”
The coach teaches the importance of
cooperation and teamwork. And this theme prevails throughout this
smallish-sized book of only 148 pages. But the impact is great and
the story develops as Jumper and his team end up in the championship
game. By the way, the author is baseball great Jackie Robinson’s
daughter.
Swindle,
by Gordon Korman, is a mystery about 11-year-old Griffin, who is
“The Man with the Plan.” He and his buddy,
Ben, decide to stay overnight in a deserted and condemned old house
to figure out how to convince the city to turn the property into
a skate park.
But everything changes for Griffin
when he discovers an old and very valuable Babe Ruth baseball card.
He gets swindled out of the value of
the card when he takes it to a collectible and memorabilia shop
to discover its value. The shop owner tells him it’s a copy
and not worth more than the $120 he gives Griffin for it. But Griffin
soon discovers that the card is probably worth a million dollars
and devises a plan to get it back. The author is a popular adventure
and mystery writer for kids and this book doesn’t disappoint.
Get ready for a page-turning journey!
Click to Buy
 Game
1, 2 and 3 (Barnstormers books 1, 2 and 3), by Loren
Long and Phil Bildner, are three great books about three siblings
who recently have lost their father. He belonged to a wartime traveling
baseball team.
They are now traveling with the team
to raise money, but haven’t received an explanation as to
the purpose of what the money is for. But they have discovered something
very unusual about their father’s old baseball. Very odd things
begin to happen when they all touch it together.
These are exciting books that take you back to the beginnings of
the game of baseball!
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Meridian Magazine.
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