Born To Play

It was summer.  We were all rookies.  Coach Wadsworth was patient to a fault.  He really understood the skills of the players on his softball team, enhancing our abilities.  He knew as a whole we were only as strong as the weakest link.

So he worked with all of us, hour after hour, game after game.  If you weren't a powerhouse hitter but a fast runner, he made sure you bunted with the best of them.  If you were quick on your feet with honed reflexes but could not throw great distances, he placed you in the infield.  He saw potential; teaching the shortest member of his team to pitch fast, underhand strikes.

There are certain individuals who have a knack for baseball, unlike us rookies of a summer in the sixties, as soon as they can move.  The Kid From Diamond Street: The Extraordinary Story Of Baseball Legend Edith Houghton (Clarion Books, March 29, 2016) written by Audrey Vernick with illustrations by Steven Salerno is a story about a remarkably gifted player.  Let's turn back the clock.

Edith Houghton used to say, "I guess I was born with a baseball in my hand," and if you'd seen little Edith playing in the 1920s, you'd probably have believed it.  She was magic on the field.

As the youngest of ten children, Edith lacked no opportunity to play the game, especially within the neighborhood.  Across the street from her home on many a summer evening baseball was played by men and watched by Edith from the comfort of a bedroom window.  In 1922 the Philadelphia Bobbies, an all-female professional baseball team, were looking for new players.  Edith tried out for the team and her amazing skills landed her a spot as starting shortstop at the age of ten!

Nicknamed The Kid by reporters her abilities were duly noted by fans of the game no matter who they played.  At the age of thirteen her team was offered a trip of a lifetime; they were going to Japan to play against men's baseball teams at the college level.  They traveled by train for twelve days to the west coast and by boat for thirteen days until they reached their destination.  I'll bet they were quite a sight when they played ball on the deck of the ship.

So much was different in Japan than back at home in Pennsylvania but once the first game started that was all that mattered.  Baseball was baseball.  For the games in Japan, the team had a male pitcher and catcher.  To those who knew Edith it was no surprise how she acquired a great deal of yen after a promise from one of the players.

For two months, the girls and young women did everything together; played baseball, enjoyed the sights of the country, relaxed creating musical medleys and even, on the return voyage home, managed to puzzle a few passengers on board with a prank.  Arriving in Philadelphia they received a heartwarming welcome.  The best greeting of all for Edith Houghton was at 2502 Diamond Street.


For readers the highlight of this book, other than learning about the astonishing life of Edith Houghton, was the care given by author Audrey Vernick in writing a narrative with fascinating explicit details.  In describing Edith becoming a part of the team, she mentions everything needed to be done to make the uniform fit the ten-year-old.  She works actual quotes from Edith into the story seamlessly.

As you read this title you are given a very clear picture of defining events which Vernick links together as a wonderful whole.  We get to know Edith on a very personal level.  Here is a sample passage.

No one Edith knew had been to Japan.  Most people she knew hadn't stepped foot outside Pennsylvania.
"My parents had to go to school and explain to them about this," Edith said. "The principal and teachers agreed that I'd get more out of that trip than being in that class, and it's true."


You don't realize it when looking at the front of the matching dust jacket and book case initially but after reading the book, you know Steven Salerno has captured the essence of Edith Houghton in her stance and with the expression on her face.  By placing the suitcase labeled with places next to her, he gives us an idea of her travels with the team.  To the left, on the back, an image of the team from the interior of the title has been placed on a shade of green with a circle around the center, focusing on Edith, displaying the actual colors of grass and sky within it.  The opening and closing endpapers are a bright grass green.  The title text from the front is repeated on a much larger scale for the title page.

Nearly all the illustrations

created with charcoal, ink, and gouache with added digital color rendered in Adobe Photoshop

span across two pages.  Salerno's color palette, shading, fine lines, and use of light easily transport readers to a time in the past.  The design and layout is fabulous as his perspectives shift to further engage readers.

One of my favorite illustrations covers two pages.  Blue window edges and blue window shades frame images of a ball game during the evening.  A light glows on the field near home plate as a batter waits for a pitched ball to arrive and near the third baseman.  Along the road cars have stopped with people standing outside them to watch the game.  Above this with arms resting on the window sill is Edith, wearing her ball cap with the brim tipped up, a half smile on her face.  Gauzy white curtains are billowing in a gentle breeze.


The Kid From Diamond Street: The Extraordinary Story Of Baseball Legend Edith Houghton written by Audrey Vernick with illustrations by Steven Salerno is an out-of-the-park biography.  You will find yourself inspired and cheering for this girl who knew what she wanted and went after it with her whole heart.  In a two page A Note From The Author Audrey Vernick goes on to explain how baseball was a part of Edith's life until her passing in 2013.  This woman garnered more than one "first".

You can enjoy more information about Audrey Vernick and Steven Salerno by following the links attached to their names to access their websites.  They both have blogs also.  A Discussion and Activity Guide has been created for this title.  Audrey Vernick was a guest at author Kirby Larson's Friend Friday. Audrey Vernick was interviewed by Beth Shaum on her blog, A Foodie Bibliophile In Wanderlust.  Here are a couple of links about Edith Houghton; From Edith Houghton to Amanda Hopkins, MLB's 70-year gap in female scouts and Edith Houghton, Rare Woman Among Baseball Scouts, Dies at 100.  

You might want to check out the other collaboration by Audrey Vernick and Steven Salerno, Brothers At Bat: The True Story Of An Amazing All-Brothers Baseball Team.

Please take a moment to visit Kid Lit Frenzy hosted by educator Alyson Beecher to see the other selections by bloggers participating in the 2016 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge.

The Summer Of 1941

All one has to do is look at human history to realize the impact a single individual can make for good.  A community is created rallying around them in support of their endeavors.  For whatever reason, sometimes, this person rises to noteworthy status when needed the most.

During the summer of 1941 baseball yielded such a person.  A sense of unease had settled over most Americans; Europe was at war.  With illustrations by Terry Widener, well-received nonfiction author, Barb Rosenstock, has written The Streak: How Joe DiMaggio Became America's Hero (Calkins Creek, an imprint of Highlights).

It all started quietly, like a conversation with Joe DiMaggio himself.  One shy single, hit to left field, smack in the middle of May, the fifteenth.

The Yankees lost that day so no one took any particular notice of that one shy single delivered by Joe.  It didn't take long though for it to come to people's attention when one week passed with Joe continuing to get hits.  Pretty soon he had hits in twenty games.  Someone might have softly suggested streak.

When Joe had hit in thirty straight games, he started to make newspaper headlines, replacing the attention given to the war.  Here was a man from a large family, generations of fishermen, raised in San Francisco, no stranger to hard work, making a name for himself in a sport Americans loved.  For each game (and for games only), Joe used a very special bat, given great care and named Betsy Ann.

Joe followed a ritual of sorts for each at bat; rubbing dirt on his hands, giving home plate a single tap and standing wide waiting for the right pitch.  With the best pitchers giving their best pitches, still nothing got by Joe.  As Joe got closer to breaking the record of a forty-one game hitting streak, the pressure really started to take its toll on him off field.

On June 29, 1941 the New York Yankees were playing the Washington Senators in Washington, D. C.  During the first of two games, Joe tied the record.  During the break between the games, the unthinkable happened.  Betsy Ann was stolen!

As the top of the seventh rolled around things looked grim for the baseball hero; three at bats, three strikeouts.  A teammate offered hope.  Joe DiMaggio proceeded to do what he did best, work hard.  The record results are unbroken to this day in baseball history.


Baseball fan or not, you will be caught up in the excitement of this retelling of Joe DiMaggio's hitting streak.  Prior to the narrative's start, Barb Rosenstock includes a quote from Joe DiMaggio to set the stage for the type of ball player he is.  Each portion of the story builds on this, creating an ever-increasing tension.  Rosenstock writes as if she is a sportscaster relaying each portion in snippets of details.

These elements are of the personal, insider, nature.  Readers are taken back in time to those ballparks; you believe you are a spectator witnessing the actual events.  Here is a sample passage.

Joe kept hitting.  A triple and a home run in the next game, one or two more every game that week.  When he hit in 20 straight games, the word "streak" whispered from the bleachers to the press box---DiMaggio was on a hitting streak.  
Joe kept the streak alive the next week and the next.


Although the matching dust jacket and book case images differ on the front and back, they extend into the flaps on the jacket. In the front we are closer watching the ball fly after a swing.  On the back Joe is standing ready at the plate with the perspective shifting, zooming back.  The turquoise shade in the upper left hand corner deepens and brightens on the endpapers, providing a background for large font quotes in white about Joe DiMaggio from Ted Williams, left fielder, Boston Red Sox and Ty Cobb, outfielder, Detroit Tigers.  

The red lettering used in the title appears repeatedly throughout the book drawing the reader's attention to the significant text within each of the two-page illustrations rendered in acrylic on bristol paper by Terry Widener.  You might be seated in the bleachers looking out at the field, seeing all stages of Joe's batting style, going in close to see only his hands sanding the handle of Betsy Ann as she rests on his lap, or getting a bird's eye view of Griffith Stadium on the fateful day in June.  The color palette is a softened, textural blend of white, gray, brown, blue, and green hues; taking us perfectly into the past.

One of my favorite illustrations is more introspective than the other action pieces.  On the right it shows Joe seated in the locker room next to his locker, head bowed in thought.  From the left newspapers with headlines of the day cross the gutter at the bottom.  Above is a cityscape, full moon shining on a saxophone player to depict the music of 1941.


Hand The Streak: How Joe DiMaggio Became America's Hero written by Barb Rosenstock with illustrations by Terry Widener to sport fans, history buffs or anyone who enjoys a well told tale.  No matter where you are or the time of year it is, you will hear the crack of the bat and the chorus of cheers from the fans as Joe DiMaggio gets another hit.  You might even be yelling out in pure joy yourself!

Please be sure to follow the links embedded in both the author's and illustrator's names to access their official websites.  At the conclusion of the book an extensive author's note, a list of records, source notes, newspaper headlines, a bibliography of books, articles, websites, and additional sources is given.  You couldn't ask for a better nonfiction picture book about America's baseball hero.


I am pleased each Wednesday to participate in the 2014 Nonfiction Picture Book Challenge hosted by Alyson Beecher at Kid Lit Frenzy.  Please take a moment to follow the other blogger links listed there to get connected to some of the best nonfiction titles available.

PLEASE NOTE:  I extend an apology to my faithful readers for this post being so late today (or early morning) as my presence was needed for a family emergency.

It's Going, Going...Gone!

Sometimes when you first see the work of an author/illustrator not only are you drawn to and inside a particular book, but it evokes an overwhelming sense of nostalgia.  Zachary's Ball (Candlewick, 2000)  and Mudball (Candlewick, 2005) written and illustrated by Matt Tavares took me back, way back to those summers of playing league softball.  It was the stance of the players, the expressions on their faces, and their passion for the game which, with little effort, had me on the field as third baseman, ready for action, Coach Bill Wadsworth on the sidelines calling out, keeping us all on our toes.  At barely five feet tall I was no home run hitter but the team bunt queen.  It was one of the best times of my life.

Matt Tavares's love of the game of baseball is evidenced by the publication of six titles, fiction and nonfiction.  The newest book, Becoming Babe Ruth (Candlewick, 2013) chronicles the earlier years of one of sport's best remembered figures.  In an interview Tavares states:


Most people think about Babe Ruth as a larger-than-life, almost mythical character.  I wanted to tell a story that showed him as a real person.


Baltimore, 1902
George Ruth lives with his parents
and his baby sister
in a tiny apartment above a saloon.

At the early age of seven, Ruth's parents felt they no longer had control over their street ruffian son.  He was taken to the Saint Mary's Industrial School for Boys, a place for orphans and those needing reforming.  The strict structure made it seem more like a prison than a school to the boys boarded there.

The saving grace for George was the boys being allowed to play baseball at the end of the day when their work was done.  From the first time he saw Brother Matthias hitting balls, sailing over the Big Yard into the trees again and again, a desire, a goal to be met, was started in his heart.  As time passed George acquired a talent as a shirtmaker at the school and as a skilled player on the baseball field.

Constant practice all year perfected his abilities, drawing attention to the now seventeen year old.  People came to watch him play, important people.  In 1914 George walked away from Saint Mary's Industrial School for Boys to play ball for the minor-league Baltimore Orioles.  He was nineteen.

His pitching was so exemplary, mid-season, he was sold to the Boston Red Sox, a major league player now.  From pitcher to outfielder, from the Boston Red Sox to the New York Yankees, Ruth's accomplishments were astounding.  Good news and fame followed him everywhere until 1920.

A fire swept through Saint Mary's Industrial School for Boys; hardly any buildings were left standing.  But the big hitter with a big heart had a plan, a special idea for fifty boys and Brother Matthias.  This act defined Babe Ruth, the man who never forgot from where he came, a man who not only made a name to be remembered in sports but in the minds of the boys attending Saint Mary's Industrial School for Boys.


Matt Tavares begins and builds his telling of George Herman "Babe" Ruth as his life's journey takes a significant change.  His research is apparent in the supplying of details; throwing stolen tomatoes at passing wagons in the streets, eating breakfast at the school in complete silence, number of strike-outs and hits at the school games, playing the big bass drum in the stands during a game, how he got the nickname, Babe, or buying ice cream for his special guests. These details are woven into the conversational narrative by a man who knows the sport and the art of good storytelling.  The technique of repeating one key phrase several times unifies the important events in a manner reflective of the book's intentions.  Reading those words lifts more than the ball into the air; it lifts readers' hopes.


With the matching jacket and cover, Tavares gives readers Ruth the man on the front and Ruth the baseball player on the back, a faded, worn and torn newspaper clipping.  All the illustrations are rendered in watercolor, gouache and pencil.  The two page dedication and title page are a clever replication of a room with rows of beds, we see only portions of the frames, a baseball signed by Babe Ruth on the covers of one.  The walls are filled with newspaper clippings taped in place, showing Ruth in action but also listing the pertinent information.


Tavares's full color pictures are a historical recreation of the era during this part of Ruth's life.  Movement, facial expressions and setting make the reader feel as though they can hear the crack of the ball on a bat, the excited talk of the boys, and the cheers of the crowds.  The warmth of Babe Ruth's character shines in his eyes.

Image size is altered between a single page, extending across the gutter, as an inset or two page spreads.  When a visual crosses the gutter it's edge appears as if it's an old newspaper, providing a column for the text on the opposite side.  One of my favorite illustrations is of Babe gazing out across the field after a swing of his bat, the crowds faded into the background.  The picture of Brother Matthias hitting the balls, when George sees him the first time, is stunning.


Becoming Babe Ruth written and illustrated by Matt Tavares brings to readers an entirely different aspect of this baseball legend.  It gives insight into the childhood molding the man.  It's not only an outstanding sport biography but a book filled with promise.

The book closes with an author's note, pitching and hitting statistics and a bibliography. For more information about Matt Tavares and his books follow the link embedded in his name above to go to his website.  Here is the link to an informative interview by Babe Ruth's great, grandson at Babe Ruth Central, Children's Author Matt Tavares on his new book: 'Becoming Babe Ruth'.  For an interview at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast about Matt Tavares's other titles, his art and process follow this link.