IF THE BOOK FITS...READ IT

Wild Pitch (Backyard Sports #1)

AUTHOR: Michael Teitelbaum

ILLUSTRATOR: Ron Zalme

ISBN#: 978-0448447117

PUBLISHER/YEAR: Grosset & Dunlap (May 1, 2008)

SUBJECTS: Baseball, Friendship, Sports, Feelings, Determination

READER LEVEL: READER, JR.

RATING: 

Review Highlights:

Laugh Meter	not a comedy	giggles	laugh out loud	can’t stop laughing
Fear Factor	no fear	needs explanation	cover the eyes	bad dreams
Subject Matter	light : “G”	mild concerns	caution ahead	needs supervision

This is a perfect book for the young, newly independent, reluctant reader (probably boy, although if you have a baseball crazed girl...). This series is based on the popular Backyard Sports video games. 

The writing is basic (boring), elementary prose.  The story is also basic and elementary.  It's plot involves a baseball team, The Backyard Bombers, who play pick-up games with other teams in the neighborhood.  The story follows the game's play by play, ad nauseam.  The author threw in a friendship story line, where Joey, the Bomber's manager it seems, gets a little too bossy.  The team gets disgruntled with Joey and they start playing badly.  Joey very simply realizes the error of his ways, and the team wins!

So, as you can see, a middle school student probably could have written this book.  However, I did give it two stars for a couple of reasons.  Firstly, I like the diversity on the baseball team.  The Bombers are made up of girls and boys named Achmed, A.C. Chen, Pablo, Ernie, Vicki and Samantha, to name a few.

I also think if your young reader (Reader, Jr.) is starting to read chapter books, and cannot find a sports series, and he is not into fantasy (Magic Tree House, etc) then give this series a try.  Or better yet, see below for Matt Christopher's young baseball series.

IF YOU LIKED THIS, TRY:

Peach Street Mudders Series, Matt Christopher

#1 All-Star Fever

Jake Maddox Sports Stories, Jake Maddox, Bob Temple, and Sean Tiffany

The Snow Globe Family

 

AUTHOR: Jane O'Connor

ILLUSTRATOR: S. D. Schindler 

ISBN#: 978-0399242427 

PUBLISHER/YEAR: Putnam Juvenile (September 7, 2006) 

SUBJECTS: Imagination, Snow Globes 

READER LEVEL: PICTURE BOOK 

RATING: ** 

Review Highlights:

Laugh Meter	not a comedy	giggles	laugh out loud	can’t stop laughing
Fear Factor	no fear	needs explanation	cover the eyes	bad dreams
Subject Matter	light : “G”	mild concerns	caution ahead	needs supervision

This story is an interesting journey in imagination for the young listener. Its about two families. The first family lives in a victorian house with a snowglobe on their mantel. The second family lives inside the snowglobe, waiting for it to snow. It seems the first family hasn't paid much attention to the snow globe, except for baby, thus the snow globe family hasn't seen it snow in a long time. 

When it finally snows in the real world, the first family heads out to sled. Mom and baby stay behind, and baby finally gets her hands on the snowglobe, and the snow globe family gets snow too! 

I love the idea of this book and all the places a child's imagination can go with it. On the other hand, the author's language is a little vague, and the illustrators depictions of the two families are quite similar, causing confusion between the families even for this adult reader. I think this book is worthwhile because of the imaginative prospects. If this aspect is of interest for your reader, definitely don't miss the similar, but better written, The Tub People by Pam Conrad. 

IF YOU LIKED THIS, TRY: 

THE TUB PEOPLE, Pam Conrad