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Griffith, Ruby, Graham and their mother are barnstorming across the Midwest with the Travelin’ Nine baseball team. The team is made up of comrades of their late father, all former members of the Rough Riders, who are helping them to raise money to pay off a huge family debt. Griffith is keeping secrets, their father’s keepsake baseball emits odd shivers and shakes and there are many strange occurrences. Long’s highly detailed, black-and-white illustrations evoke the era and enhance the text. There’s an interesting cast of characters and lots of action, but it doesn’t work. For fantasy to succeed, there needs to be an underlying set of rules that govern the realm in which it is set. Instead, Long and Bildner have stretched portends and omens to the breaking point, without explaining or resolving anything. It’s obviously the first in a planned series, but it lacks the substance to stand alone. The reader is left hanging and may not be willing to follow the team. (Fiction. 8-10)
