MAMA PLAYED BASEBALL

by David A. Adler ‧ RELEASE DATE: N/A

Oil paintings filled with motion and muted colors reminiscent of painter Thomas Benton Hart take the reader back to the time of WWII in this low-key story about a girl whose mother plays baseball. Amy's mother tries out successfully for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, and fortunately plays for their hometown team. At first, narrator Amy isn't impressed. What kind of job is baseball, a game, compared to her father's peacetime job of delivering milk? But her father is away in the army, the family needs the income, and as she watches her mother play, Amy gains in enthusiasm. Despite this change in Amy, the choppy writing lacks emotional impact and explains feelings with phrases like "We were so happy," rather than conveying them through action and dialogue. It's surprising that the child of an athlete good enough to play pro ball initially cares so little for the sport. Amy also doesn't seem to mind it that her mother is away a lot or that her father is presumably in some danger. The artwork, which outshines the text, enhances the emotions described in an impressive debut by O'Leary. Readers looking for more effective picture books about women in baseball should try Dirt on Their Skirts: The Story of the Young Women Who Won the World Championship, by Doreen Rappaport and Lyndall Callan (2000), or Girl Wonder: A Baseball Story in Nine Innings, by Deborah Hopkinson (p. 232). (Picture book. 5-9)

Pub Date: N/A

ISBN: 0152021965

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Gulliver/Harcourt

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2003

Categories: CHILDREN'S