Archive for Sports

Charlie Bumpers vs. the Puny Pirates

Written by Bill Harley
Illustrated by Adam Gustavson

Charlie Bumpers returns in the fifth book of the series. When Charlie learns that he will be on the same soccer team as his two best friends, Hector and Tommy, they have dreams of being the Pirates of Doom. Instead, they have to learn to play with many kids who have never played soccer before. It’s all about team work. Steadily, the team improves, though it’s never the killer team of their dreams. Charlie also learns that the glamor position might not be the most rewarding. Meanwhile, Charlie’s older brother, Matt, delights in bugging him and embarrassing him as much as possible. Charlie, Hector, and Tommy attempt to sell chocolate bars together for a team fundraiser, which proves disastrous. They eat the bars themselves, give away bars on credit, and lose some of the money. Of course, everything comes out alright in the end, even though the boys must pay the price.

There’s enough action in this tale to keep kids interested and working on their literacy skills while also learning about working together and about responsibility. The true-to-life situations make it very relatable. Recommended for independent reading or for reading as a class for discussion.

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  • charlie-bumpers-vs-the-puny-piratesTitle: Charlie Bumpers vs. the Puny Pirates
  • Author: Bill Harley
  • Illustrator: Adam Gustavson
  • Published: Peachtree Publishers, 2016
  • Reviewer: Sue Poduska
  • Format: Hardcover, 160 pages
  • Grade Level: 3 to 7
  • Genre: Chapter Book, Fiction, Sports, Friendship, Teamwork
  • ISBN: 978-1-56145-939-1

Little Rhino: My New Team

Written by Ryan Howard and Krystle Howard

Baseball and bullies is the theme of book one in a new series called, Little Rhino, written by the husband- wife team of Ryan and Krystle Howard. Ryan plays Major League Baseball. Krystle is a former elementary reading teacher. They write authentic dialogue as well as exciting and realistic play-by-play baseball. Both are interested in literacy as well as sports.

Team members represent a diversity of children and the main character, Ryan known as Rhino, is taken care of by a single grandparent. But none of that interferes with this great story of being on your first baseball team. Learning how to play together and get along with others solves a bullying problem in a light and realistic manner.

Third grade readers will recognize lunch room conversations about dinosaurs, a pestering bully and waiting all day Saturday for it to finally be game time.

Full page pen and ink drawings help to break up the chapters while immersing readers in the setting or action.

This is a series that third grade readers will enjoy reading and collecting. Having the beginning of the next book included at the end of this book excites readers and gives them something to look forward to reading about. It is also a good marketing plan.

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  • RhinoTitle: Little Rhino: My New Team
  • Author: Ryan Howard and Krystle Howard
  • Illustrator: Scholastic
  • Publisher: Scholastic, 2015
  • Reviewer: Elizabeth Swartz
  • Format: Papberback, 96 pages
  • ISBN: 978-0-545-67490-4
  • Genre: Realistic Fiction
  • Grade level 3
  • Extras: The beginning of Book 2, The Best Bat, is at the back of this title.

There Goes Ted Williams: The Greatest Player that Ever Lived

Written and illustrated by Matt Tavares

Sports heroes are often colorful and have an interesting story to tell. Ted Williams falls into that category.

As a child, Ted Williams was skinny and not very muscular, but he wanted to be the best hitter in baseball. Through determination, he practiced every chance he got, swinging the bat long after the other kids had gone home for supper. He swung until his hands bled. He ate to gain weight and exercised to build muscles. His career was first interrupted by World War II and later by the Korean War. He was a very good fighter pilot. But, when he returned, his baseball skills always seemed to pick up where he left off. He led the Red Sox to the World Series and is commemorated in many ways at Fenway Park. In the author’s note, the author points out the conflict Williams had with the media and often with the fans, but those conflicts didn’t lessen his skill on the ball field. And he was dedicated to helping others, especially children.

Vivid illustrations make the story come alive, from the fields where he practiced in San Diego to Fenway Park to the airplanes he flew.

Third grade readers will learn about Ted Williams, history, World War II and the Korean War, sports, and following one’s dreams and talents. This volume of Candlewick Biographies will promote literacy skills and comprehension.

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  • there goes ted williamsTitle: There Goes Ted Williams: The Greatest Player that Ever Lived
  • Author/Illustrator: Matt Tavares
  • Publisher: Candlewick, 2012
  • Reviewer: Sue Poduska
  • Format: Hardcover, 40 pages
  • Grade Level: 3 to 7
  • Genre: Nonfiction, biography, history, sports
  • ISBN: 978-0-7636-7655-1
  • Extras: Author’s Note, bibliography, Ted’s baseball statistics, index

Growing Up Pedro

Written and Illustrated by Matt Tavares

More than Pedro’s story, this is the story of two brothers and how they helped each other become two of the best pitchers in the major leagues. As a child, Pedro always looked up to his older brother, Ramón. Pedro wanted to play baseball with Ramón and his friends, but Ramón didn’t want Pedro to get hurt. Instead, the older brother instructed the younger brother to throw rocks at the ripe mangoes on the trees. A scout for the Los Angeles Dodgers spots sixteen-year-old Ramón on the Dominican national team and watches him at training camp. At seventeen, Ramón paves the way by reporting to the Dodgers. At every turn, he shares what he learns with Pedro, who takes his advice to heart. Pedro works on English as well as his fast ball. In 1990, Pedro is also drafted to the Dodgers. Ramón is still the pitching star of the family. The brothers work together on the major league team for little more than a season before Pedro is traded to Montreal in 1994. By 1996, Pedro has proven himself and starts pitching for the Boston Red Sox. He leads Boston to many great seasons. Meanwhile, he helps his family back in the Dominican Republic and also helps build up the village where he grew up. The illustrations are lively and realistic, with a definite feel for being at the ballpark.

All third graders will find the story heart-warming, helping them to work on literacy skills and comprehension. They will also learn something of recent history and about math with baseball statistics. This book is well-researched and well-told.

As a Baltimore Orioles fan, this almost made me like Pedro.

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  • Growing Up PedroTitle: Growing Up Pedro
  • Author/Illustrator: Matt Tavares
  • Publisher: Candlewick, 2015
  • Reviewer: Sue Poduska
  • Format: Hardcover, 40 pages
  • Grade Level: 3 to 7
  • Genre: Nonfiction, biography, sports
  • ISBN: 978-0-7636-6824-2
  • Extras: Author’s Note, Pedro Martinez’ major league statistics, Bibliography

Henry Aaron’s Dream

Written and illustrated by Matt Tavares

Nearly everyone who knows anything about baseball knows about Hank Aaron. He did, in fact, break the all-time home run record set by Babe Ruth. But do fans know about his youth? Drawing a picture of a hard-playing youth, Tavares makes the hero even more accessible to young readers. Young Henry Aaron loved baseball so much, he would swing any stick to make any object to make it fly. He began with a broom handle and bottle caps. He started playing with real baseball diamonds, bats, and balls when he was twelve. He grew up in a Mobile that was strictly segregated. So, when he began his career, only the Negro Leagues were available to him despite Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier with the Dodgers. Eventually, he was invited to play for a farm team for the Braves. He proved himself through his willingness to listen and learn, his perseverance, and his natural talent. He was one of the best players ever and one of the most respected men in sports.

Vivid illustrations make the story come alive.

The third grade reader hears about Henry Aaron, history, civil rights, sports, and following one’s dreams and talents. This volume of Candlewick Biographies will promote literacy skills and comprehension.

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  • Henry Aarons DreamTitle: Henry Aaron’s Dream
  • Author/Illustrator: Matt Tavares
  • Publisher: Candlewick, 2012
  • Reviewer: Sue Poduska
  • Format: Hardcover, 40 pages
  • Grade Level: 3 to 7
  • Genre: Nonfiction, biography, history, sports
  • ISBN: 978-0763658205

 

Double Reverse

Written by Fred Bowen

Jesse and his brother, Jay, are both freshmen – Jesse in high school and Jay in college. Jesse is looking forward to being a wide receiver on the JV squad. Jay, star quarterback in high school, assumes he’ll be quarterback at Dartmouth too. The brothers spend the summer running football patterns. When practice starts, their dreams are quickly changed by reality. Jesse is a better quarterback than anyone else on the team, though he’s a bit small for the position. Jay is just an okay quarterback compared to his teammates. Jesse’s best friends also find hidden talents as the football season progresses. Without a decent kicker, the team flounders until the boys decide the best kicker they know is a girl named Savannah, who also joins the team. Both Jesse and Jay have found their niche, but not without some soul searching.

Third graders just learning about team sports will love the exciting games Bowen describes. The author presents great examples of real football plays. The reader doesn’t have to understand every play in order to enjoy the story, though studying the plays will increase comprehension and literacy skills. Reading activities include practicing the plays presented. This story of realizing one’s potential should speak to everyone. A Junior Library Guild Selection, it is fast-paced and thrilling.

 

  • Double ReverseTitle: Double Reverse
  • Author: Fred Bowen
  • Publisher: Peachtree Publishers, 2014
  • Reviewer: Sue Poduska
  • Format: Hardcover, 125 pages
  • Genre: Sports
  • ISBN: 978-1-56145-814-1
  • Extras: “The Real Story,” where the author discusses accomplished athletes who went beyond their apparent talents.
  • Release date: August 2014

Miracle Mud: Lena Blackburne and the Secret Mud that Changed Baseball

Written by David A. Kelly

Illustrator by Oliver Dominguez

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Miracle Mud: Lena Blackburne and the Secret Mud that Changed Baseball written by David A. Kelly is the story and history of how Lena Blackburne’s mud went from a riverbank to the major leagues and all the way to the Hall of Fame! It is a story anyone interested in baseball facts and trivia would enjoy and is for readers as young as first grade to those in their senior years. I see this as a perfect book to be read to young readers by an avid baseball fan in that young reader’s life such as a mom, dad, uncle, aunt, or grandparent.

Lena Blackburne never became a famous ball player, but he did contribute to baseball in a major league way by unveiling a secret recipe to break in new baseballs. His recipe was so successful that baseball teams have been buying his tubbed mud for close to seventy-five years. In fact, Lena’s mud is the only thing that’s allowed on major league balls.

Readers are sure to appreciate Oliver Dominguez’s life-like illustrations that make you feel like you are on the baseball field ready to play ball with the touch and feel of Lena’s mud on your hands. Baseball history buffs will especially enjoy Kelly’s author note at the end.

Sports fans will also enjoy other books by David A. Kelly such as early reader title, Babe Ruth and the Baseball Curse or Ballpark Mysteries, a series aimed at those at the first to fourth grade reading level and is about two cousins who travel to Major League ballparks across the country with Kate’s sports-reporter mother watching games and solving mysteries.

  • Miracle MudTitle: Miracle Mud: Lena Blackburne and the Secret Mud that Changed Baseball
  • Author: David A. Kelly
  • Illustrator: Oliver Dominguez
  • Publisher: Millbrook Press
  • Reviewer: Annemarie O’Brien
  • Hard cover:  32 pages
  • ISBN: 978-0-7613-80920-4
  • Genre: picture book, biography, sports

Hoop Genius: How a Desperate Teacher and a Rowdy Gym Class Invented Basketball

Written by John Coy

Illustrated by Joe Morse

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In 1891, James Naismith took over a gym class with trepidation.  It was a rowdy class of young men, so rowdy that two teachers had already quit.  But he was determined to make it work.  The young men were bored of the same old exercises, Naismith realized, and they needed something fun.  He tried established outdoor games but they were too rough for indoors.  He needed something new.  » Read more

Becoming Babe Ruth

Written and illustrated by Matt Tavares

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Very few Americans, even those not interested in sports, have never heard of Babe Ruth. So what makes this volume unique and valuable? The story focuses on Ruth’s early life and how he became the great baseball player rather than on his stats and behavior as a grown man. The phenomenal illustrations show not only the illustrator’s passion for baseball and for Ruth, but they also show Ruth’s passion for everything, including kids and eating. Ruth was sent to Saint Mary’s Industrial School for Boys in Baltimore when he was seven. He was considered incorrigible. He learned to pitch and bat at the school and he learned to work hard to attain his goals. Even after he was no longer an inmate, Ruth did a lot to help the boys at Saint Mary’s. In 1920, the school’s band traveled with the team. The reader gets a glimpse of life in the early twentieth century as well. The street and game scenes are particularly vivid and also show the physical attributes in the cities he played for.

Because of the enthusiasm shown, third grade readers will be drawn into the tale of Ruth’s young life on the street and in Saint Mary’s. This book has already appeared on several reading lists, including receiving a Booklist starred review. The publisher’s website, www.candlewick.com, contains a lot of information about the author and about the book itself. As part of their “We Believe in Picture Books” campaign, the publisher is also posting videos by readers on www.readingstartshere.com.

  • Babe RuthTitle: Becoming Babe Ruth
  • Written and Illustrated By: Matt Tavares
  • Publisher: Candlewick Press
  • Reviewer: Sue Poduska
  • Hard Cover, 40 pages
  • ISBN: 978-0-7636-5646-1
  • Genre: Picture book, Sports
  • Lexile Score: 710L

Perfect Game

Written by Fred Bowen

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Once in a while there comes a sports story that is so much more than the usual story of wins and losses. Fred Bowen’s Perfect Game immerses his readers in the world of baseball: the preparation, the statistics, and then ever so gently lifts them out of that and into a world known to few children — the world of the Special Olympics Unified Sports.

Isaac Burnett is an expert pitcher. The opening chapter clues the reader to his search for perfection. He dresses for the game, checking and rechecking in the mirror that“…everything was just the way he liked it. The socks. The pants. The shirt. And last but not least, the hat.” He steps out ready for the perfect game.

There is a lot of technical description, but even readers who do not play baseball get the gist: the perfect game gets away from Isaac. He tries again and again, but it does not happen. His father urges him to practice more, “Practice doesn’t make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect.” And who knows, his father tells him, “maybe enough perfect practice will get you a perfect game.”

Coach Parks senses Isaac’s growing frustration. He does not lecture, or demand more; he just engineers a change of path. He asks Isaac to help with another team. Reluctantly Isaac agrees, but he is not prepared for the scene of absolute bedlam that greets him at the practice gym. He did not know this was a team of ‘retards’. Maya, the coach’s helper sets him right. “That’s not a word we use,” she tells him. “And you shouldn’t either. It’s really not nice.”

Bit by bit Isaac learns to appreciate the spirit that informs the players. He sees Kevin, a young boy with Syndrome X, blossom into a good shooter and slowly leaves the sanctuary of the quiet corner to step out onto the court. The readers learn along with him, and that is the best way to teach, isn’t it? That words can hurt, that the effort is what counts, and most importantly that playing for the team’s win is “perfect enough.”

What a perfect addition to any reading list! The back matter gives additional information about the 23 perfect games and the Special Olympics Unified Sports. There is enough matter to create many reading activities and discussion points.

Additional Resources:
About the story: http://www.fredbowen.com/perfect_game_116987.htm
Author Bio: http://www.fredbowen.com/bio.htm
List of Perfect Games: http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/history/rare_feats/index.jsp?feature=perfect_game

Perfect GameTitle: Perfect Game
Author: Fred Bowen
Publisher: Peachtree Publishers
Reviewer: Anjali Amit
Paperback: 143 pages
ISBN: 978-1-56145-625-3
Genre: Fiction/Sports
Lexile Score: 500

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