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Hit a Home Run with Baseball Books
By Holly E. Newton

Take me out to the ball game! Yes, it’s time once again for that good old American pastime, providing summer one of its great family activities. Here are four outstanding fiction books involving baseball that would be enjoyable to read aloud for any age.

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The Aurora County All-Stars, by Deborah Wiles, is a beautifully written story about 12-year-old House Jackson, who lives for baseball. He’s the captain and pitcher of the Aurora County team and is about to take on the nemesis of the season. (Actually it’s the only game the team plays, making it especially important.)

But there are complications that may prevent the game from taking place. One big snag is that the 200-year celebration pageant to recognize the town’s beginning is scheduled to take place at the very same time as the game, and the parents have enlisted their children (including all of the members of the team) to be part of the pageant.

House couldn’t participate in baseball for more than a year due to a broken elbow, so this year is very important to him. His father arranged for him to become involved in an indoor humanitarian project to help keep his mind and sorrow off of baseball — he went to Mr. Boyd’s house, an elderly recluse, and read to him in the early evenings. However, now that his elbow has healed and the game is quickly approaching, House has come to the man’s home only to discover that Mr. Boyd has passed on. House is about to discover some amazing and important things about this man and that he is somehow connected to him. He also is bequeathed some invaluable mementos.

The interaction between House and his teammates, his father and Mr. Boyd is poised in elegant descriptions. Wiles writes with meaningful eloquence that heightens the senses, images, sights and sounds of a summer evening at the ballpark. “Cicadas called from the trees. Frogs sang from the pond in the back pasture. The sky was now a brilliant, empty, bright-morning blue.” She has utilized quotes and inferences to expressively connect deeper meanings from the famous writer, Walt Whitman. And Wiles has injected her own visual imagery and vivid character development to move the story to its surprise conclusion and wrap its contents around your heart.

Safe At Home, by Sharon Robinson, is a story about 10-year-old Jumper, who has just recently moved from Connecticut to Harlem to live with his grandma. He and his mom are having difficulties dealing with life after his father died from a heart attack. So his mom decides to move back with her mother, where she can better cope.

But the move is difficult on Jumper because he’s never lived in the inner city or dealt with kids that are tough and mean-spirited. His grandma has signed him up to play baseball even though he dislikes it. She hopes the sport will help him make new friends and teach him the value of hard work in a sport his father loved.

Unfortunately for Jumper, he’s already met a kid, Marcus, who is very rude to Jumper. It’s also unfortunate for Jumper that Marcus has also signed up for baseball and is going to be Jumper’s new captain on his team.

How can Jumper survive this summer? He can’t catch, hit or field. He already feels like such a loser. But, as his great and patient coach teaches him, there’s much more to baseball than having natural ability. “Marcus has baseball skills and experiences as a team leader. Jumper’s newer at the game, but is willing to work hard to gain some skills.”

The coach teaches the importance of cooperation and teamwork. And this theme prevails throughout this smallish-sized book of only 148 pages. But the impact is great and the story develops as Jumper and his team end up in the championship game. By the way, the author is baseball great Jackie Robinson’s daughter.

Swindle, by Gordon Korman, is a mystery about 11-year-old Griffin, who is “The Man with the Plan.” He and his buddy, Ben, decide to stay overnight in a deserted and condemned old house to figure out how to convince the city to turn the property into a skate park.

But everything changes for Griffin when he discovers an old and very valuable Babe Ruth baseball card.

He gets swindled out of the value of the card when he takes it to a collectible and memorabilia shop to discover its value. The shop owner tells him it’s a copy and not worth more than the $120 he gives Griffin for it. But Griffin soon discovers that the card is probably worth a million dollars and devises a plan to get it back. The author is a popular adventure and mystery writer for kids and this book doesn’t disappoint. Get ready for a page-turning journey!

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Game 1, 2 and 3 (Barnstormers books 1, 2 and 3), by Loren Long and Phil Bildner, are three great books about three siblings who recently have lost their father. He belonged to a wartime traveling baseball team.

They are now traveling with the team to raise money, but haven’t received an explanation as to the purpose of what the money is for. But they have discovered something very unusual about their father’s old baseball. Very odd things begin to happen when they all touch it together.
These are exciting books that take you back to the beginnings of the game of baseball!

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