MLB Baseball's Opening Day: Plenty to Celebrate!

I'm a baseball fan (Go, Brewers!). Among the many reasons that the past year was notable, missing out on a normal baseball season (fill-in-the-blank with any/all sports) is NOT at the level of a tragedy. On the other hand, as various sports managed to resume some version of a season (again, in the sport of your choice) that fact did seem to provide considerable relief and release for the much of the American public.

In the case of baseball, even with a retractable dome over our home field, the players are widely spread out the open air, which is a central feature of the game, and attendance capacity has been set at 25%.

So, YAY!

Regardless of whether or not this is a typical season, the start of baseball season is a certain a sign of SPRING as anyone could ask for: of warmer weather, of gatherings, of better days ahead. Even if tailgates are not allowed. Even if masks and distances and food management feel less than typical, I said it before, and i say it again:  YAY!

In the name of retaining my own traditions,  I am eager to share several baseball picture books on OPENING DAY. And this time it is in celebration of a young woman who embraced what was meant to be a derogatory nickname, PEANUT. 

MAMIE ON THE MOUND is written by Leah Henderson and illustrated by George Doutsiopoulos. Mamie "PEANUT" Johnson was a baseball fan from her earliest days, and she loved pitching. She WORKED at it, building up the muscles, eye-hand coordination, and confidence to [play with the boys, then alter the men. That nickname indicates thatch had to earn their respect, and she did. She was NOT able to play with the elite women players, who also had some impressive skills. 

Was she good enough? Certainly. 

Was she White? Certainly not.

So, her baseball option was limited to trying out and playing with the Negro League, which she did. Even as a young mother, she left her baby in the care of the father while she traveled the Negro league circuit for three years before stepping away. the rest of her life was successful, but throughout her life she counted those three years as the best of her life. 

What a terrific profile this is of a young woman who would not take no for an answer. Mamie’s love of baseball and her confidence in her value, talent, and hard work meant that every NO she faced was met with a work-around or determination to make her way beyond the obstacles.

I've shared other baseball picture books, as I mentioned above. Check out some of them 

HERE and HERE and HERE,

While you're at it, consider giving this lively, inspiring picture book a look, too!

HOME BASE: A Mother-Daughter Story , written by Nikki Tate and illustrated by Kathi Kath. It's a charming STEM/STEAM/MAKER -linked text that uses parallels in text, word choice/order, and illustration to portray a young girl seeking to succeed at baseball with her mother pursuing a job/career in construction/hardscaping. Their emotional, physical, and social journeys to success are well developed and encourage prediction, connection, and "read it again" fun.

Women's Soccer Returns- Meet Trailblazer: Lily Parr!

Anchoring this post in Covid-19 time:
Among the horrific consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic are the ever-rising death toll, the rapid increases in regional "hot spots" (with related lack of ICU beds), the insistence by far too many that masks are useless, and the emotional pain of missing loved ones and their important life-events. Among countless other effects are economic distress, evictions, indebtedness from medical costs and unemployment. Even so, these life-changing and continuing destructions seem to be of less concern (to some) than our lack of public recreation, including broadcast of professional sports.
Proportionality?
I get it, to some extent. Sports can be a unifying force, and viewing can offer diversion from pain, suffering, and simple boredom. Efforts are underway to provide those benefits while assuring safety for all involved. The National Women's Soccer League is among sports organizations taking steps to find a safe way through the present pandemic labyrinth. If they are successful, a tournament will begin broadcasting matches (with public non-attendance) near the end of June. (Learn more here.) Meanwhile, here's some good reading! 

Maverick Publishing, 2020

Fans of sports, biography, women's history, and resilience are going to love a new picture book releasing in August. Trailblazer: Lily Parr- The Unstoppable Star of Women's Football is written by Elizabeth Dale and illustrated by Carolina Coroa. If you've read about or seen (A League of Our Own) about American Women's softball leagues during the Second World War,  you might feel a sense of deja vu when reading about  Lily's life story. 
Her calling began a generation earlier while she played in the streets and discovered her talent, strength, and love of "football" (the name for soccer in Britain). She received mixed messages as a child: that girls didn't play football, and that she could outkick, outrun, and outplay everyone else, including the boys. 
Both messages followed her throughout her life. 
But that mistaken gender assumption and cultural restriction never held her back. At only fourteen years old she began what would be a lifetime career in sports, despite intense and organized efforts to limit women players. During the First World War, she and other females replaced men-gone-to-war in their factory jobs, then practiced and played football for hours and hours on their own time. Lily's teammates agreed to play for absurdly low payment in order to donate ticket income to charity. 
That much of Lily's story should hook you, but there is much more. When men decided that football wasn't "suitable" for women, public stadiums were no longer available for their games. Lily's team and others vowed to play on, using local plowed fields. But the crowds they had drawn to overflowing in those stadiums wouldn't fit on a village field. Lily's journey to gain the right to play, and to find the right place to do it, led her to the USA. There she continued to rack up wins, break records and thrill fans .

The obstacles to women's soccer that Britain had set in place lasted half a century, into the 1970s. Lily's career did the same. In Lily's long football career she set unimaginable records: for goals and assists, for power and speed, for success at many positions and spectacular plays, and for defying the expectations and limits of her time. Her amazing life unfolds through those years with lively stages and equally appealing page turns, featuring accessible text and spot inserts citing jaw-dropping statistics and accomplishments. By the conclusion, I was ready to wave a banner to give Lily the credit she deserved. You will find out if my help was needed or not on the last pages.

Interior spread, TRAILBLAZER (Maverick Publications)

The final turn provides a simple timeline of Lily Parr's life in sports, and the end papers collect and display those informative fact-circles from the interior. It is a wonderful way to celebrate and congratulate Lily's remarkable success, not only in sport, but in blazing the trail for women in all sports, all around the world.
Throughout my teaching years (elementary) many of my fellow educators (specialists, teaching paraprofessionals, volunteers, and student teachers) would comment on how much they were learning from picture books we shared. I couldn't agree more. I'm a Jeopardy fan and I often know correct answers I've gleaned from  prior picture book reading. The all-time money winner, James Holzhauer, "Jeopardy James", told Alec Tribeck that he prepared by spending time with picture books. (Read further comments from James HERE.)
TRAILBLAZER is yet another book that taught me important hidden history in the most appealing, engaging, and entertaining of ways. 

Poster via Colours of Us

#BlackLivesMatter anchor in time:
Last weekend Juneteenth was celebrated. By now you should have heard enough of the basics to know what that celebration is about. My unscientific survey among highly educated friends and family revealed that NONE of us had ever learned about, at any grade level, from any formal educational source. Whether this celebration is new to you or if you've been aware from public events or other sources in the past, let these outstanding PICTURE BOOKS surprise you with the richness and detail that is our American history and heritage. And don't let that age label throw you off- you never outgrow your need for picture books- or learning new things.

During weekend interviews and conversations I've heard several people refer to the current state of global awareness as a MOVEMENT, not a MOMENT. It's my deepest hope and intention to help make that happen. One way we all can support having a more informed, just, and equitable future is to learn the many sides of OUR HISTORY that has been too long told through a single, inadequate point of view. 

She Persisted: Past, Present, and Future

Some books launch with so much attention that I choose to pass on reviewing or commenting, regardless of how I feel about them. 

Philomel Books, 2017

I do read them. Often I rate and post a short review on Goodreads. 
There are just SO MANY amazing releases that don't garner widespread attention. I reserve this blog for books that are, in my opinion, deserving of an extra splash of spotlight. My influence-wattage may be small, but I keep plowing ahead to share such books, and also highlight backlist books that remain significant and valuable. As always, those choices reflect my personal opinions. 

In the case of this book, the attention has been extensive, and well-deserved on many counts. Even so, I couldn't resist adding some reflections of my own here about  SHE PERSISTED: 13 American Women Who Changed the World,  written by Chelsea Clinton and illustrated by Alexandra Boiger. 

There are several other current books about amazing women, from individual biographic profiles to collections, from iconic figures to relatively unknown heroines  A great place to find outstanding recommendations is at A MIGHTY GIRL website, which offers well-curated, up-to-date lists of titles for various ages and interests. (HERE). Resources like this provide yet another reason for me to pass on some reviews. Why try to outdo the best of the best?

But then my library hold notification "dinged" and SHE PERSISTED made its way into my hands. It appealed to me on many levels, and yet some elements seemed to "break the rules" of picture books. I read it several times and evaluated carefully, finally deciding to share my thoughts here. 
On the plus side, I adore the art and book design. It has dramatic, red end papers, presents figures that are diverse and expressive, and displays full spreads that feature women with notable accomplishments, including short quotations from their bodies of work.Those quotations, the well-suited and distinctive illustration style for each, and the range from familiar to unknown women are all powerful plusses.I particularly enjoyed the decision to feature a baker's dozen of women as having quirky appeal, although I am aware that is likely as much due to book length as to a conscious choice. I'm always curious about dedications, and both Clinton's and Boiger's do not disappoint.
As much as I enjoy and admire this book in those ways, I feel compelled to add a few "yes, but" comments. The instructive/narrative text is a compressed introduction, an little more than an invitation to investigate further. It feels a bit old for the youngest readers and a bit young for established readers. It does invite research, reading, and investigation, though. That's the point at which I wondered if one of the more familiar women (Helen Keller, perhaps?) might have been omitted in favor of a spread of accessible recommended resources on the back pages. I also longed for citations for the quotations on the back pages. 
The power of this appealing book is to incite curiosity about these (and other) American women, and yet there is no readily available option or comparable books suggested to readers. Some reviewers have commented, too, that the profiles, taken as a whole, demonstrates an oppressive system holding a thumb down on the women's success. Yes, that fits well with the conceptual "persistence" or "grit" theme, but it came off as a bit discouraging.

A curious reader can go to Amazon and find comparable books, or Wikipedia to search for more content, but neither is considered a valid research tool. At least not one as reliable as a curated list in the back of a book that could easily have been included by such a reputable publisher. 
In addition, Senator Elizabeth Warren has made "She persisted" such a catch-phrase that a Google search takes one to memes, merchandise, and to Senator Warren herself, but not immediately to the book. My search for a Chelsea Clinton website in support of this book took me to the Clinton Foundation or to her Facebook page, neither of which references the book or provides further links. The publisher's page, here,  offered little to no additional content or optional links. 
In that sense, I found this to be a book I'd buy, give, and use, but with reservations. I generally feel that celebrity books, especially picture books, rely on the name-value of the author with less-than-industry-standard attention to details like these. Sometimes, as in this case, it feels a bit rushed-to-market. The target age noted is 4-8, and yet I believe sales will trend toward adult fans of Clinton, Warren, and the concept itself. Yes, adults are the buyers of picture books, and they will then share with young readers. In this case, though, I feel it is the illustrator's  work rather than the text that will manage to draw young reader/listeners into the book. I'm not anticipating a rash of "read it again" requests.

Even with those cautions, it is a worthy choice and one that merits a place on your shelves. Read Publishers' Weekly starred review here, and the Kirkus review here, one that noted some of my concerns. With the potential for reaching such a wide audience, I wish that a few more months had been devoted to allow it to reach its full potential.