Baseball Biographies: Who Makes the Line-up in Literature?

Baseball's Opening Day has finally arrived. Hooray!  

Baseball season stretches across six months, with enthusiasm waxing and waning from month to month, depending on the current standing of our favorite teams. When October looms, even the most devoted fans may find interest on a downward spiral if our team(s) are statistically eliminated.

At no point in the season do our fandom flames burn more brightly than on Opening Day. That's when the proverbial playing field feels truly level. Errors are excused. Batting averages are "tied" across the line-up. Players virtually vibrate with enthusiasm and their grins are enormous and contagious. Whatever the weather, open field or closed roof, spring has officially ended and sunny days stretch far into our foreseeable future.

Many little boys dream of taking that field on some far off opening day. But not every boy. Quite a few girls, little and otherwise, see themselves stepping up to bat, too. Mo'Ne Davis became an instant celebrity last year when she pitched her way to fame in the Little League World Series. 
Her participation was a far cry from that of Effa Manley nearly a century ago. Manley's story is told in the picture book biography, SHE LOVED BASEBALL: The Effa Manley Story, written by Audrey Vernick and illustrated by Don Tate. Here's a book that's been around for half a decade and received nowhere NEAR the attention it deserves. There's more than a touch of irony in that, since Effa Manley's life was also largely ignored by anyone in the circles of power, meaning Major League Baseball. She was truly a woman ahead of her time in the arenas of sports, business, civil rights, and gender stereotypes. 

Balzer & Bray, 2010

Her integrity, ingenuity, and insistence on fairness changed lives and the face of American baseball. Long after the Negro League disbanded, Manley advocated successfully for long overdue recognition and honors for players, including assignment to baseball's Hall of Fame. 
On July 30, 2006, she became the first female affiliated with the Negro League inducted into the Hall of Fame on her own merits. As her tombstone says, She Loved Baseball.
If ever there were a biography begging to be made into a movie, this is it. Is anyone in Hollywood ready to take it on? This is a great candidate for promotion in the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign. I'm especially excited to share it today, in April, as a public reminder that "Black History" and "Women's History" are relevant all year long.

For more baseball biographies and stories rooted in history (and social justice) check out this collection of reviews on a new blog. (Click here.)

My post schedule on this blog has been slowed in recent months by writing and revision demands for a book due out later this year. I'm also one of four historical fiction writers authoring a new group blog, launching today:

THE STORIED PAST.

It's a catchy title, but note that we are thestoriedpast.org, (not .com). We four (Sandy Brehl, Emily and Hilda Demuth, and Stephanie Lowden) write historical fiction, among other things. We look forward to offering reviews, interviews, reflections, and quotes. We also welcome suggestions for reviews and interviews  I hope you'll take a look, maybe even subscribe. 

We're celebrating the new endeavor and opening day by offering a FREE Kindle download of the latest Demuth sisters' title, HATTIE'S WAR. The Civil War and the earliest days of baseball feature strongly in Hattie's story, at a time when this nascent "gentleman's" sport was still called "base ball". Click here for your free download before the offer expires on on April 6. 

An "Anti-Theme-Month" Post

One of my earliest posts after launching this blog addressed the question of "Monthly Themes". If you've been a loyal reader, don't bother to link back, because you're already aware of my conflicted views on this practice. But if you're new around these parts (or posts) I urge you to take a moment to read the link above and give some thought to this longstanding literary practice.

Back in March, the official "Women's History Month", I became aware of these three titles but made a conscious choice to save them for now.

Harcourt Children's Books, 2003

It's pretty easy to see why I'd save MAMA PLAYED BASEBALL, by David Adler, illustrated by Chris O'Leary. I'm an avid baseball fan and proud to say that the number of quality picture books featuring baseball greats is extensive and growing. 

David Adler's success with picture book biographies is indisputable, in part because of his ability to cover all the essential details of lives while seamlessly revealing the background and the mid-ground of the world surrounding those lives.
In this case he presents a generic version of a player in one of the women's baseball teams that arose of necessity during World War II. Generic, but only in that it is not an individual's biography, and yet it's so very specific I feel as if I know this family. You will, too, including the daughter who helps Mama practice, the quirky grandparents, and the proud dad returning from war. (Fans of picture books and baseball should check out Stephanie Lowden's recent blog posts, too.)

Simon&Schuster,
Paula Wiseman Books, 2013

World War II forced society to rethink the expectations and limits of gender, but no such force was in place in the previous century. LOOK UP: Henrietta Leavitt, Pioneering Woman Astronomer, by Robert Burleigh, illustrated by Raul Colon offers an accessible and appealing look at a remarkable woman of that time. Henrietta Leavitt pursued her lifelong fascination with the stars, unphased by being the only woman in her astronomy and other science classes.  She worked at Harvard Observatory for years, despite the fact that women were consigned to essential computational analysis tasks but denied access to the telescopes. Women served as human computers and were expected to "work, not think". 
Leavitt's remarkable capacity for detailed observation, measurement, and comparison of the daily star images, coupled with her insatiable desire to understand the universe, led her to make paradigm-changing discoveries about space, stars, and the Milky Way. Her work changed forever our understanding of the size and relationships within space, and she is acknowledged as a landmark figure in the study of astronomy.
Backmatter in this book is a rich resource, including further details of her life and accomplishments, a glossary, other women astronomers, and resources for further study.

Calkins Creek Books, 2012

Back our time machine up another half century to the early 1800's to meet legendary  Molly Williams, an African American servant (not slave) in New York City. A well-researched version of her story is offered in MOLLY, BY GOLLY: The Legend of Molly Williams, America's First Woman Firefighter,  by Dianne Ochiltree, illustrated by Kathleen Kemly. 
Molly's story blends her traditional roles (cook, servant) with her very untraditional sense of self, especially for the times. The precise details of her assistance in fighting a fire in the midst of a winter storm aren't nearly as important as are her confidence and commitment. The fact that the firefighters felt such respect for her competence and courage is seen in the backmatter research notes. The patterns of firefighting described are also well-documented and offer readers real insight into the vulnerabilities of city dwellers in those times. 

Molly, Henrietta, and Mama are women who shaped the world around them rather than conforming to the expectations of their times. By so doing, they changed history, and their stories are far too important to be shelved, waiting for another "Women's History Month" to roll around. 
My concerns about the limitations of theme months, though, do not apply to "appreciation" events. In particular, I  encourage everyone to celebrate National Library Week, April 14-20. In fact, why not head over to your library this week and check out any or all of these titles. While you're there, thank a librarian. The library is often the first (and frequent) stop individuals make as they begin their own journeys to changing history for themselves.

The Wide, Wide World of Books/Remix!

Well, one year into my blogging career and I've lost a post for the first time. 
This is my best effort at recreating it, with sincere apologies to guest blogger, Richa Jha, and to any readers who've been inconvenienced by this error.

JoAnn Macken, Janet Halfmann,
 and Kathryn Heling

Imagine two days immersed in the best possible company- those who create, produce, sell, circulate, read, teach, share, and love books. Books for the youngest, books for teens, books for professionals, fiction and non-fiction, and countless resources to support their use. 

On February 7 and 8 I did just that with other members of SCBWI at the annual WSRA (Wisconsin State Reading Association) convention in Milwaukee.

Shelia Llanas and
Stephanie Golightly Lowden

Surrounded as I was by an abundance of books I found myself reflecting on thoughts shared by my virtual/social media friend Richa. Lagos-based writer Richa Jha is a self-procalimed picture book fanatic and believes in a good picture book’s power to unleash imagination and wonder in a child’s mind. She shares her thoughts and features books at http://snugglewithpicturebooks.com/ and http://www.facebook.com/snugglewithpicturebooks. 

She's been experiencing some website gremlins of her own, so if you try the links and find anything other than an informative world-view of picture books, please be patient and return to try back later. I assure you it will be worthwhile. Welcome, Richa!

Richa Jha

A Disconnected Connect

My family’s love for picture books has become a bit of a joke among our friends. We’ve been known to have missed phone calls and door bells and play dates and lunch invites and other pressing demands when snuggled with picture books! And they are easy to spot in my house - in door-nooks, next to the cookies jar, under the dining table, behind the curtains, in the car seat pocket; any place which is large enough for us to curl up with one. 

But, and here’s the big but, your chances of finding more than a few Indian picture books in those piles is slim. Not because we don’t have picture books in India, but because my kids and I find it difficult to connect with most. For my children, more often than not, it’s not finding themselves on the pages that creates the dissonance. A big number of books are about trees and leaves and birds and monkeys and clouds and mountains that want to stand in for children, but fall short of being overly simplistic (and badly executed) tales of only the trees and birds and monkeys and clouds and mountains. Just that and no more. With most other books, it’s rare for my kids to see characters who are like them. This needs qualifying; time to stir up a hornest’s nest back home!

Let me begin at the beginning: the diversity of India. Which gives rise to the realities of hundreds of multicultural sub agendas at various levels: socio-economic, regional, cultural, linguistic, and more. What’s true of one end of India may not necessarily be true of the other. The largest chunk of our picture books comes from south India, and naturally, carries a strong regional flavour. Which percolates to every single bit about how the children endearingly address their parents to the foods they eat to the names they carry to the way they tie their hair to the way they dress up (at least, most certainly in the way they are depicted in these books). Should I be bold enough and say this – what’s missing from the bulk of our picture books is the young north or east or north east Indian child.

For my children, therefore, a grandmother being lovingly called ‘Pati’ by a little one in a book is as alien as ‘Nokomi’ is for an American child. The book has lost its very first chance of connecting with my child right there. Of course, I play the politically-correct mom and render a little homily to my kids on the virtues of multiculturalism within our country, and therefore the need to appreciate that in books. I show them some academic pieces on the web that do the same, and I feel happy that I have done my bit as a responsible mom raising informed sensitive global kids. ‘Ah, so we do feel a bit like those Latino kids feel in the US!’ Ok, something like that!

And that’s not all. Each time I see them grumble at the sight of yet another folk tale retelling or a folk art illustration, I quickly look around to make sure the walls didn’t hear that. ‘You two will make sure I get ostracized within my own picture book community, you little rascals,’ I mutter under my breath, but proceed with remarkable poise with another impromptu homily on our great storytelling and folkart traditions and the need to know and preserve them. But deep within, I see over-dependence on these as a shortcoming (I often end up with a feeling that it’s more for the Western eyes than it is for our own kids).

But, if the unfamiliarity with the main characters in the books is one factor that leads to the disconnect, why is it that picture books from the West resonate well with my kids? That’s because even though the faces and the names are different, the settings are familiar. A typical urban Indian child today has far more in common with an American child in LA, or one in London or in Sydney than she has with a child in rural India (which is where most of our folk tales and folk art stories, or even our newer stories are based). They read the same books, speak the same language, watch the same channels, wear the same brands, gorge on the same junk and play the same games on the Tabs. Against this backdrop, throw in an equally familiar and universal world of a child’s – a world full of questions, big little fears, facing those fears, anxieties, courage, friendships, camaraderie, loyalties, betrayals, joys, sorrows, heart-aches, desires, expectations, dilemmas or choices – and you have a perfect recipe for instant deep bonding with the book! Doesn’t matter that it got created thousands of miles away!

The lack of these last ingredients mentioned above, coupled with paper-thin, situational, or fluffy and bizarre fantasy-led plots in most of our books is what leaves and my children and me with a lukewarm feeling by the time I reach the last pages. I feel cheated at being denied the privilege of having been a part of a real character’s real life, real crisis and a genuinely real resolution of the problem, or of any layered reading.

Do I sound over-critical?! Let me admit that there is a visible change in the way our picture book shelves look at the book stores of late; some of our newer releases are delightful! And each time I come across a gem, it renews my belief that our picture books will only get better with time.

Richa Jha

Thanks for joining me here, Richa, and for reminding us that quality picture books, like kids themselves, transcend cultural boundaries and enrich us all.