BASEBALL PLAYOFF SEASON! (Go Brewers!)

My personal team bias is revealed in the title of this post, but I've been celebrating BASEBALL as a sport, a community phenomenon, as history and as guide to living well for years. Posts from the past (about a dozen!) can be found by putting "baseball" in the search tab, but a few I'm especially fond of can be clicked HERE, HERE, and HERE. Most  baseball posts included two or more titles, so dive in!

As MLB Playoff Season underway, nstant betting of countless kinds adding to the excitement but  lends a slightly sour taste to the historic, classic, All-American sport. I've chosen to feature an older title that celebrates the truest soul of baseball. 

CLARION BOOKS, 2018

I GOT IT is the virtually wordless picture book by virtuoso visual storyteller, David Weisner. If you aren't familiar with his body of work, click on his name/website link and learn more. Many of Weisner's award winning titles involve intensely complex and surrealistic stories with many levels. In this case, though the cover reveals the purity and clarity, the nearly perfect truth that baseball belongs to everyone. And I feel safe in saying that every player on every team in the play-offs and eventual world series began dreaming of these days on a sandlot or local field, with or without a coach. 

Starting with the universally dreaded scene revealing a "Can I play, too" moment to assignment to the outfield, the eager player confidently shouts 

"I GOT IT!"

Those words appear more than  once, and the scenes that ensue  are both recognizable and fantastical. The emotional journey is both extraordinary and utterly familiar. 

As the playoff season unfolds, I'm prepared for the ups and downs, the nail-biting moments and (likely) dull ones, willing and eager to pay the price of angst and upset for the love of the team, the love of the game, the chance to participate. Despite what is undeniably disproportionate monetary investment in major league sports, and now the quagmire of betting on bits like how often someone touches their cap or taps their bat, I choose to celebrate the joy at the heart of the sport. From T-ball to the world series, from trips to triumph, from childhood dreams to standing on those big fields of dreams, baseball is special. I hope you'll take a look at this title (and any clicks you choose) to remind yourselves that there is value in teamwork, in trying, in playing. Play ball!

MAKING THREE WISHES... for IMAGINATION!

Today I celebrate picture books that demonstrate and honor the irrepressible imaginations of young readers. George Bernard Shaw's quote is worth remembering:

“We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing”. 

The first is SUNDUST,

Kokila, 2025     CALDECOTT HONOR BOOK

written and illustrated by Zeke Peña. This adventure is set in the desert wildlife just beyond an urban 

landscape, beyond the "bulldozers and things that don't belong". There  cacti and hummingbirds thrive, there blossoms and scaled critters reveal themselves, there chrysalis develops and butterflies emerge, there sudden rains turn concrete drains into watery adventures. Throughout each step and discovery, the words are as crisp and revealing. The colors and lines, expressions and sprawls are expansive. As a vibrant, nearly-neon sun moves toward setting, the long day of exploration winds down and a mother's call is heard. Even so, the two friends linger long enough to watch the final sunset, gathering "sundust", feeling the universe of stardust within themselves. 

A day such as theirs is a gift, to them, and to  any reader lucky enough to open the covers of this book. Journey with them as they notice and appreciate nature at its finest. A marvelous world is waiting just beyond the edge of the everyday.

NEAL PORTER BOOKS
HOLIDAY HOUSE, 2020

Next up is a less reality-based adventure but one equally inviting. Author Philip Stead and illustrator Matthew Cordell have combined their creative talents in another cartoon-style picture book, but in an entirely different visual effect. Characters in SUNDUST feel firmly anchored in their habitat, even as their post-swim brown skin dries in cracks that resemble the hard-caked earth. In FOLLOW THAT FROG the text is more complex and adventurous, as are the various pages of full and spot illustrations. Speech bubbles combine with hand-letter sound effects, longer text, and cross-hatched and intricate drawings from quilts to chickens to dreamy-memory sequences related by Aunt Josephine. She recounts her youthful Peruvian adventure involving a giant frog who swallows an admiral's son. Succeeding pages reveal rides on ostriches and tortoise backs, pirates, misdirection, rescues. Throughout this surreal tale, a loud KNOCK continues. I leave it to you to fully explore (intentional word choice) the continents, critters, and comedy that bounces off these pages. 

NEAL PORTER BOOKS
HOLIDAY HOUSE, 2026

Finally (for today, at least) is a picture book that celebrates the cumulative creativity of kids left to their imaginations. Most cultures include the spontaneous game of ... "The floor is lava"... or some other assertion that requires survival by hopping from chair to couch, or even counter-surfing. In IF THIS WERE THE WORLD, written by Stephen Barr and illustrated by Ag Ford, the story spans one recess period in which various suggestions like the above example are shared, then each is countered by "we played that yesterday... or last week..."  or other indication that these imaginative kiddos are not afraid of big ideas. That's when a boy lifts a perfectly round orange from his lunchbox and challenges:

 "What if THIS... were the world?"

After sharing the juicy segments, other possibilities emerge- large spheres, a massive tree, and more. In each scenario they explore ways to use, share, and even over-use the supposed "world" in their imagination. Each fails to fully succeed. Finally, ... But I will not share the conclusion, despite the fact that I long to do so! There is such simplicity and depth to the conclusion that it feels nearly like a prayer. Not a formal or "religious" one, but a sense of awakening to ourselves and our place among our true world. The current moon mission has been sending color images of our amazing planet. That's a timely reminder of the power of awareness of just how precious our planet and our places on it and among each other really are. 

May you all, one and all, read these. And be inspired to PLAY!

Summer Nostalgia: JOY, Then and Now!

Nancy Paulsen Books, 2022

The World Belonged to Us is written by multi-award-winning and widely-admired author Jacqueline Woodson, with brilliantly joyful, time-specific details and action-packed scenes, illustrated by Leo Espinosa.This text is longer than many recent picture books, but every word carries its weight-  although the tone and pace of this book is not at all weighty, characterized by feathery lightness of spirit and tone. The opening words, repeated throughout the book, are presented in larger colorful font and poetic line breaks:

"In Brooklyn

in the summer

not so long ago"

At each appearance, those words launch a past-tense account of the FREEDOM of kids in summer- FREE as sun, FREE as summer! In summer, in those days, things that had bound kids into the braces and traces of daily life were ERASED:

Hairdos, clothing, schedules, playground fences, and even having adults resolve differences. In summer, it fell to the kids themselves to work things out  in ways that preserved their community of play. The compelling drive and array of options, their curiosity, and necessary collaboration sustained the momentum of a single game over several days. Most endeavors involved large numbers of kids, so everyone found their places in the action. 

The threads of shared news, heroes, storytellers, and wishes (ice cream truck, anyone?) meant the bonds ran deep and strong, overcoming occasional issues. 

"Wait! Wait! We want a cone.

Then we shared with the friends with no money

because some days the ones with no money

were us."

Within the span of a long (timeless!) day, play extended to the borders of dusk, street lights glowing, and adults calling from street-lined  windows. While heading indoors, assurances of returning where they left off on the next day were shouted up and down the street. 

A magical ending ensues, and I want to share it, without quotations, because wordsmith Woodson deserves your full attention to the text on those final page turns. As a reader and writer of picture books, I have often noted (and have had my attention called to) stories that are "wonderful", but somehow "too slight", or "just not quite enough". 

As gorgeous as this account is, if it had ended with the cleared streets and lighted windows, it just might have merited that comment. Nostalgia has its place but can only go so far in the minds of young audiences. But at that point Woodson turns her repeating phrase in the opening on its head, with "not just" phrasing. Readers join in a powerful leap off the steps, off the page, and into hearts with a perfectly worded conclusion about the power of those experience to launch kids filled with confidence and joyful anticipation of life.

Lee & Low Books, 2017

The Hula-Hoopin' Queen is written by Thelma Lynne Godin and illustrated by exuberant and joyful  Vanessa Brantley-Newton. This is my own nostalgic nod to a throwback title that deserves a close look.  It offers a recognition that not all is lost in current summer vacation days. This contemporary presentation of "Black Girl Joy" has been on the shelves for several years and deserves another shout-out here. The intense  emotions of a girl who has her heart set on winning a neighborhood competition against her rival, with the designation of HULA-HOOPIN' QUEEN, is magnified when her family responsibilities deny her a chance to even TRY!. 

That is a perfect example of writing a story with specific character, situation, and setting that will speak universally to kids from across the country and around the world. Darn those family chores that "ruin" kids' days- especially summer sun/fun days! That happen everywhere, and to everyone!

But joy is not only powerful, it is contagious. The triggers of rhythm, musicality, and cross-generational love and joy lead to a lively, shared resolution that will have hips wiggling and feet tapping, young and old alike. 

This is a great example of a picture book that "lasts", that remains worthy of celebration and attention, long after the early launch hubbub it also deserved. Track it down, share it, and then dig out your old hula hoops!