Children's Literature
Author Crystal Hubbard hits one out of the ballpark with Catching the Moon. Young Marcenia Lyle loves baseball but her dream of being a professional ballplayer seems as unreachable as the white orb outside her window at night. In the 1930s, the only jobs available to African American women are teacher, nurse and maid, according to her parents, who worry about their daughter's tomboy ways. But Marcenia keeps playing and even convinces Mr. Gabby Street, the manager of the St. Louis Cardinals, that she be allowed to attend his boys-only baseball camp. The book ends with the happy girl feeling that "she had reached right up in the sky and caught the moon in her glove." An afterword reveals that Marcenia Lyle, under the name Toni Stone, became the first female member of an all-male baseball team. A great read-aloud for February's African American History Month, this tribute to the power of dreams is further enhanced by Randy DuBurke's engaging pictures of energetic Marcenia. 2005, Lee and Low, Ages 5 up. —Mary Quattlebaum