H is for Home Run: A Baseball Alphabet

by Brad Herzog, Melanie Rose (Illustrator)

Overview

Now anyone can be one of the "boys or girls of summer" and get a home plate view of America's favorite pastime in H is for Home Run: A Baseball Alphabet. This new offering in our line of children's alphabet books brings the game of baseball to entertaining and informative life. Sports writer Brad Herzog pairs easy-to-read rhymes with detailed expository so that readers are pitched baseball's facts, faces, history, and places from A-Z.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781585362196
Publisher:	Sleeping Bear Press
Publication date:	05/04/2004
Series:	Sports Alphabet
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	11.40(w) x 10.25(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	4 - 10 Years

Editorial Reviews

Where do I start? This book has so much to offer. If you are looking for a book about baseball, then this is the one for you. It will suit the needs of beginning players, those who are avid fans, and those who don't quite understand the game, but want to. Yes, it is an alphabet book that cleverly explains terms, baseball vocabulary, and plays while pulling the reader into the game. If you don't play baseball, this might just get you excited enough to grab your coat and go to a batting cage to experience what it is like to hit a ball. Included on each page is a colored four-inch side strip that gives the history of the word for the page. It also includes another term for the same letter. "K is for kids everywhere who keep their baseball card and kiss the ball goodbye over the fence in their back yard." In the strip the reader will also learn that "K is also a symbol for a strikeout when a fan is keeping score of a baseball game." The illustrations are spectacular, and each time you look at them, you will see something you missed. I can't praise this book enough. Hopefully, more like this one will follow. 2004, Sleeping Bear Press, Ages 4 to 12.
—Kathie M. Josephs

Children's Literature

Gr 1-4-In keeping with the established format of this series, Herzog provides a baseball-related term for each letter of the alphabet. Each page contains the letter in upper- and lowercase as well as an alliterative verse that often makes reading aloud a challenge. The accompanying sidebars, set in a smaller font, provide additional facts for advanced enthusiasts, possibly ESL students-it is difficult to determine the audience for this mixed format. Tricky letters such as U, W, X, and Z are incorporated within the theme more effortlessly than perhaps the Q: "Q is when a base runner/moves at a quick pace./Quietly, he has a quest--/stealing second base." Dramatic, action-packed paintings done from a variety of perspectives capture the energy, personalities, and excitement of the game. Supplemental.-Blair Christolon, Prince William Public Library System, Manassas, VA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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