978-076-138-0924
The main purpose of a nonfiction book is to teach us something we didn't know, and this one - if you'll pardon the pun - smacked it out of the ballpark.
I will readily admit to not knowing much about baseball, or any other sport, for that matter. I knew that 'spitballs' are against the rules. I did not know that, decades ago, baseball players routinely rubbed balls with spit, shoe polish, and any number of other things, in order to take the shine off (it does not quite explain why that was necessary until the author's note at the end). I also did not know that only one kind of mud, taken from a semi-secret location, can be used to rub the shine off of Major League balls to this day. Crazy!
You should be able to easily hand-sell this to any young baseball aficcionado, as well as any trivia-loving child. Heck, I couldn't care less about the sport, and I was fascinated! The illustrations with their muted colors and fantastic facial expessions will merit going back for a second or third look.
Thank-you to Millbrook Press for the review copy! For more great nonfiction books, head over to Instantly Interrubtible.
