Pirates at the Plate
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- $20.99
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- $20.99
Publisher Description
There’s no telling what a game of baseball might bring. Big hits, wild throws, and feisty managers … or ball-launching cannons, horseback outfielders, and shovel-wielding base thieves! In Pirates at the Plate, an afternoon at the ballyard features all this and more. In a one-of-a-kind showdown between cowboys and pirates, bullpens are actually bull pens, bench-clearing brawls are a matter of course, and stars such as a slugging Blackbeard and hard-throwing Wild Bill Hickok inject rowdy adventure into the great summer pastime.
Aaron Frisch was an editor and author of many books for children and young adults. His picture books—published by Creative Editions—have received several honors, including an IPPY Award Gold Medal, a Spur Award, and a finalist nomination for the Minnesota Book Awards.
Mark Summers has created artwork for numerous magazines, Barnes & Noble bookstores, and many U.S. postage stamps. In 2000, he received the Society of Illustrators’ coveted Hamilton King Award for best illustration of the
year.
"It's a rip-roaring story, and even the twist ending doesn't diminish its sense of playfulness and fun."—Publishers Weekly
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Sure, the Pirates play for Pittsburgh and the Cowboys play (football) in Dallas, but Summers and Frisch have something else in mind: buccaneers versus cowherds in a rousing, rules-defying game of baseball. Several storied figures appear: Wild Bill (Hickok) and Hopalong Cassidy pitch for the Cowboys (Cassidy is seen literally "warming up in the bullpen," toasting his hands over a campfire, surrounded by steer). Summers both illustrated and conceived of his debut children's book his dramatic scratchboard caricatures of authors graced the signage and shopping bags at Barnes & Noble for years and his illustrations give the book a regal air, despite the mischief players on both teams get up to and the many puns Frisch employs. When a "big-bopping Bluebeard wait on deck, he's seen kneeling, baseball bat in hand, aboard a storm-tossed ship in an eerily majestic wordless spread. That somber mood doesn't last, though: on the next page, Long John (Silver) "blasts one deep to center field" using a cannon. It's a rip-roaring story, and even the twist ending doesn't diminish its sense of playfulness and fun. Ages 6 up.
