The Bambino and Me
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
A picture book that perfectly conjures 1920s New York for fans of baseball and Babe Ruth. This is baseball's The Hockey Sweater (by Roch Carrier) for the US market.
George Henry Alexander is a huge fan of baseball. His favorite team is the New York Yankees and his favorite player is Babe Ruth. George plays baseball during his free time and he listens to the games on the radio with his dad. Everywhere he goes, he carries his Babe Ruth baseball card.
On his birthday, George's parents surprise him with two tickets to watch the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees--his first real game! But his presents don't stop there. Uncle Alvin has sent him a baseball jersey and cap, but it's for the Boston Red Sox! Filled with horror, George tosses them aside, but his mother will not have any of that. He will wear them to the baseball game with his dad!
What will happen at the game? Will George get to meet Babe Ruth while wearing the opposing team's jersey?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Hyman's inventive baseball fairy tale, it's 1927 and a diehard Yankees fan named George is finally attending his first baseball game and a New York Boston game, no less. There's only one catch: Ma insists he wears a Red Sox uniform given to him by a misguided relative. Feeling like the biggest traitor in the world," George ends up having a heart-to-heart with the Bambino himself, and comes away with an autographed baseball card, the Babe's own jersey, and a life lesson to boot. Pullen, who worked with Hyman on Hockey Hero, skirts sentiment and nostalgia with vibrant, larger-than-life oils; in this fairy tale, the pixie dust is New York exceptionalism. But the real draw may be actor Jason Alexander's exuberantly avuncular and occasionally Seinfeldian performance on an accompanying CD. Punctuated with period music, sound effects, and some fine characterizations, Alexander transports readers to a time when the important stuff" in a kid's pocket was a bunch of marbles, a couple of jacks, and some bottle caps," and Babe Ruth could be earnestly described as more famous than Tarzan. He was every kid's hero!" Ages 6 9.
