Home Run: The Story of Babe Ruth - Hardcover

Burleigh, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0152009701 ISBN 13: 9780152009700

Publisher: Silver Whistle, 1998

Synopsis

Like most boys, he spent his summers playing ball on a dirt lot, but George Herman Ruth, Jr. followed his dreams to become a legend. He is the Babe—Babe Ruth—and baseball is his game.

Powerful oil paintings and spare, dramatic text draw readers into the mind of this larger-than-life sports hero. Reproductions of vintage-style baseball cards throughout the book detail Babe Ruth's career highlights.

Home Run is a compelling portrait of a man, and of a time when baseball was truly America's game.

About this title

About the Author

Robert Burleigh is a longtime baseball fan and the author of many books for children. His previous collaboration with Mike Wimmer, Flight: The Journey of Charles Lindbergh, received the Orbis Pictus Award for the best nonfiction book of the year. His book Hoops (Silver Whistle, 1997), illustrated by Stephen T. Johnson, was a School Library Journal Best Book of the Year and a Booklist Editors' Choice. Mr. Burleigh lives in Chicago, Illinois.

Mike Wimmer is the illustrator of Train Song by Diane Siebert, Bully for You, Teddy Roosevelt by Jean Fritz, All the Places to Love by Patricia Machlachlan, and Flight: The Journey of Charles Lindbergh by Robert Burleigh, which received the Orbis Pictus Award for the best nonfiction book of the year. The Chicago Sun-Times has described his artwork as "reminiscent of some of Norman Rockwell's best." Mr. Wimmer lives in Norman, Oklahoma.

Reviews

Kindergarten-Grade 4?This lyrical picture-book account is a success on a couple of levels. With a flowing minimal text, Burleigh brings the Babe to life through the moment of one at bat. The focus is on Ruth's fluid swing, which remained true from his young years on the sandlots through the waning days of his stellar career with the New York Yankees. Wimmer's sprawling, photorealistic oil paintings depict the larger-than-life figure and his surroundings with folksy Norman Rockwell-like charm. Older readers will appreciate the replicas of vintage baseball cards that appear on almost every other page. While such contemporary stars as Mark McGwire and Ken Griffey, Jr. have been hitting home runs at a near record pace during this, and in recent, seasons, any comparison with Ruth can be dismissed when considering: "...in 1921, with 59 home runs, the Babe hit more than all other American League players put together!" The fine melding of text and art will be pure pleasure for young hardball fans and may spark interest in one of the many Ruth biographies available, or in other fiction titles about the legendary King of Clout such as Donald Hall's When Willard Met Babe Ruth (Browndeer Press, 1996).?Tom S. Hurlburt, La Crosse Public Library, WI
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Burleigh and Wimmer, the creative team behind Flight: The Journey of Charles Lindbergh, give a bravura encore performance, this time turning their attention to another 20th-century legend, Babe Ruth. The Sultan of Swat emerges in sharp relief, a multi-layered profile of one of the brightest and best of the boys of summer. In a series of poetic present-tense images, readers see the Babe at play ("there is only the echoey, nothing-quite-like-it sound and soft feel of the fat part of the bat on the center of the ball"), while a congruent series of old-fashioned baseball cards provide baseball aficionados with detailed information about George Herbert Ruth Jr., his statistics and his life ("Many people know that Babe's top home-run season was 1927, when he bashed 60 big ones for a record that would stand for more than 30 years"). This clever juxtaposition provides Burleigh with abundant creative latitude, and he makes the most of it, delivering a solid biographical snapshot tucked inside a valentine to the sport. Wimmer's larger-than-life oil portraits, marvels of realism tinged with idealism, recall Norman Rockwell. His elastic use of perspective plants readers behind the home plate to watch Babe's pop fly head skyward, at the base line as his feet round the bases, and even in front of his bat, just spitting distance from the mound where the pitcher cocks his leg to wind up for the throw. Wimmer indicates two brief flashbacks to Babe Ruth's youth in sepia tones, while the rest of the artwork is full-color, bathed in glorious light. It's a superlative tribute, and most definitely a grand slam for this talented duo. Ages 6-10.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Gr. 3^-6, younger for reading aloud. In this picture book for older readers, Burleigh uses poetry to introduce the legendary George Herman "Babe" Ruth. His brief poem celebrates Babe's love for the game and his amazing swing before taking readers and listeners through one at-bat and one mighty home run. Wimmer's large, realistic illustrations, done in oil paint on canvas, capture not only the essence of the man on the field but also his adoring fans. On each recto page, Wimmer has included a reproduction of the back of a baseball card, which provides lots of information--how Babe got his name, his life off the field ("I swing big--and I live big, too"), and the ways in which he changed the game. The type on the cards, which are authentic in size, is very small, but that's the only drawback to this beautiful book, which will have baseball fans of many ages cheering for Babe Ruth all over again. A wonderful selection to share across generations. Helen Rosenberg

Edition details

• Publisher: Silver Whistle
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0152009701
• ISBN 13: 9780152009700
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Wimmer Mike
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 32