Ballpark: The Story of America's Baseball Fields - Softcover

Curlee, Lynn

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1416953604 ISBN 13: 9781416953609

Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2008

Synopsis

If you love baseball, chances are you love one particular ballpark. Boston fans wax poetic about Fenway Park. Cubs fans are adamant that Wrigley Field is the classic ballfield. Busch Stadium is a hit with folks from Missouri, and Yankee fans are passionate about the House That Ruth Built....
Besides passionate fans, there's one other thing all ballparks -- from the Union Grounds in Brooklyn built in 1862 to the Baltimore Oriole's Camden Yards built in 1992 -- have in common: Each has its own vibrant and unique history.
In Ballpark, Sibert Honor Award winner Lynn Curlee explores both the histories and the cultural significances of America's most famous ballparks. Grand in scope and illustrations, and filled with nifty anecdotes about these "green cathedrals," Ballpark also explores the changing social climate that accompanied baseball's rise from a minor sport to the national pastime. This is a baseball book like no other.

About this title

About the Author:

Lynn Curlee, who received a Robert F. Sibert Informational Honor Book Award for Brooklyn Bridge, comes from a family of intense sports fans. His other books include Liberty, Ships of the Air, Into the Ice: The Story of Arctic Exploration, Rushmore, The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Capital, and, most recently, Parthenon. He lives on the North Fork of Long Island, New York.

Lynn Curlee, who received a Robert F. Sibert Informational Honor Book Award for Brooklyn Bridge, comes from a family of intense sports fans. His other books include Liberty, Ships of the Air, Into the Ice: The Story of Arctic Exploration, Rushmore, The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Capital, and, most recently, Parthenon. He lives on the North Fork of Long Island, New York.

From Booklist:

Gr. 4-6. Veteran nonfiction author and Sibert Honor Book winner (for Brooklyn Bridge, 2001), Curlee offers an engaging history of baseball parks in words and pictures. The text briefly recaps the history of the game, mentioning star players through the years (Cobb, Ruth, Robinson, Mays, et al.) but emphasizing the game's growth through the evolution of its playing fields: from parklands to enclosed stadiums with grandstands. Naturally, the most loving attention is paid to the classic ballparks built in the early twentieth century (of which only Chicago's Wrigley Field and Boston's Fenway Park remain), but Curlee also notes the low points in ballpark architecture (the "concrete doughnuts" and domed stadiums of the 1970s). The text is concise and serviceable, but the striking, acrylic-on-canvas illustrations--in bold colors and evoking the baseball art of the early 1900s--are the superstars here, effectively carrying the narrative. One caveat: the upbeat ending, asserting that the game remains in good health and celebrating the home-run records of Barry Bonds and Mark McGwire, rings hollow in light of the ongoing steroid scandal. Bill Ott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About this edition

• Publisher: Atheneum Books for Young Readers
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1416953604
• ISBN 13: 9781416953609
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 48
• Illustrator: Curlee Lynn