Baseball, Football, Daddy and Me

A little boy and his father enjoy a full assortment of sporting events together.

Kindergarten-Grade 3-- A boy and his father attend various sporting events, from the fairly common (a baseball game, a football game) to the unusual (horse races, a golf tournament). The book ends with a switch from the passive to the active: "But there's one favorite sport/ that makes me happy as can be/ when Daddy takes me to the park/ to play catch--JUST WITH ME!" The last pictures show the father doing just that, and then carrying his son home in his arms. Unfortunately, the writing in this book is average at best. The story is told in rhyme, much of it awkward and forced. The illustrations, while not outstanding, are lively and appealing, but are not strong enough to carry the book . Even though there is not much available in the way of realistic sports fiction for this age group, this book has too many flaws to make it a worthwhile purchase. --Lauralyn Persson, Wilmette Public Library, IL
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The author covers many bases in this book that depicts a boy and his dad watching a number of different sports: baseball, football, tennis, soccer, hockey, golf, basketball. Brown's colorful, contemporary, double-page illustrations of the various sporting events are accompanied by four lines of rhymed verse. In attempting to capture the boy's perspective on the outings, the verse has a sing-song quality that grows monotonous by the time the two wrap up their tour of the playing fields. Also, these verses frequently don't scan correctly, and more than once Friend employs strained or convoluted word order to achieve a rhyme. Fortunately, the book's final pages offer more variety, as the boy reveals that he doesn't really care what sporting event he attends; the important thing is being with his dad. And his very favorite pastime, he decides, is playing catch with dad. The book closes with a most endearing picture of dad carrying his tired son home from the park. Ages 3-8.
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.