LUCY TRIES BASEBALL

A young athlete steps up to the plate.

Tan-skinned Coach Al invites light-skinned, redheaded Lucy to join the team and gives her a uniform, hat, bat, helmet, and glove. The squad warms up with an exciting game of Catch the Coach before practicing hitting and fielding, two critical offensive and defensive skills. Next up is a friendly scrimmage, but uh-oh! Lucy’s afraid of getting hit by a pitch. With her coach’s help, she gets in the right frame of mind to bat and smashes a line drive into the outfield gap, batting in a runner who slides safely into home plate. By the end of the book, as Lucy jumps for joy over her first RBI, the excitement is palpable. The rhyming text is charming and highly informative; a larger font indicates baseball-related terms, many of which are further defined in an appended “Fast Facts!” section. This fast-paced tale covers many aspects of practice and gameplay (the cheery illustrations help clarify various elements of the game), making it an excellent preparation for a first team practice. Lucy’s teammates are racially diverse, and while the text doesn’t mention whether any of the players are disabled, the backmatter mentions Challenger Baseball, an adaptive league designed for people with physical and/or cognitive disabilities. Publishes simultaneously in French and Spanish. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A helpful baseball primer that’s sure to be a big hit.