Just Like Josh Gibson

Identified in an endnote as the "Babe Ruth of the Negro Leagues," Josh Gibson serves as the catalyst to Johnson's (Violet's Music, reviewed above) mildly girl-empowering baseball story. Sitting with her grandmother at the kitchen table, an African-American girl repeats Grandmama's tale of how her father showed up at the hospital "with a Louisville slugger and a smile. He said his new baby would make baseballs fly, just like Josh Gibson." Grandmama does play ball "once and again" when the boys let her (possibly echoing Gibson's own exclusion from the major leagues despite his talent). When Grandmama's cousin hurts his arm in a game one day, the girl steps in with a huge hit "just like Josh Gibson," her hero. In the best scene, Peck (A Christmas Memory) uses streaky pastels to portray the girl at bat in a pale pink dress and hair bows, smartly contrasting her determined expression with the rigidity of 1950s gender roles. Other scenes are hampered by characters' eerily skeletal limbs and limited emotional range. Everyone is nearly always smiling-even the young Grandmama as she stands outside the fence, watching the boys play without her. This glossing over of the girl's emotions weakens the text, too, which focuses on Grandmama's one day in the sun. Still, readers can't help but identify with the heroine when she joyfully participates in the sport she loves, however briefly. Ages 5-7. (Jan.) Copyright 2004 Publishers Weekly Used with permission.

K-Gr 3-A young narrator opens this story about her grandmother with an anecdote about the legendary Josh Gibson, a Negro League player who once hit a baseball so hard in Pittsburgh that it landed during his game in Philadelphia the next day. That was the day Grandmama was born. Her father brought a Louisville slugger to the hospital and vowed that his daughter would "make baseballs fly, just like Josh Gibson." She became as good a player as the boys on the Maple Grove All-Stars, and sometimes she was invited to practice with them. When her cousin hurt his arm during a game, Grandmama got her chance to hear the cheers as she ran the bases, "stealing home." Peck's well-designed, richly colored pastel artwork, which shows people with emotion and depth, is clearly the highlight of the book. Young Grandmama, in yellow pedal pushers or a pink dress, stands out among the boys' white uniforms and the burnt orange chest protectors of the catcher and umpire. A close-up at the end shows the narrator holding the very ball her grandmother hit, as the older woman looks on, her hand on a photo of the team. Information about Hall of Famer Gibson is appended. Although the story is slight, it imparts the message that a girl can succeed at a "boy's game" if she sets her mind to it.-Susan Scheps, Shaker Heights Public Library, OH Copyright 2004 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.