Summer 2017 Contest Winners!

August 30, we joined our friends at New York Public Library at Yankee Stadium for the afternoon game with the Cleveland Indians to celebrate the winners of the Summer 2017 Baseball Book Review contest. Congratulations to Brooklyn Public Library’s winners William Vaccaro, and Jonathan Peripinal on a job well done.

 

 

Interested in reading two great books about baseball? Check out these winning reviews!

William Vaccaro, age 10 from the Highlawn Branch
Review of The Secret at Haney Field: A Baseball Mystery, by  R.M. Clark

 

     Hi! My name is William.  My Dad calls me little Willie and sometimes Willy Wonka. If you want, you can call me Will for short. I’m a big baseball fan and I love the New York Yankees.  When I’m not playing baseball I like to bother my sisters or read a good book. My sisters are out now so I have time to talk to you about this fun book I just finished reading. The book I read this summer was, The Secret at Haney Field: A Baseball Mystery, written by R.M. Clark.  I hope you enjoy my review and maybe you would like to eat a piece of chocolate while you read this like my Dad does. I guess that’s why he calls me Willy Wonka, because he enjoys chocolate so much.

     The main character in our story is April. April is 12 years old and loves baseball just like me.  April gets this great job after winning a contest and becomes the bat retriever for a minor league baseball team called the Harpoons.  How cool is that!  I would love that job! Imagine going on a baseball field and having a catch with great baseball players! Wow.  April, who knows everything about baseball, even gives tips to the players on the Harpoons about hitting and fielding. The advice that April gives to the ball players improves their performance and she’s a hit!

     Later in the story, April notices what look like ghost figures moving on the ball field. With the help from one of her friends, Darren, they investigate the mystery and April learns things about the past and how baseball was played in the 1940’s. April is transported back in time and has to help solve the mystery that involves the owner of the Harpoons named Mr. Haney.  Mr. Haney also sees the ghost figures on the field and eventually the mystery unfolds to allow him to fix a mistake that happened many years ago.  At the end of the book the mystery is solved and new friends were made and the past wrongs were made right.

     I really enjoyed reading this book and loved the main character April. She was a fun character who loves the game of baseball and I feel that passion for the game too. I would love to be a team bat boy and I loved the twist and turns of the mystery that happens in the story.  I liked that April travels back in time and is able to make someone happy by correcting past mistakes. I would recommend this book to all my friends to read because it was easy to follow and exciting to read each day. Thank you for reading my report and I think I hear my sisters coming home.  I guess it’s time for me to bother them again.  Maybe I dress up like a ghost and scare them. I’m glad we have a library where I can go to read all about my favorite things.  Remember, you know my name now.  It’s Will, or Willy Wonka if you like chocolate! Bye.

 

Jonathan Perpinal, age 11 from the Cortelyou Branch
Review of The Batboy, by Mike Lupica

     Every kid who has been to a baseball game and seen the bat boy sitting on the field, has wished to be there. Now in this great book written by Mike Lupica, you get to understand a bat boy because the book is in the view of one called Brian. Brian is like most fans in the way that he has a favorite player, but unlike other fans he can meet his.

     Brian is Hank Bishop’s greatest admirer, even after he took steroids and got suspended from baseball, and now Hank is coming back!!! When the opportunity comes to be the bat boy for his team, the Tigers, he accepts. The moment he thought would be like a dream, him meeting Hank Bishop, turns bad when he realizes that Hank Bishop isn’t who he thought he is.

     This book is a great read for children around 10 who like baseball because it is written very well by Mike Lupica, and children at that age who play little league like Brian can relate. Also a lot of kids wish to be a batboy, and this book explains the realistic job of a batboy. Kids can imagine themselves with their team and doing the same things Brian is doing.

     Another great reason to read the book is that it has a great and realistic plot where Brian slowly gets to know Hank Bishop and in the end, helps him out by noticing something Hank did not about his swing. This book encompasses baseball well because it shows two different perspectives of baseball in the same character. Giving you two angles to relate to, think about and just imagine yourself in. The batboy and little league player.

     This book is well written, has a great plot, and takes a more realistic angle to meeting your favorite player. Overall, this is a great book and I recommend it to kids who like baseball around the age of ten.

 

 

Photo credits: Kimberly Grad, Jonathan Blanc