Elizabeth Ward's For Young Readers

It seems as if every week another Washingon Post columnist announces his or her decision to accept the Post's offer of early retirement.  I don't know if Elizabeth Ward, who writes the Post's biweekly For Young Readers column, is taking early retirement or just moving on after "seven years worth of dragons," but her farewell is in today's Book World.  According to Ward, "[a]bsolutely the best part of reviewing is discovery;" here she takes a look back at some of her most memorable discoveries in the field of children's literature.  I was surprised to find that I hadn't read many (any!) of her favorites, but I have to agree with her on Kate Di Camillo's The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane.  Read her last column here.

I wonder who will be taking over the For Young Readers column?  Or might the Post replace it or even eliminate it altogether?  Watch this space.

Baseball, gratis

We went to a Nationals game yesterday afternoon, our first game at Nats Park (thank you to Angie, my generous neighbor and loyal reader, for the tickets!). The Nats won! They always do when Leo goes to the game; it's been five games now, and counting.  I hope we make it to a few more this summer; the Nats could use his help.  And Milly likes to run the bases after the game.

Even though we didn't have to pay for our tickets (thanks again, Angie! We had a great time), this wasn't free baseball. That's a term for "a game that gives fans more than they technically paid for--extra innings or the second game of a doubleheader," as defined by Sue Corbett in her middle grade novel Free Baseball (Dutton, 2006).  I checked this book out of the library for Leo and I to read together because it's about baseball (obviously), and because the main character, eleven-year-old Little League player Felix Piloto, is Cuban-American (so am I).  I was hoping it would give us more than we technically paid for--more, that is, than just baseball.  And it does; it's a fine novel about Felix's search for the truth about his father, a famous baseball player in Cuba, that also deals with the immigrant experience in general and the situation in Cuba in particular (where nothing, including baseball, is free).  It was well-reviewed by Jen Robinson and Camille at BookMoot.

N.b., I was bothered by the mistakes in the Spanish words and phrases that appear in the book and its glossary.  Some mistakes were idiomatic, others grammatical.  In a few cases the constructions were just too formal.  But each time I came across one, I lost confidence in the story and in Corbett's otherwise sensitive telling of it.  It's true that most readers won't know Spanish, let alone the Cuban dialect, but I don't think that's an excuse for getting it wrong.  Free Baseball deserves better.

Next up:  Mike Lupica's Heat.  Baseball book recommendations most welcome!

Nonfiction Monday: Gray?

These are the opening lines of The Secret World of Hildegard, a picture book biography of Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) written by Jonah Winter and illustrated by Jeannette Winter (Arthur A. Levine Books, 2007):

Hundreds and hundreds of years ago in a time known as the Middle Ages, men ruled over the earth.  And these men were very gray.  And the buildings they built were very gray.  And all the towns were very gray.  And all the gray towns were run by mayors who were men.  Girls were not allowed to go to school, and most girls could not read.  They were taught to serve and obey all the boys around them.  They were taught to keep quiet and to be very gray.

Is this an accurate description of the Middle Ages?  Is it how most people imagine them (not my former students, I hope)?  Or does it function as a dramatic device, as the Horn Book's review (available here) suggests; one that allows the Winters to "set the scene perfectly: out of the dark, gray world of the Middle Ages shines the radiant light of visionary Hildegard."  Is it acceptable (if also, I would argue, overly generalizing and negative in the extreme) for a nonfiction picture book?

I'm a medievalist. I would have loved this small square volume (I, or rather my kids, are probably its intended audience):  Jonah Winter's writing is simple and elegant; Jeannette Winter's illuminations, done in acrylic and pen on watercolor paper, manage to be both medieval and modern (and gorgeous).  There is a good author's note expanding on Hildegard's fame as a scientist and composer as well as a mystic visionary; and a bibliography.  If I could only get past the first page.