The opening poem on the inside front flap – Let’s Play Ball! begins the inspired collection of poems all about baseball.  Florian takes the reader from opening season warm ups to end of season reminiscing. There is a poem for every player position – pitcher, catcher, first, second and third baseman, short stop, right fielder, umpire and base stealer among others.  He even includes a poem about the fans (on the back cover) and one about the baseball itself.  Baseball lovers will envision that the poems were written about them.  After all, what pitcher wouldn’t want to be known as the “scourge of all hitters / the starter of slumps” and how many hitters would be happy to consider themselves as “strong…mean..with eyesight quite keen”?  This book would be great to use as an example for students to model their own themed book of poetry.

Florian creates the artwork in “gouache watercolors, oil pastels, colored pencils, and pine tar on primed paper bags”.  This mixed media combination gives a wonderful organic feel and texture to the illustrations. My favorite is the illustration for “A Baseball”.  Here Florian depicts a baseball unraveling at the seams.  The red lacing forms words to help explain why it’s falling apart.  The words “hit, smash, crash, pound and drive” say it all.

Florian has hit a home run with this delightful book!