Pack your duffle for "Camp Average"

Camp Average 
by Craig Battle
240 pages; ages 8 - 12
Owlkids, 2019

I spent many memorable weeks at summer camp – hiking, doing arts and crafts, canoeing, and learning archery – and later as a camp counselor. Author Craig Battle has spent his share of weeks coaching rambunctious boys at a sports camp. Years later he began wondering, what if a camp director pushed kids to become more competitive?

The first chapter sets the tone for this fun summer romp. We see yellow buses bumping their way over a potholed dirt road into camp [I’m pretty sure all roads into camps are required to have a minimum number of potholes]. From inside the buses comes a loud chant: “We’re number two!” as the buses roll to a stop at Camp Avalon – or Camp Average, as the kids call it. There’s a mess hall, the baseball diamond, the lake, and counselors wearing bright orange camp T-shirts. There are pranks, the annual telling of the camp legend, and camp food.

As the kids settle in to their cabins, readers settle in for some fun summer reading.  Except all is not well at Camp Average! Because in the morning, when Mack and his buddies head to the main field, they discover it has been transformed. As Craig writes, “…it looked less like their old camp and more like something straight out of the NFL Scouting Combine, the event where college football players showcase their skills for professional coaches.”

And Mack and his friends do not like this one bit. They were looking forward to a summer of fun on the waterfront, and friendly ball games against the other camps. Now they are pushed to show athletic aptitude. The guys decide they need to nip this competitiveness in the bud – but how?

Over the summer the kids deal with interpersonal challenges as well as challenges on the field. I don’t want to give away the fun, but let’s just say that it’s harder to intentionally lose games than you’d think. This is definitely one book you’ll want to pack in your duffel for summer reading!

Thanks for dropping by today. On Monday we'll be hanging out at Marvelous Middle Grade Monday with other  bloggers. It's over at Greg Pattridge's blog, Always in the Middle, so hop over to see what other people are reading. Review ARC provided by the publisher.

Waiting for Pumpsie

This book, published a couple years ago, is as timeless as ever. And now, author Barry Wittenstein has created curriculum materials to go along with it. So I can't think of a better way to kick of Black History month than with a story about baseball - plus spring training has already started, so .... batter up!

Waiting for Pumpsie
by Barry Wittenstein; illus.by London Ladd
32 pages; ages 5-8
Charlesbridge, 2017

themes: equality, biography

I'm Bernard, and I'm crazy, crazy, crazy about the Red Sox. Everybody in Boston is. It's just something you get born into.

Set in 1959, more than a decade after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, the Sox still field an all white team. The Giants have Willie Mays, Bernard points out to his parents, so how come Red Sox don't have a black player?

Like any other fan, Bernard wants the Sox to win. They're having a dismal season (no news to regular fans....) and fans want to know why the team won't bring up Pumpsie Green from the minors.

If you're a SOX fan, you already know the ending to this story. He plays. They lose - that game.

What I like about this book:
There is great writing to be found within these pages. Like when Pumpsie smacks the ball and "rounds first base and runs like his own uniform can't keep up." It probably doesn't hurt that Barry Wittenstein grew up a fan of the game and wrote for Major League Baseball. There are plenty of verbs in this book. I like the wonderful. illustrations by London Ladd. And I really like that there's back matter. Wittenstein points out that by the time Pumpsie was called up from the minors, Jackie Robinson had already been retired for two years!

But this story is about more than baseball, he says. "It's about moving toward equality and how sports can help change society for the better."

Beyond the book:

Learn more about Pumpsie Green. Look for information in books, and online. One place to find info is the Society for American Baseball Research.

Create a Baseball Card. You can make one for Pumpsie - or your favorite player. Of course, you'll need some stats: information about the team they play for, the positions they play, and their batting record.

You can find more activities about Pumpsie at Barry Wittenstein's website. Look under "downloads"  for the curriculum guide.

And head over to Archimedes Notebook today to check out another book by the same author - about accidental inventions! We're joining Perfect Picture Book Friday. It's a weekly event where bloggers share great picture books at Susanna Leonard Hill's website. Review copy provided by Blue Slip Media.

Nadia ~ The Girl Who Couldn't Sit Still

 This is a perfect book for the season, especially if you have a gymnastics-crazy kid who cartwheels down the hall.

Nadia ~ The girl who couldn't sit still
by Karlin Gray; illus. by Christine Davenier
40 pages; ages 6-9
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016

Nadia Comaneci loved soccer, swimming, and climbing trees in the forests beyond her village of Onesti, Romania. "She didn't just climb the trees," writes Karlin Gray, "she swung from branch to branch until her family would call her home."

To find an outlet for all that energy, Nadia's mom signed her up for gymnastics classes. It would be great to just say ..."and the rest is history..." but that would ignore the years of hard work and learning that Nadia put into developing her skills on the bars and beam. It would ignore the falls and failures.

When she fell, Nadia picked herself up and brushed herself off and practiced some more until she perfected each move. Until she got first place in national competitions. Until she reached the Olympics in Montreal (1976). She whipped around the bars, balanced, flipped, and won the highest score ever - a perfect 10.

At the end of the competitions, Nadia took home five medals (three gold). Back home she did just what you'd expect a girl who couldn't sit still to do: keep on practicing.

On Monday  we're joining the roundup over at the Nonfiction Monday blog where you'll find even more book reviews Review copy provided by the publisher.

The Way to Stay in Destiny

With the coming of a New Year, I've decided to post book reviews on a weekly basis. Look for book talk, author interviews and other book-related stuff on Fridays. Starting with...

The Way to Stay in Destiny
by Augusta Scattergood
192 pages; ages 8-12
Scholastic Press, 2015

January is such a perfect month to curl up with a good book. So for the next few Mondays, I'll be digging into my book basket for some longer reads, both fiction and non.

I was pulled into this book by the first line: The crazy lady in seat 2B hasn't stopped singing "You Are My Sunshine" since the glare hit the windshield three hours ago. When the bus pulls to a stop in Destiny, Theo grabs his bags and baseball glove and follows his uncle out the door and into the Florida heat. He sees old men wearing shorts and flip flops... and slithery gray stuff hanging from the trees. What am I doing here? Theo wonders.

Sharing a room with his uncle at Sister Grandersole's Rooming House and Dance Academy, doing the laundry on Saturdays, finding some unexpected friends, and discovering he has an ear for the piano - that's what Theo's doing in Destiny. And then there's the history of baseball tied up with the history of the town: did Hank Aaron really play there?

Add to that the mystery of interpersonal relationships: Who is this girl who ditches dance class to play ball? Can Theo manage to play the piano when his uncle expressly forbids it? And why is his uncle so angry?

This book is a perfect blend of mystery and adventure, and a warm story about what it means to be family.

Babe Conquers the World

Babe Conquers the World: the legendary life of Babe Didrikson Zaharias
by Rich Wallace and Sandra Neil Wallace
272 pages; ages 9-14
Calkins Creek/ Boyds Mills, 2014

When Babe grew up it was rare for young girls to play sports. But she lucked out - her elementary school principal realized that Babe needed to sweat and jump and run and allowed her to play sports with the boys. After school, Babe headed to the sandlot for baseball. Without women athletes to serve as role models, Babe fashioned her own way into sports.

In high school Babe played basketball, baseball, tennis... and when the 1928 Olympics opened track-and-field events to women, Babe followed the news. Her school didn't have a girl's track-and-field team, but there were rows of hedges all along the avenue. Heck - she even wanted to play football. For her, playing sports was a way to be equal.
Rich and Sandra follow Babe's life from her first big break on a women's semi-pro basketball team to the 1932 Olympics, her foray into golf and professional athletics, and even a stage show. They infuse her story with warmth and help us see Babe as a whole person, not just the world class athlete. In true journalist fashion they include all kinds of extras at the back: a timeline, FAQs, source notes and more.


This is Nonfiction Monday. You'll find lots more great nonfiction books at the Nonfiction Monday blog. It's also Marvelous Middle-Grade Monday - and you'll find more good middle-grade and YA literature over at Shannon Messenger's blog. Review copy provided by publisher.