26. Shoesless Joe and Black Betsy

26. Shoeless Joe and Black Betsy

Phil Bildner

C.F. Payne

Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers, 2002

30 pages

Non-fiction

            I chose this book because baseball season just started for my brothers and I thought they would enjoy reading this book so I picked it up and let them read it. This book is about a baseball player named Joseph Jefferson Jackson who played without shoes during the game. He got the name “Shoeless Joe Jackson” and was the greatest hitter ever. Shoeless Joe was not hitting as well as he normally did so he went to Ol’ Charlie and had him make him a baseball bat, but when his slump would not break he continued to go back until finally he learned that his bat needed to be cared for on a regular basis. Shoeless Joe would rub his bat down with oil, wrap it in cloth, sleep with it in his bed, and treated it like a precious item. Shoeless Joe finally came out of his slump and got to play in the major leagues.

            The illustrations in this book are done in a mixed media style. The colors are from the warm end of the color spectrum using a variety of greens, browns, and blues. The illustrations of the characters facial expressions are very realistic and the illustrator does a fantastic job of creating each scene to help the story play out. Very thin lines are used in the illustrations and this book has no honors.

            This book would be great for older ages between 4^th and 6^th grade.  The story would be a great character development lesson for the boys in a classroom to teach them the importance of practice and responsibility to take care of their things used for extracurricular activities. The book could also be used to introduce a language arts lesson to have the students write about their favorite athlete and what they were famous for in their sport. I like this book because it is about a man who did something out of the ordinary and was recognized for his actions.