H Is for Home Run: A Baseball Alphabet

by Brad Herzog

Book Overview

Now anyone can be one of the "boys or girls of summer" and get a home plate view of America's favorite pastime in H is for Home Run: A Baseball Alphabet. This new offering in our line of children's alphabet books brings the game of baseball to entertaining and informative life. Sports writer Brad Herzog pairs easy-to-read rhymes with detailed expository so that readers are pitched baseball's facts, faces, history, and places from A-Z.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1585362190
• ISBN13: 9781585362196
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: Sleeping Bear Press
• Length: 40 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 11.4" x 10.4"
• Age Range: 6 to 9 years
• Grade Range: Grades 1 to 4

Customer Reviews

Great book for children young and old

I'm almost embarrassed to admit that I've become something of a collector of children's baseball books since my son was born four years ago. I really shouldn't be, and books like "H is for Home Run," are the reasons why. This book does a nice job of explaining some of the fundamentals of the game to children of all ages. It does a much better job than the DK baseball books that have pictures licensed by MLB that deliver facts and pictures, but not interesting stories. To me, one of the best parts of the book is the structure. Each letter of the alphabet is given one page that includes an interesting illustration and one short, typically four line poem: "B is for the best--Babe Ruth, the New York Yankee great who batted balls toward bleachers at a then-unheard-of rate." These little ditties roll off your tongue smoothly--perfect for my two-year-old daughter and four-year-old son. They even finish some of the sentences for me. Each page also includes two to three meaty paragraphs with a bit more substance more suitable for older kids and grown ups. Continuing with the letter "B," the authors share some of the Babe's jaw-dropping stats in the first paragraph, then serve up more detailed info about balls, bats and bases in the second paragraph, "Major leaguers generally prefer bats measuring 33 to 35 inches long. The longest bats allowed are 42 inches in the major leagues and 33 inches in Little League." The structure actually creates two books in one. A baseball poetry book fit to be read while putting a toddler to bed. And a baseball history book interesting enough for the grownup to read after their child has nodded off to sleep.

Let Baseball Teach The Alphabet!

With this book, you not only stroll through the alphabet, you also learn lots about baseball: history, technique, and players. This is a book that uses alliteration to teach the alphabet, baseball style. I am in awe that someone could pull together an A to Z for baseball. The poetry is good, but not nearly as awesome as the illustrations and the baseball history. There is great longevity for this book. Younger readers will enjoy the alliteration, older readers and parents will enjoy the more detailed descriptions of the game provided in sidebars. Aside from having fun learning the alphabet, you can share America's past time with your kids.

The baseball alphabet from A for all-stars to Z for zeroes

Writer Brad Herzog and illustrator Melanie Rose, who brought you "K is for Kick: A Soccer Alphabet," now bring you "H is for Home Run: A Baseball Alphabet." This is not a simple alphabet book, by which I mean that they do more than say "A is for the all-stars." The accompanying text points out that A also stands for Abner Doubleday (who had nothing to do with the invention of baseball), Alexander Cartwright (who did), the All-Star game where the all-stars play, and Hank Aaron. Even more impressive is that in the painting for "A" the player shown signing baseballs for the fans is apparently Amos Otis. That is paying attention to details. As you go from A to Z in this baseball alphabet there are all sorts of details about the game of baseball and the great players who have played it over the years. So look for Babe Ruth, a grand slam clearing the Green Monster, Jackie Robinson, and Wrigley Field. Young readers will also find out about not only opening day and outs, but Sadaharu Oh, along with stickball and T-ball. As for all those "Z" for zeroes, they add up to a perfect game, which is a nice touch as well. There is also a love of alliteration, so that "C is for clutch cleanup hitters who crush a curveball--CRACK!--and tip their caps for curtain calls, the crowd calling them back." So there is a lot covered here in a fairly informal way that will teach young readers about the game. In the end, "H is for Home Run" is more than a baseball alphabet, since it is not going to be teaching those who read it their A-B-Cs. But in a time when the major topic in baseball is steroids reading this book is rather soothing and can help reassociate the game with its former charm. Herzog has been writing about baseball since he was an honorary batboy for the Chicago White Sox, so that explains his attention to historical and contemporary details throughout this book. Rose also illustrated "M is for Maple: A Canadian Alphabet" and "Z is for Zamboni: A Hockey Alphabet," and it will be interesting to see what she comes up for the other 22 alphabet books whose titles will beginning with the remaining letters of the alphabet.

A "Hit" For Young Baseball Fans

When I was recently looking for a book for a very young baseball hopeful, I came across H IS FOR HOME RUN. The book is more than an "alphabet book." It not only has an appropriate baseball term or tidbit of baseball for each letter, it also has an informative bit of baseball information. The text is well written and the illustrations are marvelous. It is the perfect book for any young slugger, but I can also see it being helpful for baseball illiterates like me-people who pretends to know something about the sport but are to embarrassed to ask.