Babe Ruth Saves Baseball!

Murphy, Frank. Babe Ruth Saves Baseball! Illustrated by Richard Walz. Random House, 2005. 48 pages. $3.99. ISBN 9780375830488.

Summary:

True baseball fans might know that Babe Ruth hit 714 home runs in his ball-playing career. But did you know that Babe Ruth signed and hid hundreds of baseballs around the city of New York for children to find? This a Level 2-3 early reader format, and tells a brief biography of the famous ball player, Babe Ruth. The book gives a picture of what baseball was like back in the early 20^th century, including the fantastic facts of Babe’s career. It also touches on the 1919 cheating scandal during the World Series, and how Babe Ruth made it his mission to redeem baseball in the eyes of the fans.

Curriculum Connections:

This is the perfect text for an introduction to biographies: each page has facts about Babe Ruth’s life and baseball. Though it is missing some basic nonfiction text features (index, glossary, table of contents), this book will give readers practice with nonfiction text-comprehension strategies at a level designed for emerging readers.

Personal Reflections:

I included this text in a stack of biographies for a class of first and second graders who were studying famous Americans. With a wide range of readers, this choice fit right in with some of the second grade boys and their interest in sports history.

Awards:

Age/Interest Range:

6-8

Genre/Themes:

Sports, Nonfiction, Biography

Read-Alikes:

Girl Wonder: A Baseball Story in Nine Innings (Hopkinson) is the biography of another historical figure, Alta Weiss, who also lived in the early 20^th century.