Bats at the Ballgame

Starred review from July 19, 2010
Baseball stadiums have an innate magic, never more so than in the hands of Lies, whose latest has the winged creatures gathering for an epic game, complete with "beenuts and Cricket Jack," and an upside down audience. Smooth, unhurried rhymes illuminate a hidden world where bats, like humans, "feel a magic shift,/ and ride the currents of the game/ as time is set adrift." Each gleaming page is thick with detail, from the bats' first arrival ("We wing from dark to dazzling bright,/ startled by the stunning sight") to the final play. Fans of the other baseball bats will certainly enjoy these ones. Ages 3–7.

Starred review from August 15, 2010
Previously Lies has given his bats nights at the library and the beach with great success. Now they play night baseball on a ballfield laid out under a circus tent with crowds of bat fans and vendors selling appropriate snacks like "mothdogs." The game proceeds with swoops and slides and a win for the home team. The action is described in verse with the rhymes in easy, breezy aabb form for setup and denouement and heightened "Casey at the Bat" cadences and couplets for the game itself. Lies's acrylic illustrations appear as full- and double-page spreads and scattered, unframed vignettes, and all are filled with copious detail depicting uniforms, regalia and play-by-play. The visual effect is quite stunning, with some fantastically disorienting upside-down spreads to reflect the fans' hanging position, and much of the language is utterly delicious. A broad knowledge of baseball and its place in the American consciousness is assumed, as is an ability to roll with rather sophisticated vocabulary and phrasing. But as a read-aloud by a baseball fan, it's sure to inspire a love of the game—and maybe of bats as well. (Picture book. 5-8)

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August 1, 2010

PreS-Gr 3-As in Bats at the Beach (2006) and Bats at the Library (2008, both Houghton Harcourt), Lies's luminous acrylic illustrations are the highlight here. The bats are earnest and cuddly, with translucent eyes and twitchy noses. Here, they're engaged in a topsy-turvy baseball game of dizzying perspectives. The game is played on the ground, though the participants swoop, glide, and soar around the bases and the spectators hang upside down above them in the stands. The illustrations, with brilliant colors and eye-catching details, carry the story when the verses fall flat. Fans will enjoy the bats' version of the game: flying vendors offer mothdogs and Cricket Jack, as the grounds crew marks the baselines with powdered sugar and rakes the pitcher's mound with a fork. Careful readers will find plenty of inventive details to make this latest outing to the bats' nocturnal world worthwhile.-Marilyn Taniguchi, Beverly Hills Public Library, CA

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