A Baseball All-Star (The Making of a Champion) - Softcover

Brendan January is a Heinemann Raintree author.

Grade 6-8–These titles provide overviews of popular sports from their beginnings to contemporary times. Basic skills and playing strategies, rules of the game, training, and typical injuries are discussed, and fact boxes, short vignettes on past and present professional athletes, and lists of championships (some through 2004) are offered. Interesting trivia is found throughout the volumes. Baseball and Basketball include both males and females in their coverage. The clearly presented information is accompanied by a quality color or black-and-white photograph on every page. Each book also includes a one-page glossary and lists of organizations and further resources. Some grammatical errors were noted, but they do not detract significantly from the appeal. The combination of how-to, history, and biography is likely to attract fans of the sports. These books are similar in scope to John Hareas's Basketball (2003), James Kelley's Baseball (2000), and Tim Polzer's NFL: Play Football (2002, all DK).–Janice C. Hayes, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro