The Bambino and Me

Booklist May 15, 2014 (Online)

Grades 2-4. What’s a Yankees fan doing in a Red Sox jersey? For his tenth birthday, George received both a dream and a nightmare. The dream: a pair of tickets to a Yankees game. The nightmare, for a true-blue fan: a Red Sox jersey and cap from a Boston uncle. Looking back at his childhood in the Bronx in 1927, the elderly storyteller recalls that summer. When he resisted the shirt, he got his mouth washed out with soap for “talking back.” In spite of his having to wear the hateful colors, his first-ever trip to a baseball game and a conversation with his hero, Babe Ruth, made for a day he never forgot. The narrator’s discomfort and embarrassment are realistic, as is Ruth’s advice. In Pullen’s stylized oil paintings, facial features are exaggerated and expressive. These elements add plenty of humor to this nostalgic and heartwarming story for fans of any age. Extra innings: the book jacket becomes a poster, and the book comes with a CD of the story, ably narrated by actor Jason Alexander.