Albert's Ballgame: with audio recording

by Leslie Tryon, Leslie Tryon (Illustrator)

Overview

It is springtime in Pleasant Valley, home of Albert the duck, the hero of several previous books by Leslie Tryon, including Albert's Thanksgiving and Alberts Alphabet. What is the industrious Albert involved in this time?
Springtime is the opening season for America's favorite pastime. It's time to play ball, and Albert turns his energies to coaching the local team. There are beanballs and knuckleballs, fly balls and foul balls and maybe even a home run in a game full of the joys and mishaps that all such games entail. Leslie Tryon's artwork is full of Spring Valley's familiar friends as well as heartwarming detail that places the reader smack in the middle of the park. An outing to be cherished.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781481419000
Publisher:	Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	05/13/2014
Sold by:	SIMON & SCHUSTER
Format:	eBook
Pages:	32
File size:	26 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

About the Author

Leslie Tryon is the author of the Albert books and several others for young readers. She is also the illustrator of Alma Flor Ada's Dear Peter Rabbit and With Love, Little Red Hen. She lives in Carmel Valley, California.

Editorial Reviews

Readers new to the series may puzzle over the title, since it is hard to figure out which animal character is Albert unless you have met him in a previous volume. No matter. The real star of the book is baseball, and this celebrates fun in the old ballpark. The fine-line drawings brightened with colorful washes make the most of the comic possibilities in the lilting, rhymed verses: "They hit fly balls / and sky balls, / slow balls, / and toe balls, / They hit foul balls way back or too wide." Don't expect a story here, just action and a bit of slapstick as the hometown amateurs put on their caps and take to the field for the entertainment of their enthusiastic friends and neighbors.

Carolyn Phelan

The assortment of squirrels, kangaroos, monkeys, and ostriches running the bases is not to be confused with replacement players for major leaguers on strike. It is actually the Pleasant Valley Ducks, coached by Albert (Albert's Thanksgiving, 1994, etc.) who has little more than a cameo role here. Everyone at the park has a rollicking good time amid the "stray balls and spray balls, curve balls and swerve balls." While the chaotic illustrations may be a strain on the adult eye, they exactly convey the pandemonium of a hard-fought little league contest. The ending is mildly disappointing, when the focus shifts to winning and losing, in contrast with the previous concentration on the joys of the game itself. Still, as long as baseball continues as the national pastime, this delightful offering should have a life on the shelves.

Kirkus Reviews