Becoming Babe Ruth

by Matt Tavares, Matt Tavares (Illustrator)

Overview

“This exceptionally engaging chronicle recounts Ruth’s amazing rags-to-riches story. . . . Equally important, the art captures Ruth’s irrepressible personality and joy in playing baseball.” — Booklist (starred review)

Before he becomes known as the Babe, George Herman Ruth is just a boy who lives in Baltimore and has a knack for getting into trouble. But when he turns seven, his father takes him to Saint Mary’s Industrial School for Boys, and his life is changed. Here, under the watchful eye of Brother Matthias, George evolves as an athlete and a man. With vivid illustrations and clear affection for his subject, Matt Tavares sheds light on an icon who learned early that life is what you make of it — and sends home a message about honoring the place you come from. Back matter includes an author’s note, Babe Ruth’s career statistics, and a bibliography.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781536245837
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	09/30/2024
Series:	Candlewick Biographies
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	40
File size:	19 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	5 - 8 Years

About the Author

I grew up in Winchester, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. I have always loved to draw. My parents say I’ve been drawing since I was two years old. During high school I took figure drawing classes at Boston University on weekends (a special class for high-school students), and then in college I majored in studio art. For my senior thesis at Bates College, I wrote and illustrated my first picture book, Sebastian’s Ball. Two years later, after much revision, Sebastian’s Ball became Zachary’s Ball, my first published book. Now I live in Ogunquit, Maine with my wife, Sarah, and our two daughters.



My first books were illustrated in pencil, partly because that was the medium I felt most comfortable with at the time and partly because monochromatic illustrations felt right for those stories. Since then, my style and process has changed considerably, mostly because I found myself illustrating stories that simply demanded some color. For example, the beanstalk in Jack and the Beanstalk just needed to be green, and the golden eggs needed to have a bright, yellow glow. Now I mostly work in full color, with watercolor and gouache. I try to let each story guide me, and adapt my process accordingly.


Three Things You Might Not Know About Me:

1. The best birthday gift I’ve ever gotten was the drafting table my parents got for me when I turned ten. I still use it today. There are other tables in my studio, but I do all my drawing and painting at the table I got for my tenth birthday.

2. I once played on a softball team that lost every single game. Zero wins and sixteen losses! We did much better the next season though—we even won a playoff game!

3. A poster of Boston Red Sox pitcher Derek Lowe reading my book Zachary’s Ball was once given out to the first 10,000 fans at a Boston Red Sox game! This was wonderful, until Derek Lowe entered the game in the ninth inning and proceeded to blow the lead for the Red Sox. Hundreds of people threw their posters onto the field, and the game had to be stopped for several minutes while the ground crew gathered all the posters!

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Well-researched, realistic illustrations, rendered in watercolor, gouache, and pencil, depict early-twentieth-century life and Major League Baseball during Ruth’s era. Equally important, the art captures Ruth’s irrepressible personality and joy in playing baseball. Yes, the eyes definitely twinkle.
—Booklist

Editorial Reviews

There is warmth and affection in Tavares's paintings, which generously illustrate the text, often in immersive spreads.

The New York Times Book Review - Pamela Paul

This is a story about the boy who became the man as much as it is about baseball...There is warmth and affection in Tavares’s paintings, which generously illustrate the text, often in immersive spreads.
—The New York Times

Well-researched, realistic illustrations, rendered in watercolor, gouache, and pencil, depict early-twentieth-century life and Major League Baseball during Ruth’s era. Equally important, the art captures Ruth’s irrepressible personality and joy in playing baseball. Yes, the eyes definitely twinkle.
—Booklist (starred review)

Tavares brings the well-paced story to a nice close as the now-world-famous Babe returns to Saint Mary’s to put on an impromptu slugging exhibition for the boys, similar to the ones Brother Matthias gave that so enchanted George as a boy. It’s a lovely, poignant ending to a standout sports picture book biography.
—The Horn Book

Tavares continues to prove he’s a double threat, with a concise, forthright writing style and expansive, sepia-toned watercolors that bring to mind vintage photos and newsreels.
—Publishers Weekly

How can an author make the umpteenth picture book about Babe Ruth justify its shelf space? By finding the right angle on the legend and trimming the larger-than-life figure down to a guy a kid might want to shake hands with...Though subtle in color, Tavares’ illustrations are often big and brash in composition, with plenty of close-ups of a beaming Babe.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

An homage to the Bambino introduces a new audience to this great legend of baseball...Tavares allows young readers to view Ruth with just the right amount of hero worship and awe.
—Kirkus Reviews

Characteristic of Tavares’s attractive painterly style, the watercolor, gouache, and pencil illustrations stand out with their action-packed scenes, dramatic angles, and the full-spread portrait of Ruth...Readers, both baseball fans and others, will enjoy this story of the athlete’s gratitude and thankfulness for learning his lifetime sport.
—School Library Journal

Everything about this picture book biography will engage the child reader.
—Library Media Connection

The appeal of Matt Tavares' beautifully illustrated biography is its focus on Ruth's humble origins.
—USA Today

From the Publisher

An homage to the Bambino introduces a new audience to this great legend of baseball. Babe Ruth's baseball skills changed the game forever, and his story reads like a movie script. Seven-year-old George, not quite an orphan, is placed by his father in the St. Mary's Industrial School because he is unmanageable and incorrigible. The regimented life there is beneficial if not so much to George's liking, but Brother Matthias teaches him baseball and hones his considerable skills. At 19, he is signed by the minor league Baltimore Orioles, where he is renamed Babe for his wide-eyed, enthusiastic embrace of his new life. From Baltimore to Boston to the New York Yankees, in a time before television and Facebook, he becomes a celebrity of monumental proportions. Tavares is careful to include all the relevant information, focusing on Ruth's exploits on the field as well as his charitable nature--he helps St. Mary's rebuild after a devastating fire--while presenting his fast and furious lifestyle as part of his charm and appeal. Watercolor, gouache and pencil illustrations in yellows, greens and shades of amber against bright blue or shining white backgrounds depict a glowing Ruth glorying in his accomplishments. Tavares allows young readers to view Ruth with just the right amount of hero worship and awe. Flamboyant and amazingly talented, the Sultan of Swat receives due appreciation here. (author's note, statistics chart, bibliography) (Picture book/biography. 6-10)

Kirkus Reviews