Back to health and reality this month, so not as many books as last month. :-)The total for April was 10 books and 7 magazines finished, and 1 book abandoned.
The Basket Counts
by Matt Christopher
An African American boy moves into a new town, where he is only one of two blacks on his school's basketball team. Most of the people seem to accept him, but the team's star player snubs him at every turn. Eventually, they end up making friends. This storyline is actually a very minor part of the book. The vast majority of the book is play-by-play of the various basketball games with lots of jargon. It had the potential for a good storyline, but it was not developed hardly at all.
The Year Mom Won the Pennant
by Matt Christopher
Nick's mother volunteers to coach his Little League team when none of the boys' fathers are able to. The boys aren't happy at first and their arch-rival is contemptuously amused by a woman attempting to coach a baseball team. However, they end up winning the pennant and having a good time. Like the previous book, this one is very weak in plot, consisting mostly of play-by-play descriptions of the baseball games. The first game takes 3 chapters to describe!
Batting A Thousand
by Terry Hill
Short stories and testimonies about a number of Christian baseball players from the 1980s. I got this back in my late '80s, early '90s phase of baseball fanhood, and just recently read it again and passed it on to the kids.
The Bobby Richardson Story
by Bobby Richardson
An autobiography of baseball player Bobby Richardson who played with the Yankees in the late 1950s and early 1960s (alongside Mickey Mantle, Roger Maris, and Yogi Berra), including his Christian testimony. I got this book nearly 30 years ago from a church library that was being dismantled, but I had never actually read it. Baseball history fans would enjoy it, but if younger think the 1950s and 1960s are ancient, uninteresting history, it might not be so captivating to them.
Flatfoot Fox series
by Eth Clifford
I found three more Flatfoot Fox books at the library. They are all delightfully funny and engaging. The Bashful Beaver one is an especially excellent example of the amusing application of alliteration. Definitely recommended!
Mr. Pipes Comes to America
by Douglas Bond
This is the 3rd book in a series. (I started reading them out of order, not knowing at first what the correct order was. It would probably make the most sense to read them in order, but it's not essential.) Two American children have befriended an English man (in a previous book) who has taught them about Christianity, hymns, and history. In this book, Mr. Pipes visits the children in New England. As they travel to historic sites in New England, Mr. Pipes teaches about American history and about hymns written at various periods and the people who write them. All that was fairly interesting, but Mr. Pipes' doctor, who accompanies them, gets a bit annoying with his constant disdain for anything American. There is a fair bit of emphasis on Calvinism and Presbyterianism. And I got the impression that the author doesn't think much of lyrics and tunes written in modern times. While I have some sympathy for that viewpoint, I think he might take it a bit too far.
Mr. Pipes and Psalms and Hymns of the Reformation
by Douglas Bond
This is the second book in the series. Two American children join the English man Mr. Pipes on a summer tour of France, Germany, and Switzerland, following the path of Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation. Along the way, Mr. Pipes teaches about Christian and European history during the time of the Reformation, introducing hymn writers f the period and their songs. I liked this book a bit better than Mr. Pipes Comes to America.
What a Son Needs From His Mom
by Cheri Fuller
This book is similar to the book What a Girl Needs From Her Mom that I finished in February. This one seemed a little more focused on God and Scripture. She has chapters dealing with encouraging, build confidence, praying, listening & communicating, staying connected, understanding personality, developing character, managing emotions, nurturing faith, and releasing to manhood. There were a number of things that I was convicted and encouraged by. And some things I was able to put into practice, such as keeping my mouth shut and letting one of my sons make pies for his birthday party on his own (he did a fantastic job!) and letting him take the lead in creating a flyer for his lawn-mowing business and handle the phone calls himself.
The Story of the World
by Susan Wise Bauer
This is a popular history book and curriculum among homeschoolers, especially those of the classical school persuasion. I was looking for something we could read or listen to that would give us a sweeping overview of world history without getting bogged down in studying the details. I abandoned it a few chapters in because I didn't care for the way she presented the Biblical accounts. Too much speculation instead of sticking with the Biblical texts.
