Ages 6-10. What would a world without baseball be like? Shannon gives us a glimpse of it in this dark picture book, complete with echoes of an Orwellian future that might make it a discussion starter for kids well beyond picture-book age. When jeering crowds boo baseball player Boss Swaggert at the plate, he vows revenge. Years later, having become rich and powerful, he avenges himself by outlawing the game and the lingo that goes with it. With baseball's demise comes gloomy perpetual winter and a troop of hulking Factory Police to enforce Boss' law. It takes kid-whiz, snowball-thrower Georgie Radbourn, born spouting game talk ("`Hum that apple; shoot that pea!' What he meant was: `Good morning! What's for breakfast?'"), to shake things up: if Georgie wins a baseball face-off with Boss, the game's back; if he loses, it's out with his "treasonous tongue." Although some kids may catch a glimmer of humor in the situation, most will focus on the strong, bleak vision Shannon conjures up so well in his dramatic illustrations: Boss, a truly scary figure, is the perfect villain who looms threateningly over all. His eventual defeat will delight children who hanker for evil neatly overturned, but not even they will mistake this for sweet nostalgia about a favorite pastime--no matter how brightly the sun shines on the last page. Stephanie Zvirin
From Kirkus Reviews
Now that mega-tycoon (and ex-major leaguer) Boss Swaggert has outlawed baseball, it's winter in America all year `round; he's replaced ballfields with factories (patrolled by hulking police in modified football uniforms) and thrown the ballplayers into cold Candlestick Prison. Into this dreary world is born little Georgie, who throws snowballs that curve around corners amd speaks only banned baseballese (not ``Good morning'' but ``Batter up!''). Nabbed at last, he proposes a contest: if he can throw three pitches past Boss Swaggert, baseball will be restored. If not.... Shannon, whose dark, looming figures strikingly enhanced the drama in Yolen's Encounter (1992), gives this contest, too, an epic feel- -plus a broad streak of comedy; Swaggert, with beetling brows and a huge potato nose, strikes out spectacularly and is last seen ingratiatingly vending peanuts at a game, under blue summer skies. Knowledgeable fans will enjoy the many baseball references cleverly inserted here; Georgie, for instance, recalls Charles (``Old Hoss'') Radbourn, the 19th century's greatest pitcher. (Picture Book. 7-11) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
