Friends of Montclair Library

The Campaign for America’s Libraries is holding their annual “Step Up to the Plate @ your library” contest. Each week, answer the question they post on their website or on Facebook (hint: the library is a great place to research trivia answers, either on- or off-line) and be entered to win a trip for two to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

Need some baseball-themed books to inspire you? Check out these titles at the Montclair branch:

Kids:

• Randy Riley’s Really Big Hit by Chris Van Dusen – A baseball-loving boy builds a baseball-playing robot. Grades K-3.
• You Never Heard of Sandy Koufax? by Jonah Winter – Fun, vernacular text and artful illustrations introduce young readers to the noted pitcher. Grades 1-5.
• We are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball by Kadir Nelson – Describes the glory years of Negro League baseball in the early 1900s. Grades 3 and up.

(For more baseball books for kids, including picture and chapter books, see Imagination Soup.)

Young Adults:

• Summerland by Michael Chabon – Fairies, baseball, werefoxes, Indian mythology, sasquatches and more. Grades 5 and up.
• Heat by Mike Lupica – Baseball is a life-saver for a kid growing up in a tough situation. Grades 5 and up.
• The Boy Who Saved Baseball by John H. Ritter – Described as “the ‘Holes’ of baseball books,” the story of a small California town whose fate rests on the outcome of one baseball game. Grades 5-8.

(For more YA baseball books, see this Amazon list.)

Adults:

• The Art of Fielding by Chad Harbach. Last year’s much-talked-about best-selling novel about life and baseball.
• Moneyball by Michael Lewis – The now-famous story of Billy Beane and the Oakland As.
• Willie Mays: The Life, The Legend by James S. Hirsch. Biography of the baseball great and former Giant.

(For tons more baseball books for adults, on topics from physics to frankfurters to fiction, see GoodReads.)