Betty's Books: The Aurora County All-Stars & Room on the Broom

October’s Pick: The Aurora County All-Stars, by Deborah Wiles. (Harcourt Children's Books, 2007)

If you read my last book review, you might think that I’m hung up on coming-of-age stories or heartbreaking tales of kids who are fighting off the sadness of losing a parent.

Not exactly true. But it’s understandable if you detect a pattern with my latest choice, selected from the recommendations of mcleanandeakin.com, an online bookstore that specializes in children’s books.

The Aurora County All-Stars is a Field of Dreams children’s book that, while definitely boy-friendly, will appeal to kids 8 to 12 and their grandparents. It is, in turn, humorous, poignant, instructive, mysterious and even poetic. Granted, that’s a lot to wrap into a chapter book.

Twelve-year-old House Jackson, the Aurora County All-Stars captain and star pitcher, has been out of commission for nearly a year because of a broken elbow, courtesy of an annoying 14-year-old girl, Frances (or “Fineese,” as she now calls herself in her pseudo-Francophile phase), his arch nemesis. House has spent his year off reading the classics to an elderly recluse, Mr. Norwood Rhienhart Beauregard Boyd (did I neglect to say the plot takes place in the South?).

The plot heats up when the All-Stars’ biggest, and only, game of the year is scheduled for the same day as Aurora County’s 200th anniversary pageant, an event that Frances/Fineese is directing. The local mamas would prefer their sons appear onstage rather than on a dusty ball field, mainly because Uncle Jim-Bob, Aurora County’s favorite son and soap star on Each Life Daily Turns, is not only funding the pageant but returning home to view it. It’s only through a series of setbacks, misunderstandings, creative thinking and mysteries tantalizingly unraveled that the two protagonists work out a hilarious compromise that allows both shows to go on.

Males of all ages will love the way quotes from baseball favorites like Ted Williams, Jackie Robinson and House’s particular favorite, Sandy Koufax, are peppered throughout. A chapter introduction with a quote by the Pirates’ Roberto Clemente — “Any time you have an opportunity to make a difference in this world and you don’t, then you are wasting your time on earth” — sets the overall tone. But Walt Whitman gets his due, too, and in some ways plays as pivotal a role as Koufax. The book subtly deals with discrimination and adds a touch of feminism, weaving them into the plot in a way that’s instructive but not heavy-handed for its young readers.

The story is really a snapshot of days gone by. Many grandparents will be able to identify with — and elaborate on with their grandkids -- a time when boys played pick-up games of baseball instead of Little League, where younger children were looked after by neighbors, and adolescents could wander the streets after dark without sending their parents into a panic attack.

One bit of advice, though: If grandmothers buy the book — and they should -- hand it over to Granddad to read to the kids. It’s his kind of book.

October’s Classic: Make Way for Ducklings, by Robert McCloskey (Viking Juvenile, 1941)

This month’s classic has been a favorite of the 4- to 8-year-old set since 1941. And because of its age, I’m beholden to using an old-fashioned term to describe it: heartwarming. Pure and simple.

The story line follows Mr. & Mrs. Mallard as they look for the best place to raise a family of ducklings. They decide to settle down in Boston to lay their eggs, but after a harrowing run-in with a bicyclist in the Boston Public Garden, they opt for a small, quiet island in the Charles River. After the brood is born, and has learned to swim, dive and walk in a line, Mrs. Mallard wants to return to the Public Garden where the swan boats carry people who would feed them peanuts. And thus begins their trip across Boston on web feet with the assistance of Michael, a local policeman.

The story is beautifully illustrated with large monochromatic drawings; in fact, you can understand the story just by looking at the illustrations. And the author has packed in lots of life lessons for young children: that making the right decision can take time, that policemen are their friends, and that mothers are very capable creatures who can manage on their own. But above all, it is just plain fun to read aloud. You’ll have a good quack as you read aloud the names of the ducklings, Jack, Kack, Lack, Mack and so on.

Over the years, grandparents who have read this delightful classic and subsequently visited Boston have probably made a stop at the Boston Public Garden at the insistence of one of their grandchildren. A sculpture of Mrs. Mallard and her eight ducklings, large enough to hold the most robust 8-year-old, was placed in the Garden in 1987.

The Halloween Pick: Room on the Broom, by Julia Donaldson (Dial, 2001)

We can’t let Halloween pass without recommending a book to read to grandkids around that boo-tiful day.

And my pick is Room on the Broom, a gloriously good-humored, beautifully illustrated book, perfect for the 3-to-8 age category. The story revolves around a good-natured witch who keeps dropping things — her hat, the bow from her braid, her wand — as she flies along on her broom. Various animals find her belongings, bring them back to her and then join her on the broom. When the weight finally breaks the broom, a scary dragon appears and tries to eat the witch but she is saved by... well, that would be giving away the story, and it’s too much fun to do that. Just know that there’s a happy ending for all.

This will be the third or fourth Halloween that I have read this story to one set or another of my grandkids. They love the story and the pictures, but it’s the rhyming words that carry the day. And after the second, third or fourth reading, they wait to chant with me: “The witch tapped her broomstick and whoosh, they were gone!”