Balletball

December 15, 2019
To ballet or to baseball? What's a girl to do? Nini loves ballet and her ballet outfits. Unfortunately, as her mother reminds her, it is time for baseball and her baseball uniform. Nini does not like anything about baseball--not her glove and not the field. The illustrations demonstrate her passive resistance in amusing vignettes that depict her practicing ballet moves, looking up at the sky, and flopped on the grass, a thoroughly ignored baseball next to her in each one. Her coach and her teammates remind her that baseball is a team sport and that everyone has to do their "best." Then the coach has a little heart-to-heart with Nini about how ballet practice can improve performance on the baseball field. At the next game, her team is leading, but then an opposing player hits the ball into the outfield, where Nini and her glove are waiting. Yes, it is a perfect ending for a baseball player who knows how to plié and hold her glove in the right spot at the right time. Nini, who has light-brown skin and fluffy brown hair, shares her round face and button eyes with all the other children, who are a mix of colors. The softly focused line-and-color illustrations highlight the yellow-and-blue baseball uniforms and the green baseball field. Pleasant fare for scheduled children. (Picture book. 4-7)

COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

December 15, 2019
Preschool-G Nini loves ballet?the leaps, the twirls, and the sparkly tutu. A week after her recital, she's unhappy to hear that she will begin a new activity: baseball. From the uniform (no sparkles) to the equipment ( a lumpy brown glove ) to her position (outfield), she's less than thrilled, and her attitude is unpopular with her teammates. After their patient coach explains that some professional athletes take ballet, Nini decides to try harder. And sure enough, the next time the opposing team hits a ball her way, she leaps, twirls, pli�s, and makes the catch for the last out. Her team wins, and Nini renames the sport balletball. Flint offers a series of appealing watercolor-and-brush-pen scenes with fluid lines and pleasing use of color. The illustrations include a racially diverse cast of characters with different abilities (one uses a hearing aid, another wears glasses). While the story is a mix of reality and wish-fulfillment fantasy, young children are experts at combining the two. An optimistic, sports-themed picture book for aspiring ballet dancers.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

December 15, 2019
To ballet or to baseball? What's a girl to do? Nini loves ballet and her ballet outfits. Unfortunately, as her mother reminds her, it is time for baseball and her baseball uniform. Nini does not like anything about baseball--not her glove and not the field. The illustrations demonstrate her passive resistance in amusing vignettes that depict her practicing ballet moves, looking up at the sky, and flopped on the grass, a thoroughly ignored baseball next to her in each one. Her coach and her teammates remind her that baseball is a team sport and that everyone has to do their "best." Then the coach has a little heart-to-heart with Nini about how ballet practice can improve performance on the baseball field. At the next game, her team is leading, but then an opposing player hits the ball into the outfield, where Nini and her glove are waiting. Yes, it is a perfect ending for a baseball player who knows how to pli� and hold her glove in the right spot at the right time. Nini, who has light-brown skin and fluffy brown hair, shares her round face and button eyes with all the other children, who are a mix of colors. The softly focused line-and-color illustrations highlight the yellow-and-blue baseball uniforms and the green baseball field. Pleasant fare for scheduled children. (Picture book. 4-7)

COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.