If you want to teach young children about an activity you really love, what methods would be most advantageous to that purpose?  You could take a lesson from Greg Bancroft, the author of BETSY’S DAY AT THE GAME, by enfolding the meat of the matter in a warm and comfortable setting with familiar and likeable characters and let the story play out.  It is very apparent that Mr. Bancroft loves baseball and children and this story combines both nicely.

The story is centered on the relationship between Betsy and her grandfather while spending a day at the ball park.  Mr. Bancroft lets the reader sit beside this family and feel the excitement, smell the grass, hear the noise, and share the family traditions that have developed around baseball from the easy banter between the two main characters to the discussion of how to keep the scorecard.  The instruction on the scorecard occupies a major part of the book and is intentionally meant to have the reader become more proficient at understanding how to read and mark the card in a real life situation.

BETSY’S DAY AT THE GAME has a few more pluses.  The book includes a section at the back containing instructions on how to keep score, codes, sample scorecards, and a completed scorecard.  It is a nice size for young children to handle, the print is large, and Katherine Blackmore’s illustrations are correspondingly large and colorful. 

This book was sent to Compass Book Ratings for review by Scarletta Press

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language:  None

Violence/Gore:  None

Sex/Nudity:  None

Mature Subject Matter:

None

Alcohol / Drug Use:

None