Players in Pigtails

 

Players in Pigtails

Written By: Shana Corey

Illustrated By: Rebecca Gibbon

Scholastic Inc., 2003

28 Pages

 

     I chose this book, because the cover of the book interested me.  It looked like it might have been set in an earlier time period.   The book is about a girl named Katie Casey.  She does not fit in with the other girls at school.  She is not good at cooking in her home ec class or knitting or dancing.  The only thing Katie was interested in was baseball.  Her parents were not happy and wanted her to do what all the other girls were doing.  Katie enjoyed going to watch the professional baseball games.  She like it so much, wanted to try out in the spring.  But, the boys told her that she could not play, because she was a girl.  They never wanted to look into it, but the sport was beginning to get lost; men were going off to war.  Finally, the owner of one of the professional baseball leagues decides that the women should be given a chance.  He begins to look for girls to play ball.  When he saw how good Katie Casey was, he asked her to play!  Katie decides to go play in the league.  The girls had to practice hard and maintain lady like appearances.  But it was worth it in the end, the team played a wonderful first game.  The audience was astounded!

 

     I love the illustrations in this book.  They are done with water colors.  The colors are all very soft.   I think the artist did a great job portraying what the setting of the story would have looked like.  I really like the way she drew the player’s uniforms and the people’s clothing.  The story is very easy to follow because of the pictures.  You can tell that the illustrator really took the time to think about how to make her audience visualize the story.

 

     I would use this book to teach my class the importance of diversity and how everybody is different.  I would also relate the story to them and tell them to always follow their dreams no matter what people think; it is alright to be different.  I would have my students write about what they want to be when they grow up.  I could also have them write about a time when they felt left out or like they did not fit in with the rest of their peers.  I could also use this book to teach a history lesson and explain that girls really did play ball at one time; it would be a great introduction to a history lesson.  I think that this book would be appropriate for first through third grade.