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From: Eliza T. Dresang <edresang>
Date: Fri, 08 Jan 1999 10:31:08 -0500
Don't know how or why, but only the top part of my message made it to the list serv. I'll try sending the whole message again as the bottom part is still here! Eliza D.
Hello,
I agree with all others who have noted that sports books with the most lasting power have something else to recommend them (fiction or nonfiction), while others have temporary utility. I'll share mainly some favorite pbs or illustrated books that I think have lasting power.
The most recent one is *Ballpark* by Elisha Cooper. Cooper first wrote and illustrated books for adults, but most recently have produced picture books for younger/all age readers. He is a master of enticing, often off beat detail. It is absolutely necessary to read his pictures as well as his words (which are often pictures themselves). He takes the reader through nine innings of a baseball game at the ballpark, but he is the fan who sees the humor or interest in behind-the-scenes action most of us never see -like unloading the boxes of peanuts. His language is precise and poetic, his images often with a touch of humor. Anyone who has not yet seen Cooper's pbs has a treat in store -- sports fans or not. (and its nonlinear reading!)
As BIg Grandma said, there are lots of poems that have a sports theme. Arnold Adolf and Steve Kuzma's *Sports Pages* is, like Cooper's book, a book in which the words become pictures. It contains 37 poems about a variety of athletic experiences, often words that many athletes think but don't express.
Already mentioned but favorites are *Baseball Saved Us* (Ken Mochizuki/Dom Lee), a pb set in the Japanese-American WWII concentration camps and *Wilma Unlimited* by Kathleen Krull and David Diaz, an amazing book of courage bringing the seldom-portray female athlete into the mix.
Speaking of which and also already mentioned is Sue Macy's Winning Ways: a Photohistory of American Women in Sport, a terrific historical to contemporary overview that shows women have been competing all along. They were just written out of the record in sports as in numerous other areas. Fascinating photos.
Back to Brenda's question: I have a short anecdote to share that really relates to the power of books not just sports books, but in this case sports were involved.
Around four years ago, I taught a multicultural lit class at the UWisconsin-Madison. It was approved for the undergraduate Human Relations requirement which brought in some disgruntled seniors who had to take something in order to graduate. One was a phy ed major.
For his final oral presentation he came decked out in all kinds of sports gear, but what he had to say was the most moving of the evening. He told about how he had felt the class was (in essence) "for the birds." He saw no merit in the focus on "cultural understanding." He knew what he needed to know from day to day experience.
That was how he felt, he said, until he read the sports related books, the topic he chose for his final paper/presentation for cultural analysis (I honestly don't recall exactly which books he chose but they all contained players who were either African American, Hispanic/Latino or Asian American
-- *Baseball Saved Us*, the title story a terrific short stories by Gary Soto, was one I do recall).
Suddenly he said, when he started reading about the issues of racism in sports with characters with whom he could identify it became very clear to him why this class and awareness of this literature/cultural understanding was so important to his life. He went on to tell how deeply he was moved because he could understand the milieu in which the books took place.
The bottom line of this, I guess, is that we need all kinds of good books. Some will be read by lots of young readers -- others by only some. Maybe the sports books fall into the later category, although, this anecdote aside, I come back to the idea that it is not the "group" but the individual merit/appeal that counts for durability.
Guess I can't leave without mentioning, therefore, (and once again) one of my favorite books of the year which is exactly the kind of lasting story we're talking about: Virginia Euwer Wolff's *Bat 6."
Eliza Dresang Associate Professor FSU School of Information Studies
*********************************************************************** Eliza T. Dresang, Associate Professor
School of Information Studies Florida State University Tallahassee, Florida 32306!00 e-mail: edresang at mailer.fsu.edu Phone: 850 644 5877 (w) Phone: 850 224 1637 (h) FAX: 850 644 6253 (w) FAX: 850 224 1637 (h)
Received on Fri 08 Jan 1999 09:31:08 AM CST
Date: Fri, 08 Jan 1999 10:31:08 -0500
Don't know how or why, but only the top part of my message made it to the list serv. I'll try sending the whole message again as the bottom part is still here! Eliza D.
Hello,
I agree with all others who have noted that sports books with the most lasting power have something else to recommend them (fiction or nonfiction), while others have temporary utility. I'll share mainly some favorite pbs or illustrated books that I think have lasting power.
The most recent one is *Ballpark* by Elisha Cooper. Cooper first wrote and illustrated books for adults, but most recently have produced picture books for younger/all age readers. He is a master of enticing, often off beat detail. It is absolutely necessary to read his pictures as well as his words (which are often pictures themselves). He takes the reader through nine innings of a baseball game at the ballpark, but he is the fan who sees the humor or interest in behind-the-scenes action most of us never see -like unloading the boxes of peanuts. His language is precise and poetic, his images often with a touch of humor. Anyone who has not yet seen Cooper's pbs has a treat in store -- sports fans or not. (and its nonlinear reading!)
As BIg Grandma said, there are lots of poems that have a sports theme. Arnold Adolf and Steve Kuzma's *Sports Pages* is, like Cooper's book, a book in which the words become pictures. It contains 37 poems about a variety of athletic experiences, often words that many athletes think but don't express.
Already mentioned but favorites are *Baseball Saved Us* (Ken Mochizuki/Dom Lee), a pb set in the Japanese-American WWII concentration camps and *Wilma Unlimited* by Kathleen Krull and David Diaz, an amazing book of courage bringing the seldom-portray female athlete into the mix.
Speaking of which and also already mentioned is Sue Macy's Winning Ways: a Photohistory of American Women in Sport, a terrific historical to contemporary overview that shows women have been competing all along. They were just written out of the record in sports as in numerous other areas. Fascinating photos.
Back to Brenda's question: I have a short anecdote to share that really relates to the power of books not just sports books, but in this case sports were involved.
Around four years ago, I taught a multicultural lit class at the UWisconsin-Madison. It was approved for the undergraduate Human Relations requirement which brought in some disgruntled seniors who had to take something in order to graduate. One was a phy ed major.
For his final oral presentation he came decked out in all kinds of sports gear, but what he had to say was the most moving of the evening. He told about how he had felt the class was (in essence) "for the birds." He saw no merit in the focus on "cultural understanding." He knew what he needed to know from day to day experience.
That was how he felt, he said, until he read the sports related books, the topic he chose for his final paper/presentation for cultural analysis (I honestly don't recall exactly which books he chose but they all contained players who were either African American, Hispanic/Latino or Asian American
-- *Baseball Saved Us*, the title story a terrific short stories by Gary Soto, was one I do recall).
Suddenly he said, when he started reading about the issues of racism in sports with characters with whom he could identify it became very clear to him why this class and awareness of this literature/cultural understanding was so important to his life. He went on to tell how deeply he was moved because he could understand the milieu in which the books took place.
The bottom line of this, I guess, is that we need all kinds of good books. Some will be read by lots of young readers -- others by only some. Maybe the sports books fall into the later category, although, this anecdote aside, I come back to the idea that it is not the "group" but the individual merit/appeal that counts for durability.
Guess I can't leave without mentioning, therefore, (and once again) one of my favorite books of the year which is exactly the kind of lasting story we're talking about: Virginia Euwer Wolff's *Bat 6."
Eliza Dresang Associate Professor FSU School of Information Studies
*********************************************************************** Eliza T. Dresang, Associate Professor
School of Information Studies Florida State University Tallahassee, Florida 32306!00 e-mail: edresang at mailer.fsu.edu Phone: 850 644 5877 (w) Phone: 850 224 1637 (h) FAX: 850 644 6253 (w) FAX: 850 224 1637 (h)
Received on Fri 08 Jan 1999 09:31:08 AM CST
