The Babe & I [Hardcover]

David A. Adler (Author), Terry Widener (Illustrator)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 1999 | Age Level: 5 and up | Grade Level: K and up

It’s 1932 and everyone is struggling through the Great Depression. When the resourceful young narrator of this story discovers that his father is jobless, he decides to become a newsie. He and his friend Jacob figure out how to sell more papers than the other kids. Many more. Because they’ve got Babe Ruth to help them. Business is soon booming and, thanks to the Babe, they even get a chance to see a Yankees game.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

"For my birthday I was hoping my parents would give me a bicycle. They only gave me a dime."

So begins David Adler's inspired tale of the challenges and magic--yes, magic--of a depression-era childhood spent in the Bronx, New York. Disappointed, but not surprised by his present, the young narrator in The Babe & I spends his birthday afternoon wandering neighborhood streets with his best friend Jacob, discussing--as always--the New York Yankees and the world's greatest baseball player, Babe Ruth. The boys may have little in the way of monetary goods, but they do live within walking distance of Yankee stadium. They get a special lift from their proximity to this golden team of graced athletes, even if they can never go inside the gate. On this day, however, the stakes are raised significantly when the narrator discovers a difficult, saddening secret about his father. In response, he decides to join Jacob and become a newspaper boy--a decision that helps his family through these tough years and leads the narrator into the best, most unbelievable encounter of his life--better than any bike or birthday or anything.

Adler's honest, vivid reflection of 1930s life is perfectly complemented by Terry Widener's evocative, earth-toned illustrations. Reminiscent of WPA murals, Widener's images help Adler transport the reader to another time and place in a symbiotic pairing that makes this tender book a true work of art. (Ages 5 and older) --Jean Lenihan

From Publishers Weekly

In the Bronx in 1932, a boy out walking with his friend discovers that his ostensibly employed father is actually selling apples on the street. Shocked, the boy numbly follows the friend, a "newsie," to work and ends up learning a great strategy for selling papers: go to Yankee Stadium and shout the latest about Babe Ruth. Adler, previously paired with Widener for Lou Gehrig: The Luckiest Man, creates an empathic but unsentimental portrait of life during the Depression. He conveys the father's humiliation and pride, but the boy's satisfaction in his own job and the family's general happiness keep their lot from seeming pitiful. After selling a paper to the Babe himself, the boy feels new kinship with him: "He and I were a team.... His home runs helped me sell newspapers." But baseball isn't really what drives the bookAmore importantly, "I knew Dad and I were also a team. We were both working to get our family through hard times." Widener's acrylics have a striking presence: their massy forms and jaunty, exaggerated perspectives achieve a look that's both nostalgic and edgy. Adler and Widener score bigAtheir book reads like a labor of love. Ages 5-9.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 5 and up
  
• Hardcover: 32 pages
• Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books; 1st edition (April 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0152013784
• ISBN-13: 978-0152013783
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 11.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,167,395 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I write both fiction and non-fiction. I begin my fiction with the main character. The story comes later. Of course, since I'll be spending a lot of time with each main character, why not have him or her be someone I like? Andy Russell is based, loosely, on a beloved member of my family. He's fun to write about and the boy who inspired the character is even more fun to know. Cam Jansen is based even more loosely on a classmate of mine in the first grade whom we all envied because we thought he had a photographic memory. Now, especially when my children remind me of some promise they said I made, I really envy Cam's amazing memory. I have really enjoyed writing about Cam Jansen and her many adventures. For my books of non-fiction I write about subjects I find fascinating. My first biography was Our Golda: The Life of Golda Meir. To research that book, I bought a 1905 set of encyclopedia. Those books told me what each of the places Golda Meir lived in were like when she lived there. I've written many other biographies, including books about Martin Luther King, Jr; George Washington; Abraham Lincoln; Helen Keller; Harriet Tubman; Anne Frank; and many others in my Picture Book Biography series. I've been a Yankee and a Lou Gehrig fan for decades so I wrote Lou Gehrig: The Luckiest Man. It's more the story of his great courage than his baseball playing. Children face all sorts of challenges and it's my hope that some will be inspired by the courage of Lou Gehrig. I am working now on another book about a courageous man, Janusz Korczak. My book One Yellow Daffodil is fiction, too, but it's based on scores of interviews I did with Holocaust survivors for my books We Remember the Holocaust, Child of the Warsaw Ghetto, The Number on My Grandfather's Arm, and Hiding from the Nazis. The stories I heard were compelling. One Yellow Daffodil is both a look to the past and to the future, and expresses my belief in the great spirit and strength of our children. I love math and was a math teacher for many years, so it was fun for me to write several math books including Fraction Fun, Calculator Riddles, and Shape Up! Fun with Triangles and Other Polygons. In my office I have this sign, "Don't Think. Just Write!" and that's how I work. I try not to worry about each word, even each sentence or paragraph. For me stories evolve. Writing is a process. I rewrite each sentence, each manuscript, many times. And I work with my editors. I look forward to their suggestions, their help in the almost endless rewrite process. Well, it's time to get back to dreaming, and to writing, my dream of a job. David A. Adler is the author of more than 175 children's books, including the Young Cam Jansen series. He lives in Woodmere, New York.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 3 1/2* Sanitized Gotham, Small Role for the Babe, June 12, 2005

By 

M. Allen Greenbaum (California) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Babe & I (Hardcover)

"For my birthday I was hoping my parents would give me a bicycle. They only gave me a dime." The opening of "The Babe and I" alludes to the Great Depression, specifically 1932 Bronx, where the unnamed protagonist loves his family first and baseball second. At least his dad is employed, every morning he pits on a suit and takes his briefcase to his office. "We were lucky. My father had a job. But we never seemed to have much money." Accompanying his friend Jacob on his paper route, he discovers that his Dad's office is a street corner where he sells apples. In fact, every corner has an apple vendor, selling one for a nickel.

However, the reader will notice a schism between the words and the illustrations. If this is the Great Depression, it's the Disneyland version: The houses, streets, and sidewalks are squeaky cleaned, the "shabby and wrinkled" clothes are clean and in one piece, and no stores are boarded up. Illustrator Terry Widener composes nice wide angled street scenes, illustrates the men in a 1930's movie style with broad shoulders and hats, and draws the boys looking prematurely old, but the Depression looks clean and calm. Only when the son asks his father about his secret job do we see a more realistic view of the emotional toil, as he walks sadly down a deserted (but really clean!) street: "Dad didn't say anything after that. I didn't either. We just walked."

Babe Ruth enters the picture when he supports the boy's budding newspaper job. Injured, the yellow-suited Sultan of Swat (also looking a bit too healthy) comes to Yankee stadium and gives him $5.00 for a 25-cent paper. (The Babe's injury, his pinch hitting, and other events reported here are "based on actual events that were reported July 14 through July 22, 1932.) Aside from Ruth's baseball heroics that result in the boy selling more newspapers, that's the entire extent of Babe's role in "The Babe and I," and the title suddenly seems misleading. On the last page, author Adler strains to make the connection more prominent:
"Babe Ruth was part of the 1932 Yankees. That year they were the best team in baseball. He and I were a team, too. His home runs helped me sell newspapers...I knew Dad and I were a team too. We were both working to get our family through hard times." (All this under a picture of the father in a nice blue suit walking from away their well-kept brownstone on an immaculate sidewalk.)

Looking beyond the pictures (and perhaps you'd rather not show signs of poverty to your young one), the book's strength is its portrayal of family dynamics, the father with his secret--and his anger-- and the son trying to help. (The mother doesn't find out, and, in addition, is barely seen.) However, the book should could focused somewhat more realistically on the material and social effects of poverty, or at least emphasized the Babe more. Although there is about little economic hard times, a better book about Ruth's own difficulties is Donald Hall and Barry Moser's "When Willard Met Babe Ruth." "The Babe and I" hints at the era, but I'm still looking for a kids' book that better illustrates the links between the Depression and baseball.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars 1932: Dad sells apples, mom saves, son becomes a "newsie", May 10, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: The Babe & I (Hardcover)

When I first picked up "The Babe & I," I was expecting a book about baseball. While baseball, and Babe Ruth, do figure into the story, it's really an intriguing look into the life of a boy, his mom and secretly unemployed dad, during the Great Depression year of 1932. Once the boy discovers that his dad is actually selling apples to make money, instead of going to his former job each morning, he learns from his friend, Jacob, how to make money selling newspapers in front of Yankee Stadium.

These two "newsies" learn that they can sell more papers by yelling out the latest headlines about Babe Ruth, such as, "The Babe hits number twenty-five! Read all about it!"

This attractive picture book is quick slice of history for young readers, while incorporating an introductory lesson in economics. It's also a lesson in love: a boy's love for his father, and a father's love for his family.

Terry Widener's mural-like illustrations make a nice addition to this heartwarming tale, however the slightly surreal quality makes each scene seem lifeless, when this story is about life, and love, during difficult times. Having said that, they are still attractive and colorful, and do complement the storyline.

And yes, Babe Ruth, does make an touching appearance in this story, set in "that year they were the best team in baseball."

The students in our elementary school library have enjoyed this book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Babe and I, April 5, 2005

A Kid's Review

This review is from: The Babe & I (Hardcover)

The Babe and I was a good story because the kid for his birthday he only got a dime and in the 1932, a dime was like two dollars.The kid and his mother always thought that his father had a job but the whole time he had been fired and he was out selling apples.Then they went for a walk him and Jacob and the kid found out that his dad sells apples and he got upset because he saw how hard it was for his dad to make a dime.So then the kid got a job as a newspaper seller and he was tought to sell like a pro and he started making money.Then one day Babe Ruth bought a paper from him and gave him five dollars and he didnt reconize Babe but then he bought tickets for the game and watched BAbe play.Then with the little bit of money he had left he went home and put it into the money jar.

The reason i liked this story was because the kid tried to help his family because he found out that his family needed help.Then he kept the secrect to himself about his dad selling apples because he didnt want his mom to find out.