Customer Reviews

Babe Ruth and the Ice Cream Mess (Ready-To-Read - Level 2 (Hardback))

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This book is very odd and, quite frankly, not very good. First of all, Babe Ruth seems like an unusual subject for a kids' book about childhood, since from what I know, Ruth had a fairly unpleasant childhood. After all, his father signed off on parental rights when Babe was seven and he spent the rest of this youth living in a boys' reformatory (St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys in Baltimore).

In the story, seven year-old George (before he became known as "Babe") breaks a window while playing baseball with his friends, runs away from the scene, sees an ice cream cart, later steals a dollar from his father's inexplicably empty tavern, then buys ice cream for all his friends with the dollar. His parents discover his theft, and after a heartfelt exchange with his mother, the book ends with George's father chasing the boy out of the house with a wooden paddle! (I found myself checking the back of the book to make sure I didn't miss the last page--I couldn't believe that a childrens picture book would end in this manner).

This book may have worked better if it had been about Babe's relationship with Brother Matthias, who was Ruth's mentor (and baseball instructor) at the St. Mary's Industrial School for Boys, but it makes no sense in trying to write about the Babe's rather indifferent parents (and to end the book on such an odd, unresolved, and sour note that will just leave kids confused).

Strange tale for a young kid. Babe Ruth as a child steals a dollar from dad to buy his friends ice cream and runs away from a beating at home. What?????? This story is a strange tale in the manner it is told.