Tulip At The Bat

Title: Tulip At The Bat
Written by J. Patrick Lewis
Illustrated by Amiko Hirao
Grades: 2-4

Summary: This quick rhyming tale takes the reader to an imaginative ball park where The Boston Beasts are facing the hometown New York Pets. The players and fans are members of the animal kingdom possessing wacky skill-sets that suit their physical characteristics. The game, which the home crowd expects to be a high scoring affair, ends up being a classic pitchers duel. The hometown are victorious in the end with Tulip, the tutu wearing Hippo, batting in two runs with a game winning bunt.

Oppinion: While Amiko Hirao shines brillaintly throughout the story with her vivid immagination and beautiful illustrations, her efforts seemed diminished by Lewis' writing. The story was written in broken prose and seemed to dig too far into the baseball reference encyclopedia (I seriously doubt many children know that a baseball is also nicknamed a "pill"). The story also seemed to lack a sense of excitement throughout (it was after all a 0-0 game until the last inning)  until the last few pages. The rhyming at time seemed to be a stretch, i.e. knee and gallery, and the story seems to lack a general message.
I feel that this book would appeal to a very select audience of children. But as a sports buff myself, I cannot do anything but admire at the beautiful illustrations. I just wish that Lewis had delivered with some more quality writing.