Rating: 
Summary: Oh, the details!
Review: As the other reviewers agree, the presentation of this classic poem in the form of a scrapbook is wonderfully imaginative and skillfully done. I just wanted to put in a word for the rigorous attention to detail this book displays! Many of the "artifacts", and ALL of the newspaper clippings, included as adjuncts to the main illustrations, are fictitious. It is just barely possible, if you know what you're looking for, to recognize the signs of computer image manipulation--but it is also easy to accept everything as real. The yellowed newsprint (which is NOT a digital artifact) is a beautiful touch.For those who like a peek behind the curtain, Mr. Bing explains a lot of what went into creating the book in a foreword, acknowledgements note, and colophon (all skillfully integrated into the scrapbook imagery).
Rating:
Summary: A Magnificent Presentation
Review: Christopher Bing has taken Ernest L Thayer's poem, Casey at the Bat, and presented it in a most creative and ingenious format, as a hundred year old scrapbook. The poem itself is almost secondary to his amazing and inspired artwork that includes newpaper articles and advertisements from the Mudville Sunday Monitor, period baseball cards, game tickets, money and other memorabilia, that gives readers a marvelous view of the baseball world in the late 1880s. This is a book to savor and both youngsters and adults will find themselves mesmerized by the rich authenticity and historical detail as they find something new and exciting to read and explore each time they open the book. Casey at the Bat is a wonderful read aloud story younger children will enjoy. But it will have much greater meaning for baseball fans 10 and older, who will revel in the enormous amount of information and fun facts that Mr Bing presents. As a gift or addition to your own home library, you just can't go wrong with this book!
Rating:
Summary: A Magnificent Presentation
Review: Christopher Bing has taken Ernest L Thayer's poem, Casey at the Bat, and presented it in a most creative and ingenious format, as a hundred year old scrapbook. The poem itself is almost secondary to his amazing and inspired artwork that includes newpaper articles and advertisements from the Mudville Sunday Monitor, period baseball cards, game tickets, money and other memorabilia, that gives readers a marvelous view of the baseball world in the late 1880s. This is a book to savor and both youngsters and adults will find themselves mesmerized by the rich authenticity and historical detail as they find something new and exciting to read and explore each time they open the book. Casey at the Bat is a wonderful read aloud story younger children will enjoy. But it will have much greater meaning for baseball fans 10 and older, who will revel in the enormous amount of information and fun facts that Mr Bing presents. As a gift or addition to your own home library, you just can't go wrong with this book!
Rating:
Summary: Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year
Review: I love this poem- ever since I've been reading it at the age of 8! Christopher Bing's illustrations bring it to life for those who can't imagine sitting in the stands at this sad game. They jump off the page at you and you are there! A collectors item.
Rating:
Summary: Deserved the Caldecott
Review: I've been collecting children's picture books for over 25 years and it's been a long time since I've had a book surprise and delight me as much as this title. The creativity with which Christopher Bing has blended his own terrific etched illustrations with the memorabilia and fictional news clippings is highly imaginative and will pull you through the book. In many ways the poem/ballad of "Casey at the Bat" becomes a secondary theme yet it skillfully holds the entrie composition together. After "reading" the book for the first time, I realized I hadn't even read the poem/ballad!! There are many subtle, underlying stories hidden in the pages. The clipping which tells the history behind the racism and eventual segregation of black ballplayers lies next to an illustration where the catcher is clearly African American. This books is a real treat. If you love baseball, children's books, history or just great creative expression through art, this book will give you hours of joy and discovery.
Rating:
Summary: Delightful Book for Baseball Fans of All Ages
Review: If you love and appreciate baseball not only as a sport, but also as poetry in motion and a metaphor for the American experience, then this is a book that you simply must have. Formatted as clippings from an old-time newspaper contained within a scrapbook with other mementos, it never once steps out of character - front and back dust-cover blurbs, thanks and acknowledgements, editor's notes, dedication, all the way down to publisher's information, ISBN and Library of Congress data all maintain this charming illusion. A tremendous amount of thought and care have gone into creating this book, making it an heirloom quality treasure. Christopher Bing spent time researching the photo archives of the Baseball Hall of Fame, the Sports Museum of New England, as well as various individuals' collections of memorabilia to put together this beautiful and creative volume.
The text is the simple, classic baseball poem penned by Ernest Lawrence Thayer. Each page, however, is rich with detail. The pictures depict a game played in the late nineteenth century, and are painstakingly accurate in period detail, and rendered as engraved newspaper pictures of the period. These pictures are then overlaid with other mementos such as old-time cigarette baseball cards, stereoscopic photos, and clippings from The National Sports Reporter & Gazette, all of which are creatively apropos to the page on which they appear. When the crowd in the poem calls to "kill the umpire!" a clipping from an old catalogue advertising rifled barrel revolvers appears. When they concede that they would bet "even money" on the game if only Casey could come to bat, coinage and paper currency of the time period overlay the picture.
Through the clippings from The National Sports Reporter & Gazette, Bing includes valuable tidbits of baseball history and period trivia. We learn that the overhand pitch was once not allowed, and many opposed its introduction, believing that it would unbalance the game in favor of pitching. One clipping shows that blacks were originally able to play professional baseball until frozen out by unofficial agreements of owners and managers, including Hall of Famer Cap Anson. We even discover the meaning behind the derisive terms "lulu" and "cake" as used in the poem.
Though younger children may enjoy having it read to them and looking at the pictures, this book is most effective with those who can read and appreciate all of the many added charms that it contains. It is a book that can be enjoy at eight, and appreciated even more at eighty. There may be no joy in Mudville, but I'll wager that any baseball fan that receives this book will have more than enough of the stuff to go around.
Rating:
Summary: Imaginative Illustrations Turn the Poem into a News Event
Review: Mr. Christopher Bing has reconceptualized "Casey at the Bat" from being a poem that appeared in the June 3, 1888 edition of the San Francisco Examiner into an imaginary news story with drawings and artifacts in "The Mudville Sunday Monitor" of the same date. In that reframing, the classic poem takes on a greater life and significance for fans of the poem. Each page in this brief book resembles the yellowed file copies of that old newspaper, with historic artifacts strewn across its pages. You will see tickets to the game, money, confetti, articles of that time, advertisements, a baseball, a baseball card, and the Library of Congress catalog card for "Casey at the Bat." Even the acknowledgments are put into this format. But this would all be but window-dressing if it were not such a powerful poem that has captured the imaginations of baseball fans for generations. "The outlook wasn't brilliant for the Mudville nine . . . ." "The score stood four to two with but one inning more to play." Everyone hopes that Casey will get to bat, but that's unlikely. But a miracle happens. "For Casey, mighty Casey, was advancing to the bat." Then comes the most famous and exciting at-bat in fictional baseball history. Alas, like the Red Sox since Babe Ruth left for New York, the end is disappointment for the fans. This book will make a wonderful gift for the baseball fan who has everything. After you finish oohing and aahing over the great illustrations and reliving your pleasure in the poem, I suggest that you reflect over the famous at-bats that have occurred in real baseball games. Which one is your favorite? For me, none can match Kirk Gibson's hobbling home run to help the Dodgers top the Mets in Shea Stadium in the final game of the National League Championship Series and go onto the World Series. I still get chills thinking about that. Reggie Jackson's third home run in the same World Series game comes close as a thrill. Wait for a good pitch, and hit it out of the park!
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book
Review: My thirteen-year-old daughter has developed two loves recently - poetry and baseball. At school, she gave Casey at the Bat as her dramatic reading. Well, she sure was happy to find this book. Illustrated in the form of a scrapbook from 1888, each two pages include a two page-wide picture of a page from the Mudville Monitor (June 3, 1888) and part of Ernest Lawrence Thayer's famous poem. Along the way, the reader is treated to many other items in the scrapbook, including vintage baseball cards, tickets, newspaper articles, advertisements and bric-a-brac. Yep, this is a wonderful book, filled with lots of surprises and some wonderful illustrating. If you have a young baseball fan in your home, then you must get this book; you will love it and your baseball fan will - mine did! Get it!
Rating:
Summary: A Well-Done Timeless Classic
Review: Originally submitted to a newspaper in 1883, Ernest Lawrence Thayer's poem "Casey at the Bat" has become an American classic. In essence, it is baseball's equivalent version of "Twas the Night Before Chritsmas." "Casey at the Bat" has become a part of pop culture, and is still one of the most talked about stories of all time. Christopher Bing takes the wonderful classic, and adds in some amazing illustrations to make for a fantastic children's book. Presenting the poem with a myriad of sepia toned images is exceptional. The book reads like a scrapbook, with amazing-looking old newspaper clippings that reflect the times of the story. There are also pictures of old currency and replica baseball tickets to give it a more complete feel. This book is put together quite nicely. Again, the illustrations are perfect, and the scrapbook appearance gives it a genuine look of something that you will want to treasure with your children. This is a classic poem that every person should have the benefit of hearing. Christopher Bing's version is the best I've ever seen, and is a must for any family with children. There will be plenty of joy in your home with this book.
Rating:
Summary: A Well-Done Timeless Classic
Review: Originally submitted to a newspaper in 1883, Ernest Lawrence Thayer's poem "Casey at the Bat" has become an American classic. In essence, it is baseball's equivalent version of "Twas the Night Before Chritsmas." "Casey at the Bat" has become a part of pop culture, and is still one of the most talked about stories of all time. Christopher Bing takes the wonderful classic, and adds in some amazing illustrations to make for a fantastic children's book. Presenting the poem with a myriad of sepia toned images is exceptional. The book reads like a scrapbook, with amazing-looking old newspaper clippings that reflect the times of the story. There are also pictures of old currency and replica baseball tickets to give it a more complete feel. This book is put together quite nicely. Again, the illustrations are perfect, and the scrapbook appearance gives it a genuine look of something that you will want to treasure with your children. This is a classic poem that every person should have the benefit of hearing. Christopher Bing's version is the best I've ever seen, and is a must for any family with children. There will be plenty of joy in your home with this book.
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