I Remember Papa - Hardcover

Kindergarten-Grade 1AA warm story set in the past. A boy earns a quarter every weekend for getting up early and helping his father on their farm. He keeps the money in a cigar box and saves it to buy a baseball glove. When he and his dad take the train to town to buy new boots, he takes his savings just in case he sees a glove he can afford. They see one in the window of a sporting-goods store that has not yet opened for the day, and then go to a Cincinnati Reds game, where the boy loses the envelope containing his money. His dad then spends his boot money on the glove, explaining that his old boots can be glued to last a while longer. The story is told in the past tense from the boy's point of view, and is warm without being treacly. The realistic, gouache illustrations are filled with natural light and the slow motion of a fond memory, with a nostalgic tone similar to some of the scenes in the baseball movie The Natural.AChristine A. Moesch, Buffalo & Erie County Public Library, NY
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

0-8037-1849-7 From Ketteman (Heat Wave, 1998, etc.), a sentimental reminiscence about a Saturday train trip to the ball game and a life lesson gained from a childhood loss. A young boy accompanies his father to Cincinnati, hoping to buy a baseball glove, his savings tucked securely inside his pocket. Needless to say, he loses the money and fears he won't be able to buy the mitt. His father, instead of buying much-needed work boots, comes through with the money, and the child is determined to pay back every penny. The grainy gouache paintings have the varnished look of an aging, yellowed photograph, appropriately nostalgic. While the plot is constructed around a baseball mitt, the theme at the center of the story is the hallowed relationship between father and son in a bygone era, fondly remembered. (Picture book. 4-8) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.