The Great Ball Game, a classic folktale originating from the Cherokee, Creek, Ojibway and Menominee people of North America, is adapted for a contemporary audience by Rebecca Sheir, host of the award-winning Circle Round podcast, and accompanied by the vibrant illustrations of Joshua Mangeshig Pawis-Steckley, an Ojibwe Woodland artist. A dispute between the animals and the birds over who is best leads to a ball game challenge. When the game is disrupted by the arrival of a tiny creature named Bat, who doesn't seem to fit on either team, all the participants learn the value of diversity and celebrating those who seem "different." The accompanying activities and prompts encourage children to develop their own storytelling skills.

Bat, who has both wings and teeth, plays an important part in a game between the Birds and the Animals to decide which group is better.

A school, sports, and friendship story perfect for fans of Mike Lupica's Comeback Kids.

The Precolumbian ballgame, played on a masonry court, has long intrigued scholars because of the magnificence of its archaeological remains. From its lowland Maya origins it spread throughout the Aztec empire, where the game was so popular that sixteen thousand rubber balls were imported annually into Tenochtitlan. It endured for two thousand years, spreading as far as to what is now southern Arizona. This new collection of essays brings together research from field archaeology, mythology, and Maya hieroglyphic studies to illuminate this important yet puzzling aspect of Native American culture. The authors demonstrate that the game was more than a spectator sport; serving social, political, mythological, and cosmological functions, it celebrated both fertility and the afterlife, war and peace, and became an evolving institution functioning in part to resolve conflict within and between groups. The contributors provide complete coverage of the archaeological, sociopolitical, iconographic, and ideological aspects of the game, and offer new information on the distribution of ballcourts, new interpretations of mural art, and newly perceived relations of the game with material in the Popol Vuh. With its scholarly attention to a subject that will fascinate even general readers, The Mesoamerican Ballgame is a major contribution to the study of the mental life and outlook of New World peoples.

"An interesting and informative look at the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League that operated from 1945–1954.... A significant title." --School Library Journal, starred review

Focusing on the unusual friendship between John McGraw and Christy Mathewson, "The Old Ball Game" is a masterful chronicle of the early days of baseball from America's most beloved sportswriter. Illustrations throughout.

On deck and ready for your reading lineup, New York Times bestselling author-illustrator Brian Lies’s ode to “batty” baseball fans. You think humans are the only ones who enjoy America’s national pastime? Grab your bat—the other kind—and your mitt, because it’s a whole new ballgame when evening falls and bats come fluttering from the rafters to watch their all-stars compete. Get set to be transported to the right-side-up and upside-down world of bats at play, as imagined and illustrated by bestselling author-illustrator Brian Lies. Hurry up! Come one—come all! We’re off to watch the bats play ball!

It makes sense: Kids, balls, bouncing, laughter, and fun all go together. And in Having a Ball: Stability Ball Games, author John Byl shows you how to get kids bouncing, laughing, moving, and having great fun--all as they improve their fitness skills. Having a Ball features -73 stability ball games, with variations, that teach balance and coordination; -a great variety of challenges, races, relays, and team games for all participants; -a game finder that helps you quickly find the right activity for your group; and -games that work for youth in fitness centers, schools, park departments--wherever it is you work with kids. The book is organized into seven chapters based on the nature of the activities and the number of players involved. There are games for partners working together to complete a challenge; for individuals, pairs, or groups to complete tasks as quickly as possible; and relays involving teams of three or four players each. There are also chase games, games for larger groups, and activities that pit two teams against each other. Each game lists an objective and notes the equipment, number of players, and setup required. Instructions take you sequentially through explaining the game to your players. The games come with variations, and you and your players are encouraged to add to those variations to make the games work best for your particular situation. Whether you're using these games in a fitness center, recreation program, or school, they'll be a hit with kids because the games are a blast--and using nontraditional equipment helps to level the playing field so everyone gets to participate equally.

Batter up with a Sesame Street version of a beloved baseball song—with stkckers, baseball trading cards, and a team poster! It's the seventh-inning stretch as Elmo and his friends watch the Sesame Street Sluggers play baseball. As Elmo takes the mic, the crowd joins in to sing a very special—and very funny—Sesame Street version of the beloved song "Take Me Out to the Ballgame." When it starts to rain, new verses are added to keep the crowd singing. Girls and boys ages 3 to 7 can read and sing along with Elmo, Grover, Cookie Monster, Big Bird, Bert, Ernie, Oscar, Zoe, and Abby Cadabby as they wait for the game to begin again. This paperback storybook scores extra hits with press-out baseball trading cards, stickers, and a fold-out Sluggers team poster!