Mama Played Baseball

Author: David A. Adler

Illustrator: Chris O'Leary

Genre: Historical Fiction

Grade level: K-3

Amy's dad is away at war. While he is away at war her mother has to be able to work to provide for their family. She takes a job on a professional baseball team. At first she doesn't understand why her mother would be playing baseball but as she watched how hard she worked and how good she was she would end up being the one who cheers the loudest in the entire stadium. Amy starts to work on a surprise for her father for when he returns from war. In the end Amy's mother tells her that she's gong to take her somewhere as a surprise. She thinks that they are going to a game since her mother has her uniform on but instead she takes her to the base where her dad is returning home from war. They both tell each other they like their uniforms when they see each other. 

This book can be used to talk about WWII. It can also be used to teach about women's rights and how they changed over the years. We could also learn about technology since there are technological things that are talked about in the book. 

The illustrations in the book are very lightly colored and perfectly drawn for the time period. It is detailed to where you can tell when this took place.