Game 1: Three Kids, a Mystery, and a Magic Baseball (Barnstormers)

#1 New York Times Best Seller LOREN LONG's illustrations have received two gold medals from the Society of Illustrators and his first picture book, Angela Johnson's I Dream of Trains, won the Society of Children's Books Writers and Illustrators Golden Kite Award for Illustrations and his inspired interpretation of Walt Whitman's When I Heard the Learn'd Astronomer was a Golden Kite Honor. A much sought after editorial artist whose work has appeared in Times, Sports Illustrated, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal and Atlantic Monthly, Loren is widely known for the illustrations in Madonna's #1 New York Times Best seller Mr. Peabody's Apples. and Watty Piper's The Little Engine That Could. He lives in West Chester, Ohio, with his wife, Tracy, and two young sons, Griffith and Graham.

Phil Bildner is the author of the New York Times bestselling Sluggers! series, the Texas Bluebonnet Award-winning Shoeless Joe & Black Betsy and its companion, The Shot Heard 'Round the World, both illustrated by C. F. Payne; and Twenty-One Elephants, illustrated by LeUyen Pham. His latest picture book is Turkey Bowl, illustrated by C.F Payne. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Josh Hamilton's films include Diggers, Kicking and Screaming, The House of Yes, Alive, Online, and Outsourced. New York Stage work includes The Coast of Utopia, HurlyBurly, Proof, This is Our Youth, The Waverly Gallery, The Cider House Rules, As Bees in Honey Drown, and Suburbia.

Illustrator Loren Long gets top billing in this homage to baseball barnstorming in the 1890s. Unfortunately, illustrators dont matter much in audiobooks! The strength of Phil Bildners story is its rich context, which allows listeners with even a passing acquaintance with baseball to understand the slang. Nonetheless, the storys action is continually interrupted by the defining of terminology. Josh Hamilton cannot overcome the challenge of translating print to sound, especially when he must insert asides into most game-related sentences. Questions are many; answers nonexistent. Between the loss of the illustrations and the awkward use of definitions, this story does not survive the transition to audio. N.E.M. © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine