A picture book biography of Jackie Mitchell, focusing on the April 2, 1931, game in which she struck out Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig as a pitcher for the minor league Chattanooga Lookouts. Succinctly told but with suspense as the balls are called and wraps with a sense of Jackie's satisfaction of a job well-done. Full-bleed illustrations and facial closeups add to the drama of the story.

I was expecting a little more from this book, but I did like it. I really liked how the book flowed, and that this book taught an important lesson to its readers. The first reason I liked this book was that fact that the writing of this book flowed from page to page, along with the plot, allowing for the story to be told in a manner that keeps the reader flipping from page to page. A clear example of this is that the reader firsts get introduced to Jackie when she was older, but then the next page it skips to when she was younger and just starting to learn about baseball; the writer also has both stages of the girl in the exact same body form, which I thought was very interesting and made the book flow. The second reason I really liked this book is the fact that this book has a very strong message of girl power and perseverance. This is clearly shown throughout the book, but is clearly stated in a few sentences; when the boy told her that she threw like a girl, she does not listen, and instead she accepts it and continues to strive to be a girl baseball player. The main message of this story is to never give up on your dreams, as you can achieve anything if you put your mind to it; it is also about girl power and girls can be anything they want. ( )

This is a true story about Jackie Mitchell. Jackie loved baseball from an early age. She soon was better than any boy in her neighborhood. She loved pitching the most and had a certain pitch that could strike anyone out. When Jackie was seventeen years old, she played for a small team that no one knew much about. That was until she was able to play against the New York Yankees and Babe Ruth. She grew up in a time period where girls didn't play baseball or any sport for that matter. They especially didn't play in the major leagues. She struck out Babe Ruth! The most famous baseball player of all time and she was a girl.

I really liked this story. I myself played softball for many years and the sport of baseball is very dear to my family. I chose this book because it was about a woman in the major leagues. I was no where near professional league level, but I too was a pitcher. This story would be great to show kids so they realize they can do anything with hard work and dedication. ( )

I really enjoyed this book for a few reasons. Firstly, I believe that the book did a nice job of bringing historical information into the book, whether it is presenting the life of Jackie Mitchell or exposing students to the ideas of gender roles and how they have changed over time. Building off of this idea, I like how the book talks about such an important issue of gender roles and women's rights in such an accessible way. I think that readers will root for Jackie and see how she is just as talented and deserving as the boys, without realizing that they are tackling a much larger issue than baseball. Lastly, I believe that the book does a really nice job of presenting Jackie as a character that is presented with difficult obstacles, but succeeds in overcoming them. The book presents her as a great role model and a figure that children can really look up to. ( )

This is really a dark part of the history of major league baseball that even today I doubt qualifies as resolved. There aren't too many favorable descriptions of the people involved, though they probably don't deserve one if what I read here is true.

The book is well done. The writing is at an approachable level. The description of the event is vivid. The evidence of thorough research is plain to see. All in all, I'd read this to kids. I doubt Babe Ruth fans would be overly fond of the portrayal he received; nor would Lou Gehrig fans though Marissa Moss didn't give him quite the villianizing portrayal that Mr. Ruth was offered.

This is a good book about a tough subject. At least when an author chooses to write about the terrible decisions made to racially segregate Major League Baseball, the MLB can respond with acknowledgment that it was wrong and that they've since done what they could to right the situation. They can't do that with women in baseball. It's still held as a man's game where there are no girls allowed. The "Boys Only" mentality of the game still exists.

Overall, a wonderful book. I wish that the events mentioned inside never happened, but since they did they deserve the kind of recognition that this book gives them. ( )