Becoming Joe Dimaggio
by Maria Testa (Author) Scott Hunt (Illustrator)
It's 1936, and the Yankees have just hired a star center fielder whose name sounds like music. What could be a better time for Papa-Angelo's grandson to be born? Christened after the legendary ballplayer, young Joseph Paul learns much at his Italian grandfather's knee -- about holding your breath in front of the radio during a 3-2 count with the bases loaded and having the audacity to dream big dreams.
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Publishers Weekly
The author's 24 vignettes, in verse, introduce a young baseball player born in 1936. PW wrote, "The boy's melodic narrative tightly braids together strands integral to his life: family, baseball and the ways in which the exploding world affects him and those close to him." Ages 10-14. (Mar.) Copyright 2005 Publishers Weekly Used with permission.
ALA/Booklist
Starred Review
"With ineffable tenderness and absolute clarity, Testa tells a tale in blank verse. . . . Powerfully moving as it braids together baseball, family, and the Italian-American experience." — Booklist (starred review)
Review quotes
"BECOMING JOE DIMAGGIO is wondrous in its heartfelt, sparse, home-run, free verse tribute to both a family's love of baseball and one of the game's greatest players, "Joltin' Joe." Readers will long remember Testa's words long after the book has been read, long after games have been played."—award-winning poet and anthologist Lee Bennett Hopkins
— Lee Bennett Hopkins
— Lee Bennett Hopkins
Maria Testa
Maria Testa received a Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators Work-in-Progress Grant for BECOMING JOE DIMAGGIO, a poetic novel inspired by family stories. She has written three picture books for children and a collection of short stories for young adults. She is also the author of another novel about baseball, SOME KIND OF PRIDE, which was awarded the Marguerite De Angeli Prize for a first middle-grade novel. Maria Testa grew up in Rhode Island and now lives on the coast of Maine with her family.
Classification
Fiction
ISBN-13
9780763624446
Lexile Measure
-
Guided Reading Level
T
Publisher
Candlewick Press (MA)
Publication date
February 20, 2005
Series
-
BISAC categories
JUV013030 - Juvenile Fiction | Family | Multigenerational
JUV039000 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | General
JUV032010 - Juvenile Fiction | Sports & Recreation | Baseball
JUV039000 - Juvenile Fiction | Social Themes | General
JUV032010 - Juvenile Fiction | Sports & Recreation | Baseball
Library of Congress categories
American poetry
Children's poetry, American
Grandfathers
Italian Americans
Children's poetry, American
Grandfathers
Italian Americans
