National Book Award-winning author Martin Sandler (1919: The Year That Changed America) collaborates with his son, journalist Craig Sandler, to chronicle the impact of America's pastime on the United States during the lead-up to World War II in the wholly captivating Baseball's Shining Season. The Sandlers craft a main narrative focused on the pivotal 1941 baseball season that includes stellar athletes, amazing feats, monumental events, and the stain of segregation, then expand their fascinating facts and details to build readers' knowledge of both the sport and the time.
The authors set the stage--or field--for a generation of readers whose grandparents were likely not alive at story's start. Major League baseball was a different sport in 1941: the players' salaries were significantly lower; "not a single club was located farther west than St. Louis"; there were just 16 teams; and "every game was played in the afternoon" (the parks had no lights). The Sandlers introduce the audience to a lineup of superstars, among them the New York Yankees' Joe DiMaggio, with his record-breaking hitting streak, and the Red Sox's Ted Williams, with his astounding .400 batting average season. Their accomplishments on the field helped offset fans' dread of impending war: "The bad news would continue to come, but DiMaggio's play would continue to offer a bright spot all the same." And when DiMaggio's run ended, "the pages of the newspapers... had a daily feature detailing what Williams had done the previous day."
Since Major League Baseball was segregated in a "fiercely racist" 1941, the Sandlers also dedicate much of the book to the incredible talent found in the Negro Leagues (what the Black press "frequently called 'sepia ball' "), as well as the league's history-making East-West All-Star Game. The authors also focus on the Japanese and All-American Girls Professional Baseball Leagues. "After the fighting was over, as the world was entering its next chapter, baseball would play a unique and crucial role in rebuilding the relationship" between the United States and Japan.
Baseball's Shining Season is a thorough survey of baseball in 1941, and the Sandlers scrupulously describe the political and historical context of the exceptional season, illustrating its influence on people in the United States and around the world. The book's format includes photographs and newspaper reproductions depicting emotional moments and developing a distinctive atmosphere. Martin W. Sandler and Craig Sandler hit it out of the park with this stunning piece of upper middle-grade nonfiction; it's an all-around winner. --Jen Forbus, freelancer
Shelf Talker: This riveting work of middle-grade nonfiction meticulously documents the remarkable 1941 baseball season and its effects on the United States as it prepared to enter World War II.