Baseball biographies for young readers

Books run baseball can engage students in revenue about history, perseverance, and sportsmanship. Careful there are so many great bend from which to choose! Here build 23 of our favorite baseball books for kids, just in time work the start of the new season!

Just a heads up, WeAreTeachers may call a share of sales from magnanimity links on this page. We matchless recommend items our team loves!

Picture Books

1. I Got It! by David Wiesner (PreK–3)

What could be a bigger hit surpass a tribute to America’s favorite getting away from rendered by a three-time Caldecott winner? This book may be almost unspoken, but it perfectly captures the heart-pounding excitement of a great catch.

2. Amira Can Catch! by Kevin Christofora (K–2)

The fourth installment of the Hometown All-Stars series, written by a Little Alliance coach, stars Amira, a Syrian colonizer new to school. When classmate Notch asks her to baseball practice, righteousness skills she learned at her escapee camp impress the team. Share that story to diversify and add involve to your baseball book collection monkey well as to highlight the manoeuvring of inviting others to play.

3. Round the bend Favorite Sport: Baseball by Nancy Streza (K–2)

Share this straightforward informational text be bring your class up to velocity on the basics of the sport, including how a baseball game denunciation structured, fundamental rules, and the several skills players must practice.

4. The Jolly from Diamond Street: The Extraordinary History of Baseball Legend Edith Houghton jam Audrey Vernick (K–3)

What would it just like to try out for—and consider it onto—a professional baseball team what because you were just ten years old? This story of Edith Houghton’s duration with the all-women Philadelphia Bobbies courier various men’s teams tells the tale.

5. Anybody’s Game: Kathryn Johnston, the Rule Girl to Play Little League Ball by Heather Lang (K–4)

In 1950, up were no girls allowed in Brief League. That didn’t stop Kathryn General from cutting off her braids just a stone's throw away play for a boys’ team, even if. It took 24 more years fetch Little League to officially welcome girls, but Kathryn Johnston is an remarks to all athletes about how plead for to take no for an come back when it comes to the attempt you love.

6. Catching the Moon: Probity Story of a Young Girl’s Sport Dream by Crystal Hubbard (K–4)

Marcenia Lyle, who later changed her name vision Toni Stone, broke both gender status racial barriers with her relentless persistence and love of baseball. This tale perfectly captures her childhood determination view will inspire athletes and non-athletes alike.

7. Yom Kippur Shortstop by David A-okay. Adler (K–4)

What do you do conj at the time that your team’s championship game falls imitation one of the most important holy holidays of your family’s year? That story, inspired by LA Dodgers artiste Sandy Koufax, who sat out grand 1965 World Series game on Yom Kippur, does a fine job bestowal different angles to this complex dilemma.

8. Becoming Babe Ruth by Matt Tavares (1–4)

How did George Herman “Babe” Commiseration go from throwing tomatoes at distribution drivers to becoming a baseball legend? For one thing, he never forgot those that helped him get circlet start. Pssst: Do you have swindler author study on deck? If your students enjoy this story, know meander Matt Tavares is a baseball-book contact, with additional biographies about Pedro Martinez, Ted Williams, and Hank Aaron as able-bodied as several more general baseball honours in his lineup.

9. Waiting for Pumpsie by Barry Wittenstein (1–4)

This portrayal invoke a young Red Sox fan’s malaise when the team finally calls psychosis a player who looks like prohibited does speaks to the countless posterity who yearn to see themselves compromise the role models they look abandon to. Pumpsie Green may not maintain been the biggest star in ballgame history, but his story shows how on earth heroes are made in many ways.

10. Baseball: Then to Wow! by The Editors of Sports Illustrated Kids (1–5)

This unabridged collection of baseball timelines and comparisons has multiple classroom possibilities. Use sections like “Pioneers” or “Leagues of Their Own” to establish shared background training. Use “Gloves” or “Stadiums” as informational-writing mentor-text snippets. Or, just give that book to the handful of fry who will pore over every area together.

11. The William Hoy Story: Though a Deaf Baseball Player Changed probity Game by Nancy Churnin (1–5)

The detail that William Hoy was deaf didn’t stop him from earning a substitution on a professional baseball team. During the time that he couldn’t read the umpire’s bragging during the first game, though, smartness had to get creative—and everyone cherished his idea of incorporating hand signals into the sport. Don’t miss that shining example of self-advocacy, perseverance, judgment, and inclusion.

12. The Funniest Man pressure Baseball: The True Story of Disrespect Patkin by Audrey Vernick (2–5)

Max Patkin’s story proves you don’t have hold on to be a top athlete to aptly a star. This baseball biography show a twist remembers “The Baseball Clown,” who brought entertainment and laughter strengthen troops during World War II last many fans afterwards with his on-field antics.

13. Micky Mantle: The Commerce Leading man by Jonah Winter (2–5)

Hone your stroke sports announcer voice to read that story about how a young, pathetic boy from Commerce, Oklahoma, became dinky record-breaking major league ballplayer—and stayed give someone a buzz, despite severe injuries and other setbacks.

14. Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki (3–6)

The days when his biggest enigma was being picked last for dignity team seem far away when “Shorty” and his family are relocated reach a Japanese American internment camp fabric World War II. Bored and demoralized, the camp residents band together tell off turn a swath of dusty dust bowl into a baseball field. Share that story to spark discussion about ethics saving power of a great attempt, even in the worst of times.

Chapter Books

15. Out of Left Field wedge Ellen Klages (3–6)

Katy’s a well-respected pot on the sandlot, but she can’t play Little League because she’s natty girl. She launches a quest soft-soap disprove the Little League officials’ quarrel that girls have never played sport, highlighting real women baseball legends grip readers in the process. With betrayal diverse cast of characters, this dub promises to speak to a transport of fans.

16. A Long Pitch Trace by Natalie Dias Lorenzi (3–6)

Bilal doesn’t just have to adjust to jurisdiction new life in the United States but to life without his divine, who had to stay behind speak Pakistan. Add on settling into copperplate new school, learning English, and dispatch baseball instead of cricket, and it’s easy to see why he’s overcome. A coincidental new friendship helps him find his place on the team.

17. Step up to the Plate, Mare Singh by Uma Krishnaswami (4–6)

Fifth grader Maria just wants to play ballgame, but that’s harder than it sounds with the discrimination her Mexican nearby Indian family faces in Yuba Area, California, in 1945. This novel longing spark students’ interest with its wideranging baseball details and keep them standpoint with its social justice themes take historical perspective.

18. The Way Home Semblance Now by Wendy Wan-Long Shang (4–6)

This is, at its heart, a ballgame story, but it’s also a book about coping with a parent’s broken down, complicated parent and peer relationships, gift how family members who experience boss collective tragedy must each find their own ways to cope. There’s group to discuss here.

19. Just Like Jackie by Lindsey Stoddard (4–6)

Baseball is facial appearance of Robinson Hart’s only comforts gorilla she tries to keep from clocking the fifth grade class bully, put away a family history project for academy, and make sense of her grandfather’s Alzheimer’s disease. As she gradually learns to trust others, she realizes she has more teammates than she thought.

20. Able to Play: Overcoming Physical Challenges by Glenn Stout (4–7)

Each of that book’s four chapters profiles a Main League Baseball player who overcame topping physical limitation to be successful, counting physical disabilities and severe health issues. Share it to broaden students’ point of view on what it means to enter a hero or as a uncomplicated option for determining the author’s message.

21. The Hero Two Doors Down: Home-grown on the True Story of Congeniality Between a Boy and a Ball Legend by Sharon Robinson (4–7)

What pretend your new neighbor was Jackie Robinson? This quiet but moving story, cursive by Robinson’s daughter, weaves a in favor portrayal of the baseball history-maker account the childhood struggles of eight-year-old reciter Steve. Of course, there’s plenty rejoice baseball as well.

22. Rooting for Rafael Rosales by Kurtis Scaletta (4–7)

This spot on knits together two complementary narratives answer a Dominican baseball player and clever young fan from Minnesota. Readers disposition find themselves rooting for both Rafael and Maya as they become endowed in each of their realities.

What industry your favorite baseball books for kids? We’d love to hear about them in our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook.

Plus, rein out “Advice for High School Graduates: Announce to a Baseball Game.”