Summerland

I've only been in three baseball stadiums in my life.

When I was a teen, I spent an entire night with my mom and sister at Fenway Park, where A Field of Dreams was being filmed, with 100 other extras. The directors moved us from one section of the stands to the next to create a pan shot of a full stadium. I think the sleeve of my bomber jacket can be seen in the corner of one of the closeup shots with Kevin Costner.

Three years ago, I saw my first professional baseball game - the Joliet Jackhammers at Silver Cross Field. I couldn't tell you the name of the opposing team, or who won, or anything about the game itself, really - though I enjoyed the fireworks at the end of the night.

Two years ago, I saw the Seattle Mariners play the Oakland A's. I didn't even know that there really was a team called the A's.

All this goes to show that I know nothing about baseball. I didn't play it when I was a kid, my children don't play it, and I rarely watch it on tv - unless I'm keeping my husband company.

But I love Summerland.

The reviews for Michael Chabon's novel were unanimous - the critics adored it. It was a true-blue American fantasy. This is rarity in children's fiction. There are plenty of fantasies that rewrite fairytales (like Ella Enchanted) or play with myth (like the Percy Jackson books) or rely yet again on The Lord of the Rings cast of characters (et tu Eragon?). But an American fantasy is a rarity.

I was so excited when I read the reviews - until I realized that this, drat, was a baseball book. I didn't think I could bear to read a baseball book, especially such a long baseball book. So I didn't quite get around to reading it.

I was a fool to have waited. Because this isn't a book about Mariner baseball or Jackhammer baseball or even Kevin Costner baseball. This is a book about the joys of a summer day (and the tight knot in the stomach when stepping up to home plate hoping this time, this time, the bat will connect with a thwack that vibrartes through palms and up to the elbows, and that ball will sail silently into the blue expanses) mixed with an age old tale of order versus chaos and creation versus destruction. The plot is packed with the characters of our own American lore, la llaronna, Paul Bunyan, Big Foot, and Coyote - just to name a few and tells a truly American story, of a man who has a bright idea that could change the world, of a girl who pitches as well as any boy, of a Negro League player, and a Cuban refugee.

All that wrapped up into nine innings.

**** Check out the recorded book version of this one - Chabon himself reads the novel, and he has excellent voices! I could listen to his Ring-Finger Brown voice over and over and would grin every time I heard it.

Post script: Mercedes (now 12!) is listening to Summerland on playaway and is complaining that I don't write about her enough in my blog (petulant, isn't she?). Here's what she has to say about this one: "Ummm.... Ummmm... it's good... it has good girl characters like Jennifer T, so it doesn (shudder) focus just on the dumb boys."