Golden Oldies For Kids: Don and Donna Go To Bat

Don and Donna Go to Bat

Author: Al Perkins

Illustrator: B. Tobey

Published: Random House, 1966







About The Author
Al Perkins is an author of several children's books, including Hand, Hand, Fingers Thumb, The Digging-est Dog and The Ear Book. He also wrote early titles in the Beginner Books and Bright and Early series.

Play Ball!
Don and Donna were identical twins. They looked exactly alike except for the length of their hair and the clothes that they wore.

Don loved baseball and he always dreamed of playing on a real baseball team. Don taught Donna how to throw a ball the way a boy throws it. He taught her how to slide into base and how to hold a baseball bat. Don eventually got tired of playing baseball with his sister and wanted to play on a real team with other boys. He found a team to play on and they made him captain of the team!

One day a team from the other side of town challenged Don's team to a game. The captain of the winning team would receive a large trophy. On the morning of the big game, Don woke up sick. The doctor came to the house and told Don he would not be playing in the baseball game that day.

Don asked Donna to take his uniform and equipment to the field for the other boys to use. Donna could not carry all the stuff on her bike so she slipped on the uniform over her dress. When she arrived at the baseball field, everyone thought that Donna was Don. She took Don's place on the field but did not play very well...until she came up to bat at the very end of the game. She closed her eyes and swung the bat.

Yes, Donna scored the winning run and Don's team received the trophy. When the team found out that it was really Donna that hit the winning run, they gave her the large silver trophy. They also made her manager of the team where she was responsible for taking care of the equipment, keeping the water bucket full and keeping score.

My Thoughts
The setting for this story is the early 1960s but kids today still love to play baseball. I think this story is a great example of sibling support and love. Donna was sad when Don went to play on a boy's baseball team and left her behind.

Girls were expected to play softball, throw the ball underhanded and were discouraged from sliding into bases. Don taught Donna to play like a boy so she was prepared to take his place in the game.

I think it is interesting that Donna was given the "honor" of being the team manager. That was as close as a girl could get to playing on a boy's team. She had just as much skill as the boys but was the wrong gender. The more things change the more they stay the same.

My Rating:  5 Stars Out Of 5

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Golden Oldies For Kids ~ The True Story Of The Three Little Pigs

Was Alexander T. Wolf framed? Was it all an unfortunate accident?

"The True Story of The Three Little Pigs", by A. Wolf (As Told To Jon Scieszka) is one of my favorite "fractured" fairy tales. This story was published in 1989 and has been very popular with children for over 20 years.

You may think you know the story of The Three Little Pigs but there are two sides to every story. The story begins with A. Wolf explaining that the real story is about a sneeze and a cup of sugar. He was making a birthday cake for his dear old granny and ran out of sugar. He also happened to have a terrible sneezing cold.

Was The Wolf Really Big And Bad?
Mr. Wolf walked down the street to borrow a cup of sugar from his neighbor. The neighbor happened to be a pig. The pig also happened to  have a house made of straw.
Mr. Wolf knocked on the door but the pig did not answer. Unfortunately, the wolf felt a sneeze coming on. He huffed and snuffed and sneezed a great sneeze. The whole darn house fell down and the little pig was dead. The wolf did not want to let a perfectly good ham go to waste, so he ate the pig for dinner.
Mr. Wolf had a similar experience at another neighbor's house. He finally came to a brick house and knocked on the door. The pig was rude and insulted the wolf's granny. When the cops arrived, the wolf was huffing and puffing and sneezing and making a real scene.
The story ends with the wolf behind behind bars and a police officer (a pig, of course) was guarding his cell. He had been framed.

My Thoughts
I read this book aloud many times when I worked as an elementary school librarian. The children could hear this same story over and over again...they always loved it.
The wolf is so convincing that he almost convinces the readers that he really was framed and it was all an accident. This is a perfect book for a "point-of-view" lesson. It was fun to ask the children to compare the original "Story of the Three Little Pigs" with this book. The final question was always, "Who do you believe and why?"

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