Step Back in Time with Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888

Thayer, Ernest Lawrence. Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888. Illustrated by Christopher Bing. Handprint Books, 2000. Tr. $18.99 ISBN  978-1-929766-00-0

What’s it about? Christopher Bing  used a variety of media, including scratchboard sketches, baseball ephemera, and digital art, all collaged together in this unique retelling of Thayer’s classic poem  Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888.

Find out more: The game is on the line: the home Mudville team is down 4 to 2 in the eighth. The home fans hope their star player Casey can get to bat and change the course of the game. It begins to look better for Mudville when Flynn and Blake make it to second and third. Then Casey steps up to the plate. Will there be joy in Mudville today? Casey lets two pitches go—then swings mightily at the third pitch. Alas, a forlorn Mudville see Casey strike out. Sound familiar? It should; Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888 is a classic poem pinned by Ernest Lawrence Thayer.

Christopher Bing presents this poem with unusual multi-media illustrations that take the reader an amazing step back in time, to 1888, when the legendary Casey stepped up to the plate. The antique look of this work was achieved through a combination of digital art, baseball ephemera, and scanned pen and ink on scratchboard.   This brilliant approach juxtaposes text with vintage ads. On the page detailing how a “sickly silence” fell on the crowd, there is a torn-out newspaper advertisement for Cockle’s anti bilious pills. This type of wry humor peppers this unique book, which may make even the youngest readers feel nostalgic for a time no person alive can remember.

Genre: Non-fiction, Poetry, Humor

Reading level: 5^th grade

Interest level: Grades 3-6

Read-alikes:

Myer’s Jabberwocky

Awards:

Caldecott Honor book, 2001

ALA Notable Children’s Book, 2001