A beautifully illustrated tribute to baseball's greatest home run hitter tells how he hit more home runs than Mark McGwire but was never allowed to play in the Major Leagues, and he died four months before Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier. Gr 1-3-This picture-book biography tells the story of one of the great baseball players from the Negro Leagues. Many consider Josh Gibson to be the best hitter of all time, but he was trapped by the dictates of a segregated society and its "color line." As this book opens, a young boy is listening as his grandfather tells the tale of "the best hitter [he] ever saw." Focusing primarily on the 10-game 1930 championship series for the league title, Coming Home weaves in some history about the Negro Leagues, segregation, and the career of Gibson and a few of his contemporaries, such as Satchel Paige. During the series, Gibson hit a home run over the fence at Yankee Stadium, a feat still remembered in baseball lore today. The illustrations are done in watercolor and ink and have a nostalgic feel to them, suitable for the story's mood and time frame. The author's note at the conclusion provides more information on the subject. This title will be useful as a discussion starter or to supplement units on history or sports.-Roxanne Burg, Thousand Oaks Library, CA Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. Ages 4-8. An African American boy sits on the floor next to his grandfather, an album of baseball cards open on the floor. "The best hitter I ever saw?" says his grandfather. "Bet here's one you won't know." In the following pages, Grandpa introduces Josh Gibson, the star player of the Negro Leagues, and describes a championship game that he saw as a child. Fans of the game are the obvious audience for this book, which is more suspenseful sports narrative (sprinkled with baseball terms) than biography. But the lovely, detailed watercolor illustrations add a rich sense of character, time, and place to the play-by-play text, and will help generate wider interest. A concluding page of historical notes will encourage discussion about segregation, or cross-curricular use in biography units. Gillian Engberg Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Used Book in Good Condition