Guide to Juvenile Baseball Books: E

Earl, John Prescott. The School Team on the Diamond. 1911. Philadelphia: Penn, 1912. At Standham Academy, a series of intraschool baseball matches leads to the selection of a team for interschool play.

About as thrilling as it sounds . . . "John Prescott Earl," according to Andy McCue's Baseball by the Books (Dubuque: William C. Brown, 1991: 38), was a pseudonym for Beth Bradford Gilchrist, the biographer of American educator Mary Lyon.

Edmunds, Murrell. Behold, Thy Brother. New York: Beechhurst Press, 1950. A speculative fiction: what if, late in the 1945 season, a struggling major league ball club had signed a black pitcher--and then thrown him into action for the first time in the pennant-deciding game?

A strange fiction: on the one hand it's an art novella by a highbrow novelist; on the other hand, it's basically a kids' story, and is sometimes shelved in the juvenile section of libraries. Reflects the odd situation of "serious" adult baseball fiction around the year 1950; at the time, there were few models for novelists. In its action and theme, it's a taut, well-written story. Of course by 1950 the speculative aspect of the fiction had somewhat lost its edge … but I've been unable to find an earlier publication for the work.

Egan, Tim. Roasted Peanuts. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2006. A pair of friends help their home team in different ways: one slugs home runs, the other breaks peanut-tossing records.

Gentle picture book that includes athletes and non-athletes alike in the sport experience.

Elish, Dan. Jason and the Baseball Bear. Illustrated by John Stadler. New York: Orchard Books, 1990. A fourth-grade youth leaguer takes batting lessons from a talking polar bear.

By The Kid Who Only Hit Homers out of Charlotte's Web … it gets perhaps a little fey for its middle-elementary reading level; younger kids might like the story better, but would need it read to them and would miss some of the references.

Ellery, Amanda. If I Were a Jungle Animal. Illustrated by Tom Ellery. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2009. Picture book: a right fielder daydreams about being various wild creatures, but comes to his senses in time to catch a fly ball.

Emery, R.G. High, Inside! Philadelphia: Macrae-Smith, 1948. Young pitching phenom hurts his arm and loses a huge bonus, but makes his comeback as a left-handed first baseman.

The Kid from Tomkinsville motif, with an interesting emphasis on baseball economics. Young Cleve Coleman starts his pro career as a total mercenary, but the vicissitudes of his rookie season turn him into a veteran who plays for the love of the game.

Erin, Bill. "The Rookie from Middleton." In Margulies (1948). Town-team catcher, blocked from playing by his coach's son, shines when an opponent's injury gives him the chance to compete against his mates.

Ethridge, Kenneth E. Viola, Furgy, Bobbi, and Me. New York: Holiday House, 1989. An old woman and three ninth-graders bond over the Detroit Tigers.

A mannered and implausible story redeemed by the wholesome message that kids can learn a lot from their elders.