Casey at the Bat - A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888

Copiously & Faithfully Illustrated by: Christopher Bing

The first thing I noticed when I opened the front cover of this story was the illustrations! No wonder this book was a Caldecott Medal winner. Readers already know before they open the book that the setting is going to be in the past. Right in the title, the date states 1888. The illustrations are done using items found during this era. First, each double-page spread looks like a newspaper during the late 1800's. The text is written at the bottom of the "newspaper" almost like a heading. The poem is written in couplets-one couplet per page until readers reach the end of the story and the couplets are split with one line on each page.

In an editorial on the inside front cover, it states, "Bing seamlessly weaves real and trompe l'oeil reproductions of artifacts, period baseball cards, tickets, advertisements, and a host of other memorabilia into the narrative to present a rich and multi-faceted panorama of a bygone era." Each page consists of some form of artifact from the 1800's right on the page covering a part of the newspaper. This really gives readers a sense of the time period and meaning and I think this is highly effective. I remember reading Casey at the Bat when I was in 5th grade from a basal reader. I remember the pictures were very bright and cheery and they had nothing to do with the time period. Though I enjoyed the poem at this time in my life, I was unfamiliar with the world in the 1800's. This version shows readers bits and pieces from this era. Readers are not actually at the game. It had already taken place and being that each illustration is in the form of a newspaper, readers get a sense they are at the game because we're reading about it.

At first, I thought the illustrations were very jumbled and there was just too much to keep track of and too much to see on each page. On the other hand, when I think about the intended audience, this version is very appropriate.