With her dad off fighting in the war, Amy’s mom needs a job to help them get by. And she knows the job she wants. “Make me reach for it,” she tells Amy as the girl throws her mother a baseball. Amy’s mom is going to try out for the women’s professional baseball league. In David Adler’s fictional story set during World War II, Amy describes what happens when her mom goes to the tryouts, and later what it’s like when she’s watching her mom play at the games. (Amy stays with her grandparents when the team travels.) Both she and her mom take her mother’s work seriously. “'Baseball is my job,’ she told me. 'And I want to be good at it.’ It was my job to help her.” Chris O’Leary does a terrific job establishing a 1940s setting with the illustrations that accompany this appealing story firmly grounded in young Amy’s experience. An author’s note provides some additional context for young readers on the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, which had teams in five Midwestern states, including Wisconsin. (Ages 5–8)

Amy's dad is away, fighting in World War II, and her mama must take a job. But it's no ordinary job--Amy's mother becomes a baseball player in the first professional women's league! Amy cheers louder than anyone at all of the home games. And while Mama's team travels, Amy works on a secret project--a surprise for her dad when he is finally back home.
With warmhearted, historically based text and lush illustrations, award-winning author David A. Adler and talented new artist Chris O'Leary bring to life the soaring spirit of the 1940s. Featured in the major motion picture A League of Their Own, the All-American Girls Professional League helped women prove that no war could stop the great game of baseball.
An author's note provides historical context for the era.