Zip It!

Topps League Storys

by Kurtis Scaletta, Eric Wight (Illustrations)

These fun, illustrated early chapter books feature the adventures—and misadventures—of the Pine City Porcupines, a hapless baseball farm team, and their two Chad, an avid baseball fan with a huge baseball card collection, and Dylan, who doesn’t know a thing about the sport. The fictional series has a unique Chad solves problems by using information from Topps cards of real figures from modern baseball history.

Pine City Porcupines batboy Chad breaks an important unofficial rule of Don’t talk to the starting pitcher when he’s got a perfect game going, where not a single opponent has reached base. Now, because Chad opened his mouth, the entire Pines dugout is upset, and the team may lose to the second-to-last-place West Valley Varmints. Chad has to consult his baseball card collection to figure out how to help his beloved Pines pull off the perfect game.

112 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2012

About the author

Kurtis Scaletta is the author of several books for young readers including Mudville, which was short listed for the Mark Twain Readers Award, and The Tanglewood Terror, which was a finalist for the Minnesota Book Award. He lives in Minneapolis with wife and son and some cats.

Reviews

[Colby Sharp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Let's be honest here: the audience for this book will absolutely love it. I cannot imagine a 1-5 grade library or classroom that would be complete without the books from this series.

[katsok · Rating 4 out of 5]

My son, Liam, is eating this series up. Perfect for young readers who are crazy about baseball.