All Star!: Honus Wagner and the Most Famous Baseball Card Ever

by Jane Yolen, Jim Burke (Illustrator)

The Honus Wagner baseball card is the most valuable baseball card of all time! But he was born poor, ugly, bow-legged, and more suited to shoveling coal in his Pennsylvania mining town than becoming the greatest shortstop of all time. How could it happen? Did those strong arms and fast legs turn him into a Pittsburgh Pirate and one of the game's most unforgettable players?

In this true story, Jane Yolen shows us that wit, talent, perseverance, and passion score more than home runs. As Honus would say, ?How about that!? AUTHOBIO: Jane Yolen lives in Hatfield, Massachusetts.

Jim Burke lives in Beacon, New York.

Book Details: Format: Hardcover Publication Date: 9/17/1948 Pages: 55 Reading Level: Age 6 and Up

Genres: Picture Books, Biography, Sports, Baseball, Nonfiction, History, Childrens

40 pages, Hardcover

First published March 4, 2010

About the author

Jane Yolen was a novelist, poet, fantasist, journalist, songwriter, storyteller, folklorist, and children’s book author who wrote more than three hundred books. Her accolades include the Caldecott Medal, two Nebula Awards, the World Fantasy Award, three Mythopoeic Awards, the Kerlan Award, two Christopher Awards, and six honorary doctorate degrees from colleges and universities in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Born and raised in New York City, the mother of three and the grandmother of six, Yolen lived in Massachusetts and St. Andrews, Scotland.

Reviews

[Steve Holden]

As a baseball card collector growing up, my dad loved telling me stories of the most valuable one of all time. Now an adult and educator, but still a huge baseball fan, it's fascinating to read this book and know even further about this man. This is a good biography, and many will find some interest in learning about Honus, but it's a must for baseball fans!

[Nicole Doerr]

This is a biograpghy about Honus Wagner and the most famous baseball card. This is intended for young readers about school age. The book goes to tell the reader, he was born poor and grew up working in mines. He also was bowed legged. According to this true story he became one of the most famous shortstops in baseball. The story goes on to tell about how he help the Pirates win the national league championship many times. Also he became one of the first five men to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The illustrations in this books are childlike and the colors help represent the mood. Many warm colors were used like brown and red. The clothing of the people really help put into perspective the setting. This would be a great book to encourage a child to read if they find baseball interesting. It teaches some history while encouraging new vocabulary. I love the way the book used his famous quote "How about that!"

[Maggie Davis]

After reading All Star by Jane Yolen, I realized that this is an excellent book to keep around for the students to read in their free time. The illustrator portrays the images very nice in a subtle way. The inside of the cover page has images and post cards of the Hones Baseball player. This shows where he traveled in his career. This book also portrays a similar theme to dancing to Freedom. No matter what your background is, you can always find a way in life to succeed and participate in hobbies you love. Although the images were painted, it adds to the affect of the reader. I do think that the pages with the text have too small font and does not take up much of the white space. There tends to be a lot of white space in the book. The statistics throughout this book give an excellent idea of what baseball players got payed back in the early 1900s.Overall, this books shows how you gradually move up in the world and can succeed in anything you put your mind to. As an activity, I would like to do a turn and talk of some hobbies students would like to do when they get older.

[Addison]

This book was okay it wasn't bad it just wasn't my favorite. It does show how to never give up on your dreams which is so important to show young students. Some students who are less fortunate may feel like they will never get out, but that is not the case. This young baseball player who started with nothing grew so successful in his career.

[Bruce Deming]

Wonderful straight up biographical story. Inspiring and I never knew of Honus Wagner before. Who doesn't like a nice underdog story of persistence and success?

Worth having and reading.

[Kathleen]

This overview of the life of a baseball star hits all the high points and has a few amusing anecdotes to share! Great for kids who idolize sports stars.

[Amanda Walz]

A great biography!

[Tracy Holland]

Learn a little more about the famous Honus Wagner. Biographical retelling of Honus' younger years and his love of baseball.

[Tasha]

This is the story behind the most valuable baseball card in the world. Honus Wagner was born to a poor coal mining family and began working in the mines himself at age 12. He had Sundays off and would play baseball after church. He was strong from working in the mines, very fast despite his bowed legs, and could snag balls with his long arms. At 16, Horus joined the semipros. His brother was already playing professional ball. As his career progressed, he became one of the most unforgettable players in history. But even that is not what made his baseball card so valuable. You will just have to read the book to find that out!

Yolen uses beautiful, evocative language in her verses. At the same time, her verse reads in a frank, honest way. The language is not flowery, but lends depth to the book as a whole. Burke’s illustrations are done in oil on board. He has captured the time period with grace and style. His paintings often show unique perspectives that make the book very interesting visually.

The book touches on many issues, including child labor in the coal mines and the power and importance of sports. Yolen is especially fine when speaking about the power of sports. This is a fine book about a legend in baseball but it offers more appeal and interest than that thanks to its fine execution.

A book for baseball fans, certainly, but others will enjoy the story of a legend too. Appropriate for ages 6-9.

Reviewed from copy received from Philomel.

[Jackie]

All Star!: Honus Wagner and the Most Famous Baseball Card Ever is a short, concise biography of one of history's most famous baseball players. Born of German immigrants and raised in Carnegie, Pennsylvania, Honus's parents' worked hard for little. But, they all loved baseball and played every Sunday. His outstanding fielding, hitting, and all-around athletic ability was noticed by the pros.

Eventually playing for Louisville and Pittsburgh, Honus was valuable enough to be among the first inductees into the Baseball Hall of Fame. All this fame led to a baseball card bearing Honus Wagner's name and stats. However, when Honus found out that the card would be offered in cigarette packs, he had the card pulled fearing that it would give kids the wrong idea. A few of those precious cards were already released.

One of those rare cards was found and sold at auction in 2007 for nearly $3,000,000!

"How About That?", Honus Wagner.

[Michelle Jacobs]

This is the story of Honus Wagner, a famous shortstop baseball player whose baseball card sole for three million dollars. He was born into a poor family, with bow legs and had a fate of working the mines his life. But Honus was strong and loved to play baseball after work. Honus worked hard to move up teams in the baseball world and ended up playing for the Pittsburgh Pirates, broke records and won the world series.
This is a nonfiction children’s picture book biography. The authors tell the true story in a chronological story format, building on the great suspense of Honus Wagner’s life story. The greatness of his accomplishment is held in the pages and pages of hardship that he went through to get to his athletic feat, which written in just the last few pages. The illustrator includes both realistic pictures in the front paper as well as realistic paintings of his life stages across the book that give the reader a good idea of what his life looked like at the time.

Biography

[April]

I loved this book and I did not think I would! Before reading this book I didn't know anything about Honus Wagner except that he was an old-timey baseball player. I learned that he was an exceptional athlete...big and strong with stamina and he bowed legs did nothing to stop him! He was a stand-up guy and saw himself as a role model which is why his card is so rare-when he discovered it was included with cigarettes he had the cards pulled. He was a family man and a hard worker no matter what he was doing from hauling coal to playing just about every position in baseball to coaching. Usually I am not interested in sports but Yolen's writing keeps this story interesting and exciting and I enjoyed reading every word of it. The illustrations complement the story perfectly. Great read for history buffs and sports fans alike.

[Christine]

I loved this book. My children loved this book. It’s the story of hard work and achieving your goals. It’s the story of familial love. It’s the story of neighborhood baseball played in the streetlights and under the streetlamps.

As you would expect with Yolen, the writing is tight but expressive. And if it weren’t fore her awkward use of “How about that!” after a few too many of the Wagner anecdotes, I’d have no complaints.

The illustrations in the book are fantastic as well. Jim Burke includes a note in the back of the book about his work in this book. He’s a baseball fan. The pictures in this book prove it.

[Paula]

Yolen's bio, unlike some sports biographies that focus on a single event or character trait in an athlete's life, gives us Mr. Wagner's story from birth, through an astonishing twenty-one seasons of major-league ball, on to his retirement and Hall of Fame induction. She paints a portrait of the original lovable lug, a bow-legged coalminer's boy with long arms whose youthful strength came from loading coal.

Full review on Pink Me: http://pinkme.typepad.com/pink-me/201...

[June Pecchia]

In luminous artwork that plays so beautifully with shadows, illustrator Jim Burke manipulates perspective in interesting ways, such as one page that provoked my husband to look over and joke..."He's so big, what team was he on? The Giants!" Truly Wagner was a giant, and one of my favorite writers, Jane Yolen, gently reveals so many reasons for his status.

If you love picture books, read it.
If you love picture book art, enjoy it.
If you love American history... sports... baseball... inspiring stories... Get it!

[Phoebe]

An introduction to the interesting story behind baseball player Honus Wagner, the son of poor Pennsylvania immigrants whose huge hands, bowlegs, and early experience of shoveling coal in the mines made him one of the greatest shortstops in history. The book begins memorably with the information that a rare baseball card featuring Honus sold at auction in 2007 for nearly 3 million dollars. Nicely told with energetic paintings from a variety of perspectives.

[Sarah]

How about that! A biography of Honus Wagner, an early baseball legend. The story seems designed to emphasize the point that some sports figures were heroes, and that in the past sports was more about hard work and the game. I sort of wish it wasn't so moralistic, and that they talked more about the baseball card. It is mentioned at the very beginning, and then briefly to point out that he had them pulled when he found out that they were sold in cigarette boxes.

[Matthew]

I really enjoyed reading this. It helped me to understand the noble life of Honus Wager as well as the reasoning for the unusually high value of his famous baseball card. It's good to read that the rarity of the card is caused by Wagner's stand against a cigarette company using his image to advertise for their company. What a pleasing biography this was! I recommend this to anyone.

[Joella]

I have a soft spot for good juvenile baseball nonfiction. This one is no exception. Loved it. Loved learning about baseball legend Honus Wagner. Loved learning about him as a person--he seems to be one to admire on and off the field. Good book.

[W.H. Beck]

The Honus Wagner baseball card is the most valuable baseball card of all time. But Honus was born poor, ugly, bow-legged, and more suited to shoveling coal in his Pennsylvania mining town than becoming the greatest shortstop of all time. How did it happen?

[Lindsey]

This is great book for young baseball fans! I read this with my 6 year old son and found it just as interesting as he did. I've heard of Honus Wagner but knew nothing about him. Wonderful story of hard work, talent and the American Dream.

[Tina B]

baseball shortstop, sports history, excellent research, good breaks between pages using repetitious phrase as end-stop,

[babyhippoface]

Tell kids this baseball card has sold for over a million dollars, and you'll have their attention.

[Sara]

This would be a nice companion piece to the series by Dan Gutman that a lot of my boys read.

[Lindi]

Good book about a great baseball player. His rare and valuable baseball card isn't the only reason to remember Honus Wagner -- he was an amazing athlete!

[Alyson (Kid Lit Frenzy)]

A nice picture book biography on the life of Honus Wagner - a famous baseball player. Great illustrations and nice flow to the story.

[Kim]

Great biography that opens up more research questions.

[Meredith]

Simple, entertaining, and packed with information. Asking my parent group buy a copy for our baseball-themed reading week.

[Ellie]

Great story about the most famous baseball card ever!