Subtitled “A Love Song to a Neighborhood,” this first novel is a fictionalised account of an extraordinary game of baseball that did in fact take place in Cooney’s neighborhood when she was twelve years old.
In 1954 much of the U.S. was baseball-mad. My hometown certainly was. In my family listening to the game on the radio was a summertime staple. New York had three major league teams to cheer for: the Brookland Dodgers, the NY Giants, and the NY Yankees.
Cooney lived in Sunnyside Gardens, Queens, a mostly blue-collar neighborhood. Her block was laid out in a rectangle of apartment buildings and single-family homes surrounding a big green area with swings, tennis courts, and space for a baseball diamond.
After school and in the summer, Lucy and her friends gathered outside in that green space every day to play baseball. In those days (and in my slightly later childhood) even very young children were sent outside after breakfast and expected to entertain themselves, only turning up for meals.
When the fathers on Cooney’s block realised that they might not be able to field a team for the annual July Fourth father-son game, one of the mothers suggested letting some of the mothers play. The dads laughed and dismissed the idea, so the moms challenged them to a dads-vs-moms game.
Illustration by Autumn Dufresne © Lucy Beecher Wright Cooney, used by permission
Since this was before women’s sports were a thing, few of the women could even throw or catch a ball. Then the children—girls and boys—decide to train the moms in secret so they’d be ready to take on the dads.
The suspense builds as the younger children act as lookouts to warn if any fathers were coming along. The older children wrestle with the idea of telling lies to their fathers in order to keep the secret. Along the way, Cooney brings each of the various children and adults into focus, using deft touches to make them memorable.
This irresistible tale could be characterised as a Middle Grade (MG) novel but is equally fun for adults. It’s also a time capsule so that everyone can glimpse what it was like to be a child in a 1950s New York working-class neighborhood.
I’m saddened that most of today’s children don’t get to experience the kind of freedom we had. Cooney herself says the story “doubles as a passionate plea to let kids alone to solve their own problems, thus allowing them to grow into independent, self-reliant people.”
It certainly worked for her. Cooney has been teaching, as well as driving a schoolbus, for decades. Senator Bernie Sanders featured her on his Bernie Buzz where he thanked her for her service to children and to the community. She was also featured on Stuck in Vermont in a segment titled Everyone Loves Lucy.
If you want a fun novel based on a true story that shows a community coming together, check out The Game. Ditto if you love baseball. Illustrations by Autumn Dufresne throughout the book add charm and help to bring to the story to life.
Unfortunately, this delightful self-published book is not available online. If you’re interested in a copy, let me know, and I’ll forward your request to the author.
I’m always on the lookout for books that celebrate community. Can you recommend one?
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a copy of this book free from the author. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own.