The Jungle Baseball Game

Tom Paxton, author of The Story of the Tooth Fairy and The Story of Santa Claus, lives in Alexandria, Virginia.

Tom Paxton has been an integral part of the folk music community since the Greenwich Village scene of the early sixties. His classic songs, including "Ramblin' Boy," "The Last Thing on My Mind," and "Bottle of Wine," have won him the admiration of fans all over the world. He hosted the acclaimed BBC Radio series "Tom Paxton's America" and was chosen as honorary chairman of the board of the World Folk Music Association. He has created six songbooks, thirty-two albums, and countless memorable concerts. Philip Elwood of the San Francisco Examiner noted, "What seemed like the entire audience was singing along. No one told them to, or directed them-they just were.

Paxton's songs, inspired by everything from family love to homelessness and recorded by such diverse stars as Willie Nelson and Placido Domingo, have stirred the emotions of three decades of audiences. Paxton is also finding ways to influence a new generation through such beloved children's songs as "My Dog's Bigger Than Your Dog," "Going to the Zoo," and "The Marvelous Toy." Under his children's label, Pax Records, he has released several acclaimed albums, including Suzy Is a Rocker, winner of the prestigious Parents' Choice Gold Medal. His children's music has led him into a successful new career as a picture-book author. "I love the way books inspire songs and vice versa," he says. "But, most important, I have a real sense of discovery in having found yet another place where I belong."

Scott Alarik of the Boston Globe praised Tom Paxton for "applying the same tools he developed for adult audiences to his children's songs, giving them an intelligence, wit and lack of condescension too rarely heard in today's booming children's music market."

Tom Paxton lives in East Hampton, New York, when he is not on tour. He and his wife, Midge, have raised two daughters, Jennifer and Kate.

PreSchool-Grade 3-A lively offering from the duo that produced Going to the Zoo (Morrow, 1996). This time, the action centers on a hotly contested baseball game as the underdogs challenge the champs and carry the day. Dressed in pink shirts and flowered shorts, the hippo team is derided and discounted by the confident monkey players, looking smart in their blue uniforms. At first, the portly, uncoordinated hippos trip over their own feet but they soon decide they've had enough and buckle down to win the game, much to the chagrin of their competitors. Paxton's rhyming verses build the drama of this comeback with each line as first the hippos score to go ahead and then hold off a late-inning surge by the other team. Schmidt's watercolor-and-gouache illustrations give the words a lively energy, portraying the monkeys literally hanging around near their clubhouse, dancing around the baseball diamond, ridiculing their opponents, and finally scrambling unsuccessfully to grab victory from the jaws of defeat. The hippos, with their names inscribed on their pink shirts ("Slammin' Sally" and "Merve the Curve"), thunder earnestly around the field, first in confusion and then in victory. Music with a single-line melody and the first verse of the song adorns the end pages. An inventive sports story that's perfect for storytime or lap sharing.
Jane Marino, Scarsdale Public Library, NY
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.