The Great Ball Game

Ragina Shearer
5653 Multicultural Children’s and Young Adult Literature
Book Review – Native American Literature

1. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Retold by Joseph Bruchac. 1994. THE GREAT BALL GAME A MUSKOGEE STORY. Ill. by Susan L. Roth. New York, NY. ISBN 10: 0-8037-1539-0

2. PLOT SUMMARY
This is a Muskogee Indian tale about a ball game played to settle arguments. The birds and the animals are fighting over which is better. They decide to play a ball game to settle the argument. The birds would not let the bat join them because it had teeth. The animals finally agreed the bat could join. Neither had scored and it grew dark. “Suddenly a small dark shape flew onto the field and stole the ball from Crane just as he was about to reach the poles…Holding the ball, Bat flew right between the poles at the other end! The Animals won!” The bat told the birds they must leave every year for half of a year, thus the reason for the birds flying south for the winter.


3. CRITICAL ANALYSIS (INCLUDING CULTURAL MARKERS)
This story is re-told from a Muskogee tale. In the prelude the Joseph Bruchac states, “Ball games of all kinds were played for centuries throughout the Americas, and sometimes a ball game of some type-lacrosse or hockey or a game similar to soccer- would be played to settle an argument instead of going to war.”

Colorful, cut collage features of animals and birds scattered across colorful backgrounds are displayed to illustrate the story as it is read. The art work is a realistic abstract leaving the viewer to see the beauty and mystic within the picture.

The story of playing an athletic game to stop a war is parallel to the Greco-Roman tradition of sport as training for war. In the story, “Their quarrel went on and on, until it seemed they would go to war because of it.” The animals and birds played a game similar to lacrosse and settled their dispute.

4. REVIEW EXCERPT (S)
BOOKLIST: “Roth's dynamic collages combine cut papers of varied textures and hues to create a series of effective illustrations.”
HORN BOOK Starred: “The Birds and the Animals decide to settle a disagreement with a stickball game, and the first side to score sets the losers' penalty. “
KIRKUS REVIEW: “How the bat found its niche in the animal kingdom and why birds fly south in winter are explained in this Muskogee tale, one of a dozen similar stories on the topic found in Native American lore.”
PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY: “And, according to Muskogee legend, this resolution explains why bats are categorized as animals and why birds fly south for the winter.”

5. CONNECTIONS
Great as a read-aloud for ages 4-8. Can be used in a discussion of other options other than fighting to settle arguments.

Other books re-told by Joseph Bruchac
Bruchac, Joseph. THE FIRST STRAWBERRIES A CHEROKEE STORY. ISBN 10: 0-14-056409-8
Bruchac, Joseph. HOW CHIPMUNK GOT HIS STRIPES: A TALE OF BRAGGING AND TEASING. ISBN 10: 0-8037-2404-7
Bruchac, Joseph. THIRTEEN MOONS ON TURTLE’S BACK: A NATIVE AMERICAN YEAR OF MOONS. ISBN 10: 0-399-22141-7