Baseball for Breakfast - by Judy Campbell-Smith (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The perfect start to any day is with ushers in nightgowns and Cornflakes instead of popcorn. Join Jimmy as he experiences morning baseball during WWII.

Based on real historical events, this fictional book for ages 5 to 8 celebrates America's pastime and resilience through the eyes of one Black child.

Jimmy's family loves going to Milwaukee Brewers games together, but all that changes during World War II when Pop goes overseas to fight and Ma starts working nights in a factory. Then Jimmy has a chance meeting with the team's owner and helps inspire a new idea: morning baseball games!

Jimmy is about to experience baseball in a whole new way (it may involve Cornflakes). A perfect solution so night shift workers can end their day with a game while others begin theirs.

Written by Judy Campbell-Smith, Baseball for Breakfast celebrates family, fun, and being American during a turbulent time when people were tested for their resilience.

Review Quotes

Forget bacon and eggs--Milwaukee mornings during World War II began with Brewers baseball.
Before the United States entered the war, a young Black boy named Jimmy loved walking to the stadium with his Ma and Pop to watch the Milwaukee Brewers play. But in 1941, Pop joins the Navy and Ma starts to work nights at the factory as women across the country become part of the workforce. Jimmy misses going to baseball games. One evening, he's surprised by an offer of free tickets from the Brewers owner himself, Mr. Bill Veeck. Jimmy declines because his Ma is at work, giving Veeck an idea. Soon the news breaks that the Brewers will play morning games and offer free admission for night-shift workers. At the first game, fans are delighted when Brewers coach Red Smith pops out of a four-poster bed right in the center field, clad in his pajamas, just before the first pitch. Vendors even sell coffee and cornflakes instead of frankfurters and popcorn. Though Jimmy and his family are fictionalized, a detailed author's note explains the history of the Brewers' morning games and addresses the choice to center the story on a Black protagonist, drawing attention to the often-overlooked Black women who joined the wartime workforce. Energetic scenes are described in upbeat prose and sketched with digitally rendered permanent marker outlines and a vintage colorway that evokes the period.
A playful baseball story with a helping of history.
--Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

Judy Campbell-Smith writes the picture books she wishes she had a child that spark curiosity and celebrate diversity. Her books are an engaging mix of fact and fiction, and she is often inspired by true stories and real people in her work. She is the author of Ice Cream Everywhere: Sweet Stories from Around the World. Judy is very active in the kidlit community and lives in Southern California with her husband and two children.

Maggie Carroll is an illustrator from Wisconsin, America's Dairyland. She holds an MA from Edinburgh College of Art and a BFA from the Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design. She enjoys combining the past with the present through illustration and design from the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries with modern techniques and tools. She also loves to eat cheese and to draw silly and inky things. When not drawing, she listens to 80s music, goes for walks, and spends time with her dogs and family. www.maggiecarrollillustration.com