Tuesday, June 30, 2015

Review of "Amazing Aaron to Zero Zippers"

Earlier I had heard about this book that was written by a teenage author when I was reviewing another book for Summer Game Books.  I decided to keep it in mind for a future review.  Then I received an email request for a review from the author.  Well, who am I to keep the young man waiting?  Here is my review of "Amazing Aaron to Zero Zippers."


Title/Author:
“From Amazing Aaron to Zero Zippers: An Introduction to Baseball History” by Matt Nadel, foreword by Jim Palmer

Tags:
Baseball, history, professional

Publish date:
September 30, 2014

Length:
112 pages

Rating: 
4 1/2 of 5 stars (excellent)

Review:
Whether it is about the United States, a major war or baseball, many readers will cringe when they hear that there is a new “history” book published as it usually means a lot of facts to absorb with usually dry text.  That is NOT the case on this introductory book on baseball history by Matt Nadel, a 16-year-old blogger for MLB.com. 

Nadel has acquired much baseball knowledge in his young life and he puts it on display in this book that is formatted in short chapters. The chapters run from A to Z, each with an adjective and the subject of the chapter.  For example, the title contains the names of the first and last chapters. Each chapter contains not only facts and statistics on the subject matter, but also interesting anecdotes. 

It doesn’t matter what time frame he writes about, Nadel shows that he can not only recite baseball knowledge, but share it with a passion. Some of the stories are very brief, so hard-core baseball fans may realize that there is some information that is missing about the player or subject. However, it is clear that this book is intended for newer baseball fans who want to learn more about the history of the game – just enough to whet his or her appetite to learn more.

This book is a very good source for many different baseball stories about many different players and events that spans a time frame of over 150 years.  That is an impressive collection for any writer.  That this author was able to accomplish this at such a young age is a testimony to the quality of this book. 

I wish to thank Mr. Nadel and Summer Game Books for a review copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.

Did I skim?
No

Pace of the book: 
It was a very quick read as each chapter is compact and gives a good amount of information in short intervals.

Do I recommend? 
This book is targeted to younger readers, approximately age 10 and up.  However, if a reader of any age wants to learn about various aspects of baseball history in an easy-to-read format that isn’t too detailed, this is the perfect book for that goal.

Book Format Read:
E-Book (Epub)

Buying links:


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