Children's Fiction Humorous Stories
Thumb on a Diamond
- Publisher
- Groundwood Books Ltd
- Initial publish date
- Feb 2006
- Category
- Humorous Stories, Baseball & Softball, Chapter Books
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9781554981663
- Publish Date
- Feb 2006
- List Price
- $8.95
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9780888997050
- Publish Date
- Feb 2006
- List Price
- $8.95
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Where to buy it
Out of print
This edition is not currently available in bookstores. Check your local library or search for used copies at Abebooks.
Recommended Age, Grade, and Reading Levels
- Age: 8 to 10
- Grade: 3 to 5
- Reading age: 8 to 10
Description
A Horn Book Fanfare Top Ten List selection and an SSLI Honor Book
Thumb and Susan come up with an ingenious plan that will take all of the village's nine school-aged kids on the trip of a lifetime. They'll form a baseball team, win the regional title and qualify to be sent to the provincial championships in Vancouver, courtesy of the school board.
Never mind that none of them has ever played baseball before. Never mind that there are no other teams to compete for the regional championship. Never mind that the village is not even wide enough to accommodate a baseball diamond.
With a lot of ingenuity and a little grownup help, including the advice of a shipwrecked British children's writer-cum-cricket-expert named Mr. Entwhistle, the New Auckland Beavers go into training and start packing their bags. But what will happen when they get to Vancouver? Will they be humiliated by the toughest teams in the province?
About the authors
Ken Roberts is the author of several popular books for young readers, including Hiccup Champion of the World, Crazy Ideas, Pop Bottles, Nothing Wright, Past Tense (shortlisted for a Governor General’s Award) and two highly praised previous Thumb books — The Thumb in the Box and Thumb on a Diamond (Cooperative Children's Book Center Choice, SSLI Honor Book, Horn Book Fanfare Top Ten List). Ken is chief librarian of the Hamilton Public Library. He lives in Hamilton, Ontario.
Leanne Franson spent her childhood winters in Regina and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, building snow forts while her dad watched hockey games on TV. She was a really bad skater -- but she could draw really well! In 1991, after she finished her BFA in Montreal, she started illustrating books. Leanne is fluently bilingual and has worked on books in English and French, illustrating in total over 100 picture books, chapter books, and textbooks. In 2012, she and her teenage son Benn returned to Saskatchewan, where she draws and makes ceramics in her acreage studio.
Awards
- Commended, Cooperative Children's Book Center Choice
- Long-listed, OLA Silver Birch Express
- Long-listed, SYRCA Diamond Willow Award
- Commended, Horn Book Fanfare Top Ten List
- Commended, SSLI Honor Book
Editorial Reviews
The country-mice-in-the-city theme is very funny, but Roberts never resorts to bumpkin jokes; his characters are smart, worthy, and up to any number of challenges...
Horn Book, STARRED REVIEW
...it's a romp from start to finish...Roberts, in his second book in the Thumb series, knows exactly how to tell a good yarn...
Globe and Mail
The characters are appealing and the plot unfolds naturally to create a satisfying and plausible story.
School Library Journal
Librarian Reviews
Thumb on a Diamond
Leon Mazzei (aka Thumb) and his friends in New Auckland, BC (population 138) devise a scheme to ensure that the school board pays for a field trip to Vancouver for the Grade 6, 7 and 8 students. Luckily, the number of students is nine, enough for a baseball team in the provincial championships; unluckily, none of them know how to play baseball. Their eventual trip to the big city offers many new experiences from escalators to restaurants to police horses – and some satisfactorily funny baseball games. An entertaining sequel to Thumb in a Box.Source: The Canadian Children's Bookcentre. Spring 2006. Vol.29 No. 2.
