BASEBALL ON MARS/BÉISBOL EN MARTE

Roberto’s imaginary space trip to Mars requires the somewhat reluctantly granted use of his father’s favorite chair for TV baseball viewing. When co-pilot father and son “take off” for worlds unknown, the wondrous experience of flying asteroids, weightlessness and a TV-less Red Planet encourages a game of catch between parent and child, bringing the reality of a loving relationship back to Earth. Despite the missed Yankees-Red Sox game that afternoon, father and son are eager to continue a new Saturday tradition of playing catch in the backyard and “on Mars.” Reminiscent of Ezra Jack Keats’s Regards to the Man in the Moon (1981), this Spanish bilingual family story is complete with a makeshift spaceship from odds and ends, an eager astronaut with a fanciful adventurous spirit and Rodriguez’s deeply colored, realistic paintings that juxtapose the actual backyard play with the whimsy of a planetary voyage. The subtle message of the importance of a parent’s role in a child’s creative play blends seamlessly with the simpler theme of a son’s love for his father in a traditionally American setting. (Picture book. 6-8)