The Kid From Diamond Street, Edith Houghton’s true tale

Spring means baseball and The Kid From Diamond Street, The Extraordinary Story of Baseball Legend Edith Houghton is a story about that game that could easily slip between the cracks of history. This is a children’s book that simply tells the story of a young girl who played the game very well and traveled the world doing so.

Her story takes place in the early 1900’s and the art by Steven Salerno perfectly illustrates what a different time that was. The cars, fashion and technology that are pictured in the book seem quaint to parents who read the book, but probably seem alien to its intended audience. When Edith takes a ship overseas the detail in the ocean liner, interspersed with the luxury and boat living during Pacific Ocean crossing almost make you yearn for that simpler time.

But this story is all about baseball and Edith has been playing since she was 3. She’s always watching the game being played from the second story of her parent’s house. At the age of 10 she hears about an all-female baseball team, the Philadelphia Bobbies that are looking for new players. The team’s players are all older, most in their 20’s or older teens, but the manager let Edith try out.

She makes the team-at 10 years old and is obviously the smallest one on the team. Her uniform keeps falling off because it’s made for full grown women and is given the nickname ‘The Kid’ by sports writers. The Philadelphia Bobbies were the only women’s baseball team then so they played men’s teams around the area.

The main focus of The Kid From Diamond Street is the teams trip to Japan. When Edith is just 13 the team is invited to Japan to compete against some college age teams. Their first game is in front of tens of thousands of people and she was the starting short stop. The Bobbies toured in Japan for two months, much to the enjoyment of the Japanese press who marveled at the fact that they did not wear high heels.

Once the tour ended Edith Houghton and her team came back to the United States where she continued to play ball for many years on different teams.

The story in The Kid From Diamond Street is a good good-night book or a great self reading book for kids who can manage early elementary age vocabulary. To a parent reading the book, the difference is that it takes about 15 minutes to read it aloud all the way through. That time includes talking about the pictures and enjoying the book.

A 6 year old that can read will be able to get through and enjoy the book on their own-and that’s the best way to experience it. The story by Audrey Vernick moves briskly along and works in tandem with the timeless art to fill in some details that add to the story. Its oversized pages are ones that kids who are entering, or have already entered, the world reading by themselves will be familiar with too.