Blastin' the Blues (Sluggers Series #5)

In Blastin’ the Blues, still fearing they are being followed and even more worried they have a traitor in their midst, the team travels to New Orleans, where the magic of their ball and the music of the city create one memorable game. But like always, trouble is right around the corner and the hits keep on coming for the Payne family and all of the Travelin’ Nine!

In Home of the Brave, after the rousing success in New Orleans, Griffith, Ruby, and Graham are determined to beat the Chancellor at his own game and save their family as well as the game of baseball. Pulling into their hometown of Baltimore, the Paynes are reunited with a familiar face, and the Travelin’ Nine are tested on the field once again. Can they win without the help of their baseball? Prepare for fireworks in this final inning to the grand slam series, Sluggers !

The Travelin' Nine are headed to St. Louis and New Orleans as they continue to raise money to pay off their big league debt!

Children's Literature

When readers last met the Travelin' Nine, they were on a train to St. Louis. The Chancellor's men tried to get the baseball and kidnap Graham. His older brother jumped off the train. Now he, Dog, Woody, and the baseball must get back on a train to meet up with the team at their next location. A visit with an old man and Woody's stories on the train enlighten Griffith about the Rough Riders and the magical baseball, who the Chancellor is, and why he wants Graham and the ball. Readers are introduced to Cy Young when Graham has an opportunity to take batting practice against him. A baseball game against the New Orleans Pelicans is arranged with hopes that the Travelin' Nine will win and add much needed money to their coffers. They did not anticipate that the Chancellor would bring in an ace pitcher—none other than Cy Young himself! In this fifth book in the "Sluggers" series, the melodrama continues, as does the old-time baseball lingo in this baseball fantasy. Long's charcoal illustrations add a further dimension to the book and are helpful to younger readers. The illustration of Theodore Roosevelt shooting at the magical baseball in the saloon will surely catch readers' eyes. Interesting little tidbits are peppered throughout the book, such as how Cy Young received his nickname and the line spoken by a newspaper reporter about the new red uniforms the St. Louis team is wearing: "[T]hey look like a bunch of cardinals that flew." Those who have been reading the series will look forward to the next and final book. Reviewer: Sharon Salluzzo

#1 New York Times Best Seller LOREN LONG’s illustrations have received two gold medals from the Society of Illustrators and his first picture book, Angela Johnson’s I Dream of Trains, won the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators Golden Kite Award for Illustrations and his inspired interpretation of Walt Whitman’s When I Heard Learn’d Astronomer was a Golden Kite Honor. A much sought after editorial artist whose work has appeared in Times, Sports Illustrated, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal and Atlantic Monthly, Loren is widely known for the illustrations in Madonna’s #1 New York Times Best Seller Mr. Peabody’s Apples. And Watty Piper’s The Little Engine That Could. He lives in West Chester, Ohio, with his wife, Tracy, and two young sons, Griffith and Graham.

Phil Bildner is the author of the New York Times bestselling Sluggers! series, the Texas Bluebonnet Award-winning Shoeless Joe & Black Betsy and its companion, The Shot Heard 'Round the World, both illustrated by C. F. Payne; and Twenty-One Elephants, illustrated by LeUyen Pham. His latest picture book is Turkey Bowl, illustrated by C.F Payne. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.