Starred Review ALA Booklist (Fri Dec 01 00:00:00 CST 2017)

Starred Review Three-time Caldecott medalist Wiesner hits it out of the park with this almost-wordless picture book about a boy who just wants to be part of the baseball team. When a ball is thrown, he optimistically shouts, "I got it!" and runs with gloved arm outstretched, but he trips over a tree root. Hat, birds, and ball fly off as he misses. But can he rewind and effect a do-over? In almost dreamlike slow motion, the boy imagines a better outcome. He envisions the whole team and all the birds flying toward the ball, still high in the air. Now gigantic, the ball looms over the double-page spread; as the illustrations grow more surreal, the boy outstrips the flying birds, passes up all the other children, and swoops up to fly, arm extended, for the grand finale: "I GOT IT!" He's the hero of the team! Whether real or a dream, the ecstatic catch is euphoric, as teammates cheer him. Acrylic, gouache, and watercolor illustrate every page with breathless blue sky and clouds, dynamic poses, and the active diagonals of sprinting children and the arcing ball. Generous white space becomes the background for a critical moment for a remarkable grab out of the sky.

Starred Review for Kirkus Reviews

A weedy kid in shorts and a T-shirt goes to the sandlot with a glove, hoping to play.Sent to the outfield, the kid waits for a chance. The batter hits a long fly ball that sails that way. The protagonist runs, leaps, and stretches, yelling, "I got it!"—the only words in the book. But the kid trips over some roots, dives, and lands on the ground with the ball just out of reach, while team members cluster around, clutching their heads in disbelief. Wiesner is a master of fantastical wordless (or nearly so) adventures, and what seems to be a simple event becomes a series of might-have-beens and possibilities, playing out several times with different scenarios. A huge tree with protruding roots appears and stops the kid from getting to the ball; several teammates give chase, gloves outstretched, as the protagonist seems to be among them and then flying over them to finally grab the elusive ball: "I GOT IT!" This time it is the batter who's thrown into despair, while the protagonist's team cheers. And what about the birds? Are they just observers or are they somehow affecting the outcome? Sometimes the protagonist is small and the glove and ball are huge as perspective shifts. The scenes are softly painted, growing brighter and sharper after the catch. Readers will interpret it any way they wish, perhaps differently with each perusal. The protagonist has light olive skin and straight black hair, and the other players are racially and gender diverse.Wonderfully imaginative and intriguing. (Picture book. 6-10)

Horn Book (Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2018)

In Wiesner's latest nearly wordless picture book, a boy exiled to the outfield in a baseball game keeps missing the ball until, in a series of fantastical images, he finally makes the big catch. Wiesner's trademark hyperrealistic art contains unexpected visual narrative twists. The sky-blue and clean-white backgrounds in the acrylic, gouache, and watercolor illustrations make it easier to follow the book's flights of fancy.

Kirkus Reviews (Fri Oct 04 00:00:00 CDT 2024)

A weedy kid in shorts and a T-shirt goes to the sandlot with a glove, hoping to play.Sent to the outfield, the kid waits for a chance. The batter hits a long fly ball that sails that way. The protagonist runs, leaps, and stretches, yelling, "I got it!"—the only words in the book. But the kid trips over some roots, dives, and lands on the ground with the ball just out of reach, while team members cluster around, clutching their heads in disbelief. Wiesner is a master of fantastical wordless (or nearly so) adventures, and what seems to be a simple event becomes a series of might-have-beens and possibilities, playing out several times with different scenarios. A huge tree with protruding roots appears and stops the kid from getting to the ball; several teammates give chase, gloves outstretched, as the protagonist seems to be among them and then flying over them to finally grab the elusive ball: "I GOT IT!" This time it is the batter who's thrown into despair, while the protagonist's team cheers. And what about the birds? Are they just observers or are they somehow affecting the outcome? Sometimes the protagonist is small and the glove and ball are huge as perspective shifts. The scenes are softly painted, growing brighter and sharper after the catch. Readers will interpret it any way they wish, perhaps differently with each perusal. The protagonist has light olive skin and straight black hair, and the other players are racially and gender diverse.Wonderfully imaginative and intriguing. (Picture book. 6-10)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

Three-time Caldecott Medalist Wiesner looks at the interior anxieties of a boy playing baseball with a new crowd of kids. Assigned to the outfield, and with a fly ball heading toward him, the boy imagines himself uttering the words of the title--I got it!--but then tripping on a root. In his next vision of failure, a tree keeps him from snagging the ball. More surreal wordless spreads follow, expressions of the boy-s fears of humiliation and determination to succeed-all flashing by in the time it takes the ball to descend. In one, the ball looms, the size of a planet. Then the boy chases through a crowd of giant kids like a Lilliputian, grabbing onto their clothes, hopping from head to head, and-in a final, victorious leap-making the catch: -I got it!- Although this nearly wordless story lacks the comedy of some of his previous creations, Wiesner conveys with startling immediacy how time slows in moments of crisis, and the way that people move back and forth between the outer world of reality and the complicated, many-dimensional world of interior consciousness. Ages 4-7. (Apr.)