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It's 1899, and the Travelin' Nine go to Cincinnati to play ball, hoping to raise some money. Young siblings Griffith, Ruby, and Graham treasure a tattered baseball with a mysterious hole in it. There are lots of mysteries: why Uncle Owen is in a wheelchair; why their mother is called "Guy" and pins up her hair when she plays catcher, their dad's old position; why trains and fog appear on the field, visible to the barnstormers but invisible to the other team. Old-timey baseball lore and phrases fill the margins, the prose is atmospheric, and Long's soft-edged, period illustrations fit the misty mood. Any true resolution or clarity, however, must await Game 2.

Horn Book

This novel seems intended primarily to convey the rules and terminology of baseball as it was played in the late 1800s. Talk of "gardens" rather than outfields and "strikers" instead of batters may interest modern sports fans, but readers who'd prefer characterization and a genuine story arc will be disappointed. The illustrations range from cleverly detailed to sketchily unfinished.

Kirkus Reviews

Griffith, Ruby, Graham and their mother are barnstorming across the Midwest with the Travelin' Nine baseball team. The team is made up of comrades of their late father, all former members of the Rough Riders, who are helping them to raise money to pay off a huge family debt. Griffith is keeping secrets, their father's keepsake baseball emits odd shivers and shakes and there are many strange occurrences. Long's highly detailed, black-and-white illustrations evoke the era and enhance the text. There's an interesting cast of characters and lots of action, but it doesn't work. For fantasy to succeed, there needs to be an underlying set of rules that govern the realm in which it is set. Instead, Long and Bildner have stretched portends and omens to the breaking point, without explaining or resolving anything. It's obviously the first in a planned series, but it lacks the substance to stand alone. The reader is left hanging and may not be willing to follow the team. (Fiction. 8-10)

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

The authors nimbly step up to the plate in this debut volume of Barnstormers: Tales of the Travelin' Nine series, but the action plays out rather disappointingly. In 1899, likable siblings Griffith, Ruby and Graham Payne are on the road with a barnstorming baseball team. Their father, once the Travelin' Nine's catcher, perished at war and their mother, disguised as a man, has taken his place behind home plate. The children cherish the baseball that their father carried throughout the war. At the start of the team's game against the Cincinnati Swine (aka Porkopolis, "the pork-packin' capital of the world"), the worn ball mysteriously seems to "tremble" in Ruby's hand. As the Nine loses the lead in the game, a "looming darkness" descends on the field. A train switching signal grows out of the ground, tracks and a locomotive appear—seen only by the siblings and their teammates, who lose badly. At game's end, Griffith shares with Ruby their uncle's warning, confided at their father's funeral, that "great danger lies ahead." Like this season's <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">Hey Batta, Batta Swing (reviewed Jan. 8), this brief novel throws out appealing old-time baseball vernacular (defined in the margins) and intriguing period particulars, captured in Loren's enticing backdrops; youngsters will also enjoy the emotional portraits of the Payne family. But the danger remains a mystery as the tale comes to a close, with too much left dangling. Ages 7-10. <EMPHASIS TYPE=""ITALIC"">(Feb.)

School Library Journal

Gr 2-5-It is 1899, and Griffith, Ruby, and Graham Payne have just buried their father. Now they and their mother are hitting the road with the Travelin' Nine, a barnstorming team of baseball players made up of veterans from the Spanish-American War's "Rough Riders" with whom their father used to play. Their Uncle Owen has entrusted them with a baseball that their dad owned. They know only that it has some kind of power when all three of the children touch it. In this first book in the series, the Travelin' Nine has arrived in Cincinnati to challenge the local team. During the game, strange things happen, and the children are at a loss to understand why. Nothing is explained, and the story ends with the siblings and the team preparing to board a steamboat that will take them to Louisville for the next matchup. There is no question that both Long and Bildner love baseball (the pictures of both author and illustrator in the back of the book in vintage uniforms leave little doubt). The level of historical detail is admirable, and Long's dreamy, black-and-white illustrations are breathtaking. Unfortunately, history and distinguished art cannot make up for the lack of an engaging story line: two-dimensional characters and a weak plot make this chapter book fall flat. If the subsequent "Games" can pick up the pace and flesh out the characters more fully, the series has potential to appeal to fans of Mary Pope Osborne's "Magic Tree House" series (Random) and other historical fantasy.-Kim Dare, Fairfax County Public Schools, VA Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.