Horn Book (Thu Aug 01 00:00:00 CDT 2013)

Pete the Cat makes a towering sandwich, which he shares with friends; he plays baseball and strikes out, but has fun regardless ("He is not sad. He did his best"). Neither easy-to-read story is all that compelling, but Lunch is more entertaining than Ball, which reads like instructions for good sportsmanship. The colorful, stylized illustrations lend both books a lighthearted tone.

Kirkus Reviews

Ultracool Pete the Cat turns his attention to baseball. Pete's team, the Rocks, is playing the Rolls. Pete is every measure of a good sport as he encourages his teammates. He isn't, however, a skilled player. He strikes out and drops a fly ball, and though he reaches first base on a walk and runs as fast as he can, he is thrown out at home plate. "Pete is not sad, He did his best." After all, his team won, and he had fun. It could be a great antidote to Little League pressure to be number one at all costs. But there is something off-putting about the tone, for there appears to be a lack of any real involvement in Pete's cool, calm manner, and the repeated insistence that he is unaffected by his performance feels robotic. Does he love the game or intend to improve? Instead, the baseball game seems just another setting for Pete to demonstrate his cool. Cartoons nicely complement the text, but here too, no change of expression is apparent on Pete's countenance, nor on any of the players'. The early-reader format is new to this series and hasn't the lilt of Dean's earlier works, so this might not be the way to expand the franchise. No home run here. (Early reader. 3-5)

School Library Journal (Tue Feb 28 00:00:00 CST 2023)

K-Gr 3-This book is based on the childhood of the Yankee all-star catcher. Although young Jorge is a good ballplayer, his father warns him that to be the best he must learn to be a switch-hitter. Reluctantly, the boy takes up the challenge and practices with his father, friends, and coach as Casa Cuba's big game with its archrival team looms. Abruptly, Jorge and his family are visiting New York City. While watching a game at Yankee Stadium, the boy declares, "Some day I'm going to play here." On the following page, the action moves to the big game in Puerto Rico, where Jorge is having a miserable time at the plate. On his last at-bat, he drives home his teammates with a game-winning double. Colon's soft, impressionistic, watercolor-and-pencil illustrations fail to enliven or add interesting detail to this bland story. With its predictable and simplistic message of determination and hard work, it adds nothing fresh or memorable to the genre of children's sports stories.-Marilyn Taniguchi, Beverly Hills Public Library, CA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

ALA Booklist

Dean's stoic Pete the Cat heads to the ballpark and does what he does best: react placidly. It's the Rocks (the cats in red) versus the Rolls (yellow), and no matter how often Pete screws up d it's pretty often, as he strikes out, drops a catch, and overthrows reacts in the exactly same way: "But Pete is not sad. He did his best." Again, much of Pete's humor comes from Dean's depiction of him as a dour, sleepy-looking fellow regardless of the emotions the text insists that he's feeling. The purposely flat, simple watercolors further this low-key, cool-cat offering.