Louise Borden and Raúl Colon have created a lyrical ode to baseball and its place in American culture. Such a huge, amorphous topic must have been tough to structure into a narrative, but Borden uses chronological arcs to organize everything. She uses both the arc of a single game and the arc of an entire season to position the different sections of the book, winding up the book, of course, with a celebration of the World Series.

The voice of the book is lyrical and celebratory. Often back matter has a completely different tone from the rest of the book, but Borden’s “Note to the Reader” at the end is similarly lyrical as she writes about great baseball games she has attended.

Baseball fans will enjoy this hymn of praise.

Baseball Is… by Louise Borden, illustrated by Raúl Colon. Margaret K. McElderry Books: 2014.