Guide to Juvenile Baseball Books: N

Namioka, Lensey. Yang the Youngest and His Terrible Ear. Boston: Little, Brown, 1992. The youngest child of a Chinese concert violinist in Seattle is the second violin in his family's quartet, but he would much rather play baseball.

A pleasant story, showing the strong assimilating power of sport. For another change on this theme, see Cretan's All Except Sammy.

Naughton, Jim. My Brother Stealing Second. New York: Harper and Row, 1989. The death of his older brother in a car crash causes problems for the protagonist, who must learn to enjoy baseball again and win the respect of the young woman whose parents have also been killed in the crash.

Mixes a tightly-woven plot with fine verisimilar observations of small-town Eastern life.

Naylor, Phyllis Reynolds. Boys in Control. New York: Delacorte, 2003. Feuding boys and girls drop the quarrel long enough to ready a baseball team for a Big Game, among other things.

One of a series where the Hatford brothers engage the Malloy sisters in the mildest of neighborly feuds. There is plenty of baseball action, though it becomes subordinate to subplots about a class play and a garage sale with a hidden secret.

Negron, Ray. The Boy of Steel. Illustrated by Laura Seeley. New York: Regan Books, 2006. Young Yankee fan, fighting cancer, sees his wishes come true.

Inspired by a true story of a young cancer patient befriended by Yankee second baseman Robinson Cano, this picture book elaborates young "Michael Steel"'s tale and gives it a magical connection to the story of Lou Gehrig.

Newman, Jeff. The Boys. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2010. Too shy to play ball, a kid sits on a park bench with some senior citizens; the "boys" teach him that life's too short to sit around.

There's no text at all (except for captions of the days of the week) in this subtle, stylish picture book.

Nussbaum, Ben, ed. Take Me Out to the Ballgame. Illustrated by Macky Pamintuan. Norwalk, CT: Soundprints, 2006. The lyrics of the famous song unfold slowly across the pages of a bright, large-scale picture book.

Extras include background information on the song and a bonus CD.

Nye, Penny. Batter Up! Penny Laine Papers, 1999. An interactive spiral-bound board book that prompts children to create their own baseball stories with themselves as heroes.