In my house, the biggest holiday of the year is one that folks never expect. For as long as I can remember, Major League Baseball’s Opening Day has always been the most exciting day of the year—marked with Dairy Queen, the TV tuned into a St. Louis Cardinals game, and a sense of hope for us Iowans that spring and summer really are coming.
I am a born-and-raised Cardinals fan. However, when my family doesn’t root for the Cardinals, we root for the Los Angeles Dodgers, a product of my dad’s early MLB team alliance as a young Iowan who just wanted to root for whoever was good at the time. (That said, when you marry a girl from St. Louis, rest assured you’ll learn to love the Cardinals almost as much as you love her).
As a result, I have been highly anticipating Shohei Ohtani and Michael Blank’s Decoy Saves Opening Day, published earlier this spring. With illustrations created by Fanny Liem, this picture book is targeted towards kids 4–8 years old and has a simple premise.
Decoy, Ohtani’s real-life dog, is set to throw out the first pitch for the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Opening Day game. He practices, avoids distractions like flowers and airplanes, and finds himself ready at the stadium. However, that’s when trouble strikes: Decoy realizes that he does not have his lucky ball and must race home and back to the stadium with his ball in tow in order to throw the best pitch he can to start the season!
Decoy Saves Opening Day is a sweet and fun read, to be sure. I found myself giggling at the illustrations, including depictions of slobber on the ball, a frantic Decoy, and a surprised security guard. In each of these moments, the book feels grounded and especially aimed towards little kids who love to read about silly adventures with happy endings.
But I do think that there was a missed opportunity to tell a story about Decoy overcoming not having his favorite ball—thereby teaching kids resilience in the face of plans that do not go exactly as intended. Also (and admittedly this is nit-picky), on a couple of pages there is an African American Dodger wearing the number 63 on their jersey. In my research I was unable to come up with a Dodger past or present that meets that description, and I just can’t help but feel it would have been nice to see nods to Ohtani’s actual teammates or other Dodger legends. Still, this book is full of diversely presented background characters, and for that it deserves credit for showing what the Dodgers organization and fan base actually look like.
So if you’re looking for a book to help get your little one into baseball, Decoy Saves Opening Day will certainly hit that mark. The book features moments of team unity, mentions the success of Shohei Ohtani and the Dodgers in recent years, and describes the picturesque setting of a ballpark—all things any new fan will need to know about America’s pastime. If you’re looking for a short read—perhaps to wrap up a bedtime routine—this story hits the ball out of the park. It is fast paced, without much strife, and perfect for sending your kids off to sleep without a worry.
There is another summer sports league that is followed intensely in my house—the WNBA. If you’re from Iowa, when you think about the W, you probably think about former Hawkeye and 2024 first draft pick Caitlin Clark. Before that, however, Megan Gustafson was already bringing the Hawkeye women to a new level. In 2018 and 2019, she was named the Big Ten Conference Women’s Basketball player of the year. Also in 2019, ESPN named her the National Player of the Year. Her jersey, #10, has hung in the rafters of Carver Hawkeye Arena since January 2020. Gustafson became a WNBA champion with the Las Vegas Aces in 2025.
Also in 2025, Gustafson became a published author with her children’s book, Pancake’s Passport. Illustrations for the young reader’s chapter book were created by award-winning illustrator Beth Snider, and it was published by the Inspired Bookshelf, created by Gustafson to focus on publishing faith-based books.
Pancake’s Passport will be best enjoyed by early chapter-book readers and families looking for ways to introduce Bible characters to their children.
The book’s concept is simple: As Megan and Pancake (her Corgi) stamp their passports to go around the world so Megan can chase her professional basketball dreams, they meet wild animals who teach them basic biblical lessons.
To me, it is evident that Pancake’s Passport is Gustafson’s first book. I found myself distracted by the sharp change of tone from the introduction to the more mystical world of the rest of the book. I spent much of the book wondering exactly what age or reading level the story is truly best for, given how the difficulty of the diction and syntax varies. I also think that the story will track best for those who already know about Gustafson’s career trajectory. Additionally, while I found the illustration style charming for Pancake and her furry friends, I didn’t think it served the people in the book—including several current and former members of the Las Vegas Aces—particularly well.
All of that being said, Pancake’s Passport no doubt has an audience among those looking to find a way to introduce young kids to Bible concepts. I found it to be very much a part of the C.S. Lewis tradition of stories designed to show the variety of ways God can appear. It is probably fair to say that the theology of Pancake’s Passport is most closely connected to evangelical traditions; however, many families would likely find the simplicity of the faith-based aspects to serve them well when helping their kids fit the lessons into their own Christian faith traditions.
Finally, I think that Pancake’s Passport would serve as an accessible introduction to basic Christian ideas for young kids who are curious about Christianity but may be practitioners of another faith.
Be warned, Pancake’s Passport has ten chapters. So be prepared for chants of “Just one more chapter!” at bedtime.