Bound To Stay Bound

School Library Journal - 11/01/2025 Gr 2–4—With some justice, Olivera dubs baseball the "national sport of Cuba," and looks back to profile a figure who may have done more than any other to popularize it there. Scion of a prosperous Havana family, Nemesio Guilló was sent in 1858 at age 11 to a private school in Mobile, Alabama, where over the next seven years he was not only exposed to a new language and culture but also to a then-new game called baseball which, the author writes, seemed to him both exciting and superior to bullfighting due to its fair rules and emphasis on team play. Returning with "un bate de bèisbol" in his luggage, Guilló recruited fellow "peloteros," and by 1868 had formed a team good enough to beat visiting American sailors. As the author notes in his historical afterword, the organized sport went on to be banned for long periods both by local authorities and, later, Castro, but Cubans have been playing pro ball in the U.S. from the 1870s to today, and the game remains popular throughout the Caribbean. An illustration of the original Cuban team, posing and playing in quaint boaters and neckerchiefs, is depicted with uniformly light skin. At the end, Guilló strikes a final pose surrounded by portraits of later, more diversely hued, Cuban Hall of Famers. VERDICT A significant addition to baseball's early history.—John Peters - Copyright 2025 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

Booklist - 02/01/2026 Baseball’s humble origins in Cuba began with an exchange student named Nemesio Guilló. After studying in the U.S. with his brother in the 1800s, Guilló returned to Cuba with a wooden baseball bat and a love for America’s newest game. Guilló helped create the first Cuban baseball team, the Habana Base Ball Club. First-generation Cuban American Olivera captures Guilló’s excitement for this fledgling sport and how it was embraced by the people of Cuba in the book’s illustrations, which cleverly incorporate the brilliant red and blue of the Cuban flag. The main text touches on Cuba’s fight for independence, won in 1902, and the establishment of baseball as the country’s national sport. This timely picture-book biography coincides with the continued struggles of Cuban professional baseball players, who have to defect in order to play in the U.S. due to current governmental policies. Appended with further information on Cuban history and Guilló as well as a bibliography, this is an informative piece of sports history. - Copyright 2026 Booklist.