Just in time for baseball season comes this latest offering in the Morgan/Martchenko series about young Matthew’s dream adventures. Daytime fantasies about a ball game on World Series day become nighttime dreams of a journey with the Toronto Turkeys to play Turkeyball in the Dome. This is a ball game with a difference, however; the manager (a buzzard) reminds his turkeys: “Don’t eat hot dogs when you’re up at bat, eat ’em on deck or on base…. No dancing in the dugout, no yo-yos in the pen, and absolutely no bungee jumping with less than two outs.” The third base turkey fires up a barbecue on the pitcher’s mound, the catcher has his dog along to help, and the opposition team – the Montreal Posties – go on strike and throw lots of mail up into the air. Nonsense and chaos reign, but of course Matthew bats the winning home run to make the Toronto Turkeys “Champeens of the Universe.”

As in other dream fantasies, the absurdities of the midnight ball game are grounded in the events of Matthew’s daily life; his mother has cheerfully called him a turkey for bouncing his ball against the house, and instructed him how to get the ball back from the neighbour’s dog. These details are transformed into Matthew’s midnight adventure, from which he returns next morning to celebrate the Turkeys’ victory with his mother, whose good advice about the dog saved the game. Energy and humour abound in both text and pictures, although the frenetic goofiness of the turkeys may not amuse everyone. The transformation of a familiar game in a nonsense world, like the frustrating croquet game in Alice in Wonderland, is an amusing device for fantasy; however, there needs to be some sort of order or attempt at following the rules of the game for the absurdity to play against, and in Morgan’s tale, the game is just a comical melee. Satirical touches like the Posties’ strike give an air of sophistication, but there is no particular wit in the handling of the baseball material. Martchenko’s pictures add some enjoyable comic touches, such as the carrot nose with which Matthew disguises himself as a turkey.