The Green Bay Packers may be in a transition year, but For the Love of the Packers, a fun, handsome picture book, celebrates everything that is right and good about the Green and Gold. Klein, an editor at The Wall Street Journal, and Anderson, whose artwork has graced Time and The New Yorker, provide at least 26 reasons to back the Pack. Each letter of the alphabet serves as a basis for a short rhyme (and sometimes cartoon-like artwork), plus a paragraph about a particular player, coach or historical event.
Some of the obvious inclusions also are the best: "'B' is for [Gilbert] Brown/Whose trademark was girth/When he took the field/He rattled the earth"; "'F' is for Favre/A Mississippi lad/In each Packers outing/He gave all that he had"; and "'P' is for Paul Hornung/A man about town/He'd sweat for the Pack/Then chug a few down."
Others cite historical accomplishments: Old-timers Francis Louis "Jug" Earp invented the modern center snap, John McNally was the inspiration for the recent George Clooney film Leatherheads and Cal Hubbard became a Major League Baseball umpire. And even though Anderson's portrayal of Favre is way off, his caricatures of Vince Lombardi, Ray Nitschke and Reggie White deserve more than a passing glance.