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2012 marks the 100th birthday of Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox, and children's publishing is on the ball. There have been some lovely children's books published this year, focusing on the park and the team, and I plan to read and review them all! I'm starting with Dan Gutman's Ted and Me, which is the eleventh volume in Gutman's Baseball Card Adventure series. The premise of the

I've been obsessing about the amount of attention Ted Williams gets within the realm of children's literature. Must be all those pin-stripped covers I've been forced to stock over the years. I was well pleased to read Fred Bowen's No Easy Way , and I thoroughly enjoyed The Unforgettable Season by Phil Bildner, even if Williams did have to share the book with Joe Dimaggio. Now, I can look

Daddy’s Heroes: Unforgettable Sports Moments to Share With Children by Tom Garcia and Karun Naga (Illustrated by Jenifer Donnelly)

Review by Chris Singer

About the authors:

Tom Garcia was born in Salamanca, Mexico in 1973 and grew up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  He is an attorney and co-author of the Daddy’s Heroes children’s books series. Tom co-founded Daddy’s Heroes, Inc. in 2006 with Karun Naga in an effort to help parents share unforgettable sports moments with their children.  The concept for Daddy’s Heroes was inspired by Tom’s nightly bedtime routine with his young son, where he would share his passion for baseball by recounting his favorite moments in baseball history. Tom and his wife, Emily, live in Santa Barbara, California with their two children, Jack and Enna.

Karun Naga was born in Chicago, Illinois in 1975 and grew up in Cleveland, Ohio and East Lansing, Michigan.  He is an entrepreneur and co-author of the Daddy’s Heroes children’s books series. Karun, an avid sports fan and former college baseball player, co-founded Daddy’s Heroes, Inc. in 2006 with Tom Garcia in an effort to help parents share unforgettable sports moments with their children.  Karun’s drive behind Daddy’s Heroes is fueled by his own enthusiasm for sharing his most cherished sports memories with his children and by the potential for making story time a more rewarding experience for millions of sports fans and their children. Karun and his wife, Haritha, live in Palo Alto, California with their twins, Arathi and Kushal, and dog Friday.

About the illustrator:

Jenifer Donnelly was born in Warren, Ohio and raised in Michigan and Pennsylvania. She graduated from LaRoche College, Pittsburgh, with a degree in Graphic Design. Her work experience includes design and fine art for many different clients, such as printers, advertising and design studios, magazine publications and government agencies. She embraced the changes in the graphics and printing industry during the evolution of desktop publishing. When not illustrating for Daddy’s Heroes, she is found creating fine art, working in watercolor, pastel, pencil, and oil. Jenifer lives in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania with her husband and two teenage daughters, who still enjoy reading a good picture book.

About the series:

The goal of the Daddy’s Heroes book series is to foster stronger bonds between sports fans and their children. Retelling these unforgettable, historical sports moments will not only build these bonds, but will also help parents introduce their favorite sports to their children.

My take on the books:

Just in time for Spring Training! Last year, the release of the excellent No Easy Way by Fred Bowen finally introduced Ted Williams as a subject for picture book biographies, a move which was long overdue in my opinion. This spring he is making an appearance again in The Unforgettable Season, written by Phil Bildner with illustrations by S.D. Schindler. The book is about the summer of 1941, when

By Nikita & Redford

Translated by Jen Quigley, Sales Associate, and Betsy DeJesu, Publicity Manager

Though the 2010 World Cup has drawn to a close, there is a very important lesson we can glean from that spectacular, month-long, global soccer match. And not just that vuvuzelas are very ear-splittingly loud. Instead, the World Cup has shown us that despite our many differences—of geography, culture, languages, time zones, and beers of choice—there are still certain things that can bring together even the most opposite of peoples.

In that spirit of unity, then, we wanted to foster a partnership between two of the world’s most, shall we say, unfriendly beings. We’re not talking about Team Jacob vs. Team Edward or the Yankees vs. Red Sox vendetta. We’re talking about the real deal. That’s right. Dogs and cats.

Though typically considered enemies and many times relegated to different parts of the yard, we are here today to take the first steps to bridge the gap between our species. Representing for canines will be Redford, and weighing in for the feline perspective will be Nikita. Redford and Nikita have agreed to meet on neutral territory to open up a dialogue and see if they can find some common ground for their people to run around on.

Nikita: Hello, Redford. Thank you for agreeing to this meeting. Please disregard the copious amounts of catnip I have sprinkled on the floor. It keeps me grounded during situations like this.

Redford: (Silence…Redford looks up from eating catnip off the floor). Bone. Cat. Squirrel. (more chewing).

Nikita: Let’s start. I figured that since we are both big readers, we could discuss our love of the written word.

Redford: I like book. Smells good. Tastes even better. Squirrel!!! (Redford takes off and returns several moments later out of breathe.) I like book. (Panting….)

Nikita: Great. First question: What recent book, in your opinion, deserves two paws up and a tail wag?

Redford: Garth Stein, The Art of Racing in the Rain. Paws down. Stein took it to another level with this one. Intellectual pups, race cars, rain puddles and a bunch of tail wagging moments between person and dog. Truly an empowering moment for any young canine after reading this book. I mean, it’s our job to take care of our people and any person, cat or dog that thinks otherwise can duke it out with Mr. Stein.

Nikita: Who is your favorite character in literary fiction and why? It’s okay if it is a human. Or a cat. No one will judge.

Redford: Does the squirrel sitting outside that window count….

Nikita: What was your favorite book when you were a puppy?

Redford: That monkey, George. I like him. Yellow Hat. Hugs. Monkey.

Nikita: Blog vs. print?

Redford: Bone. Wait, what? Oh sorry. My little legs prevent me from reaching the computer screen. Print. Read it. Eat it. Pee on it. Enjoy it.

Nikita: Steampunk or YA fiction?

Redford: When I grow up I’m going to be an astronaut. (Redford lies down to lick his paws and scrounges for catnip crumbs,)

Nikita: Thank you for your time, Redford. I hope thi

Traveling from school to school here in the CyFair school district of Houston I was thrilled to steal a relaxing minute in the cozy reading tub at the Matzke Elementary Library.

The same wonderful room also had a faux front porch complete with comfy chairs and plenty of books casually scattered within a small hand's easy reach.

Because back home I spend way too much time sitting at my desk talking to the monkeys - these last two weeks have been such a fun, eye-opening journey where I've gotten a chance to be inside wonderful school libraries, meet terrific - inspiring librarians and the kids - WOW - such amazing, bright, creative attentive kids.

I've been starting my workshops by illustrating what my brain was like as a kid - and then I use POND SCUM to help me swirl through creative blasts of writing tips using my cartoon-doodles and lots of kid-interactivity!

So here I am - watching Game Two of the Red Sox World series, feeling already wistful that after 18 schools and 36 presentations - I am left with tomorrow, the last day of my wonderful trip (just 4 presentations to go).

Tonight it's baseball and the satisfaction of having reached countless kids and being able to laugh every day while letting creativity run loopy with doodles, reading, and lots of my own Pond Scum. (speaking of which - I have never signed so many books!)



It just doesn't get much better than this!

We waited 89 years for the 2004 win. This time we only had to wait 2. That's better. Easier on the heart. The Red Sox win the American League Championships and are back to the World Series!

The Red Sox are in the World Series!!

For a while, I thought that maybe I had jinxed them (typical sports fan reasoning), because I couldn't find another picture of me in my Red Sox hat. So I cheated--this one was taken yesterday as I walked all around Manhattan in my hat (I walked from the Upper East Side to the East Village--a good three miles--and then from there all the way west--11th Street--in Hell's Kitchen). It was such a gorgeous day.

I promise...I'll have a real post one of these days. In the meantime, check out my post over at the Blue Rose Girls on Peter Brown and his fabulously bouncy, exciting, pretty good week.

I love my mom, but I’ve always thought of Mother’s Day as holiday promoted by the greeting card industry. Even as a mom myself, I just don’t get this whole thing. It’s nice to acknowledge our moms, of course, but the holiday is so loaded with saccharine expressions that are just a bit cheesy IMO. That said, I wanted to share two poems that I find meaningful on the subject of parents and parenting. One, “Warmth” is written by a child and the other “Grown Children,” is by New York Poet Laureate, Sharon Olds. Together, they have us looking ahead and looking backward…

Warmth
By Richard Furst
Grade 10

I walked through the empty kitchen
to the door,
to leave the warmth of home
for the bitter-cold anxiety of
a Monday at school.
Ducking the old dogwood outside,
I heard a familiar call,
and turned to see my mother
waving me off to school,
sending me a small fire
to keep my heart a little warmer.

From Ten-Second Rainshowers: Poems by Young People compiled by Sanford Lyne. Simon & Schuster, 1996.

And pair with Sharon Olds’ poem about “Grown Children” which begins observing a baby toddling on the beach and ends with the lines:

Grown Children
by Sharon Olds

… And now our daughter
is asleep on the couch, not six pounds
thirteen ounces, but about my size,
her great, complex, delicate face
relaxed. And our son, last night, looking closely
at his sweetheart as they whispered for a moment, what a tender
listening look he had. We raised them
daily, I mean hourly—every minute
we were theirs, no hour went by we were not
raising them—carrying them, bearing them, lifting them
up, for the pleasure, and so they could see,
out, away from us.

From The Unswept Room. Knopf, 2002.

Picture credit: rocksinmydryer.typepad.com