Baby's Bite! Picture Books About Siblings to Sink Your Teeth Into!
Baby’s bite! Siblings squabble! That’s reality. Reading Books about Sibling Relationships is an easy way to discuss sibling stuff with kids. And because it’s March and you are reading aloud right? Here’s a list of picture books about siblings that are—as Vampire Baby puts it, “Toothly funny!”—definitely worth sinking your teeth into:
March is National Reading Month! In between games and goings-on, pull out some books and read-read-read aloud with your kiddos!
After all, wouldn’t it be wonderful if your future all-stars could read about themselves—for themselves! Win-Win-Win! (A Three-Pointer!)
Tip-off starts March 2nd with Read Across America Day!
And get this, you don’t even need to lug around those big old clunky books. There are scores of picture book read-alouds on-line—click and pick!
Videos of my picture books are just a YouTube button Click Away! Below is a screenshot of my You-Tube Channel @kellybennettbooks9789 so you’ll know it. (Seriously…CLICK HERE!)
March Read Aloud Month more dates to remember (in case you need an excuse to read):
March 2: Read Across America Day
March 4: National Grammar Day
March 6-12: E-Book Week
March 20th: World Storytelling Day
March 21: World Poetry Day
What comes after March? April, of course! Library Week! So no excuses!
What’s more! my new picture book, The House That Ruth Built, illustrated by Susanna Covelli, available now from Familus!
“With beautiful, true-to-event illustrations reminiscent of Norman Rockwell, and with facts on every page about the stadium, the teams, and that very first fateful game that christened the original Yankee Stadium, The House That Ruth Built is the perfect book for kids and baseball fans everywhere. Take a step into the past and watch the baseball greats make history!”
For reading all the way down to here, you get a reward: It’s a brand-new readaloud of THTRB
Happy Read-Aloud March!
March Reading Madness
March Madness is on! Basketball latter-gator …
March is National Reading Month! In between games and goings-on, pull out some books and read-read-read aloud with your kiddos!
After all, wouldn’t it be wonderful if your future all-stars could read about themselves—for themselves! Win-Win-Win! (A Three-Pointer!)
Tip-off starts March 2nd with Read Across America Day!
And get this, you don’t even need to lug around those big old clunky books. There are scores of picture book read-alouds on-line—click and pick!
Videos of my picture books are just a YouTube button Click Away! Below is a screenshot of my You-Tube Channel @kellybennettbooks9789 so you’ll know it. (Seriously…CLICK HERE!)
March Read Aloud Month more dates to remember (in case you need an excuse to read):
March 2: Read Across America Day
March 4: National Grammar Day
March 6-12: E-Book Week
March 20th: World Storytelling Day
March 21: World Poetry Day
What comes after March? April, of course! Library Week! So no excuses!
What’s more! my new picture book, The House That Ruth Built, illustrated by Susanna Covelli, available now from Familus!
“With beautiful, true-to-event illustrations reminiscent of Norman Rockwell, and with facts on every page about the stadium, the teams, and that very first fateful game that christened the original Yankee Stadium, The House That Ruth Built is the perfect book for kids and baseball fans everywhere. Take a step into the past and watch the baseball greats make history!”
For reading all the way down to here, you get a reward: It’s a brand-new readaloud of THTRB
Happy Read-Aloud March!
All Play Ball! Picture Books about Black, Brown, Male, Female Baseball Players
Spring Training is on! Right now, Major League Baseball players of all colors are warming up. A rainbow of baseball kids are warming up too, to play and watch—and read! These picture books about Black, Hispanic, Native American, male and female baseball players will make reading time a hit!
When talking baseball history, most fans’ knowledge of baseball players of color starts on April 15, 1947, when Jackie Robinson took the field as the Brooklyn Dodgers #42, the first Black player to play in the MLB. But that is far from the truth.
Black players have been playing as long, as well, and in spite of the MLB—right along with White players—the same game, by the same rules, and on the same fields!
Did you know that when Yankee Stadium wasn’t hosting NY Yankee vs other MLB team games, it was home field for Negro Leagues Baseball teams, too.
And there are—and were—women in Pro Baseball! Players, coaches, scouts, managers and owners. Effa Manley, owner/manager of Newark Eagles, was the first woman inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame!
Nicknamed “The Great One,” Roberto Clemente led the Pirates to 2 World Series, hit 3000 hits, and was the first Latino to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.
Read more in Roberto Clemente: Pride of the Pittsburg Pirates!
Mamie “Peanut” Johnson was the first female pitcher in Pro Baseball pitched in the Negro Leagues.
Read more in Mamie On the Mound!
Before 1947, players of color were banned from MLB so under the leadership of player/manager Pop Lloyd, the Negro Leagues was formed. Check out the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum website for Black players history, photos and more!
Negro Leagues superstar Buck O’Neil played with the Kansas City Monarchs. The Greatest Thing is his story.
Josh Gibson known as the “Black Babe Ruth” was one of the biggest hitters of all time! read more in William Brashler’s biography Josh Gibson: A Life in the Negro Leagues
“African Americans make up 50% of MLB’s current top 10 leaders in career HRs.”
On April 22, 1897, Louis Sockalexis became the first American Indian to become a Major League ballplayer with the National League Cleveland Spiders.
Read more about him in Louis Sockalexis: Native American Pioneer by Bill Wise.
Before Jackie Robinson put on the #42 Jersey and took the field as a Brooklyn Dodger, he’d done a lot of living and played a lot of baseball. There are books about him for readers of all levels:
And just so you know, my new picture book, The House That Ruth Built, illustrated by Susanna Covelli, is loaded with baseball history, vintage photos and trivia about the players, including Babe Ruth, Josh Gibson and the Negro Leagues, balls, bats, fouls, strikes bases loaded—available NOW from Familus!
What Inspires Me? Digging Through the LOC Stacks
This is a page from the 1893 H.H. Kiffe Catalogue. How did I find it? Joanna Colclough, a Librarian Extraordinaire/Archival Archeologist at the Library of Congress dug it up!
That’s what inspires me: The Library of Congress!
The Library of Congress (LOC) is “the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the de facto national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country.” -wikipedia
What’s in the Library of Congress?
Copies of every publication in the English language that is deemed significant. Specifically:
via Wikipedia: “The Library of Congress states that its collection fills about 838 miles (1,349 km) of bookshelves and holds more than 167 million items with over 39 million books and other print materials.[5] A 2000 study by information scientists Peter Lyman and Hal Varian suggested that the amount of uncompressed textual data represented by the 26 million books then in the collection was 10 terabytes.[77
What’s especially inspiring is that the Library of Congress is OUR LIBRARY!
Each of us—me and you—can access the library. We can visit it in person—it is an actual library located in Washington D.C. and we are welcome to visit it, browse the collections, see the books and some memorabilia and collection items ourselves.
But, what’s easier is that much of the Library of Congress holdings—especially photographs—is on line! All we have to do is input what you’re looking for in the search box, click and look!
And if, like me, you need lots of extra help finding what you’re looking for, the Library of Congress staff is super helpful.
See for yourself! Click to Visit the Library of Congress!
See you at our library!
I’ve been digging—yep! Elbow deep, digging, but not “in the dirt.” I’ve been digging through the Library of Congress archives in search of baseball minutiae for my forthcoming picture book The House That Ruth Built (Familius 2023). It’s about the opening day game in the original Yankee Stadium and Babe Ruth’s historic first homer in the stadium, but so much more. It’s about the origin of the game, and history—so much history—100 plus plus plus year-old history of the sport and the world as it was back then. For instance, how do you think that April 18th, 1923 game was broadcast?
It wasn’t.
That’s right. No one saw that historic game on TV because there was no TV back then.
No one sat with their ears glued to some huge box radio either, because while radio had been invented—credited to Guglielmo Marconithe in 1894, and the first professional baseball game had been broadcast on the Radio—Aug 5, 1921, Pirates vs Phillies at Forbes Field in Pittsburg— the NY Yankees did not allow their games to be broadcast until the 1923 World Series.
The only people to enjoy that first baseball game played in Yankee Stadium in real time were folks at the actual game. The rest of the world experienced second-hand from sports reporters who shared the play-by-play with fans via telegraph which was then transcribed and printed in newspapers. And where, 100 years and more later, does one find those newspapers?
Kids: Try some Baseball Math!
These pages from the 1893 H.H. Kiffe Catalogue list baseball stuff for sale. If $1 in 1893 is equal in purchasing power to about $32.92 in 2022, how much would one of these baseball hats cost today?
What inspires me #4 Two Thousand One Hundred Ten
Babe with Little Ray Kelly
2110 whoopee! Not talking dollars. Or baseball. Although I do love baseball. And I do have a baseball book forthcoming next spring: The House Babe Ruth Built, a celebration of Babe Ruth’s historic first homer in baseball’s first stadium, comes out Spring 2022 from Familius, just in time for the 100th anniversary of the original Yankee Stadium (more about that later).
Today I’m reposting this cat I let out of the bag 1710 days ago. PSSSSSSSST It’s been a secret! A secret-secret I’ve been doing that now, on this 2110th day, I'm Celebrating! Cue the Band!
“...be kind to your fine feathered friends/for a duck maybe some-body’s mo-th-er!”
For 2110 consecutive days, midst three moves, construction, vacations, births, goodbyes, hellos, and oh no! I have generated a poem a day.
No, I am not going to share any of my poems here, now. (You're safe...for now!}
No, I did not do it alone!
Nor would I ever have imagined getting to day 2110. That's why I'm telling you about it.
Is there something you've been meaning to try, but haven't?
Perhaps a personal goal? Maybe a resolution? Do you keep saying to yourself, as I have/do/probably will again: "I'll start next week" . . . "After the holiday, really" . . . "Tomorrow." . . Tomorrow. . . tomorrow. . . tomorrow . . . tomorrow . . . tomorrow . . .
What's the Gimmick? Gotta Have Skin in the Game.
Here's what I mean: I committed to the challenge with a friend. The rules of the game were set in writer's blood (aka "Ink"). We pledged to email or text our assignments to each other every day by midnight. Or else...
It's that "Or Else" that made the difference.
Rewards & Consequences: Some folks respond better to positive reinforcement. I've shared previously how my author-mentor-friend the late Paula Danziger bought herself pieces of amber jewelry but...gave them to her editor to hold until she met a deadline. In order to get SE Hinton to write her second novel (after The Outsiders), her then boyfriend waited each day for her to finish her pages. Others reward themselves by putting dollars into a honey pot. (Big bucks!)
Rewards do not work for me. It is too easy not to pay myself. Nor have I yet found a payoff big enough (and attainable) to entice me to do anything...and I mean An-ny-thing!
I need Consequences, penalties, shame. That's what motivates me. Deadlines with consequences. So, in order to insure that I'd stick with the challenge, I set a penalty a miserable embarrassing consequence. I pledge to complete each days prompt and send it to Cindy by midnight. If failed I vowed to donate $50 to Trump's campaign publically--on Facebook. Pre-election that was the stiffest-realistic-penalty I could imagine. One I was not willing to pay and so, I did the work Every. Single. Day. Here's the 1-2-3 of it:
Set a "realistic" Goal
Set a "clear" Consequence or Reward
Set a Timer (The secret ingredient!) Cindy and I devoted 7 1/2 minutes each day to complete the prompts. That's it 7 1/2 minutes. Read. Set Timer. Go.
I was amazed at what we accomplished in 7 1/2 minutes. GDC: a concrete GOAL, a set DEADLINE, and a CONSEQUENCE for not meeting that deadline was exactly the motivation I needed to stick with the journal, especially through those first couple of days, then weeks, and vacations, and late nights, and yucky prompts. The answer is YES I CAN!
Tomorrow is here. 2110 down, more to go!
Celebrating 2103 Playlist: