First Grade Dropout by Audrey Vernick

First Grade Dropout by Audrey Vernick
Rating: 5 stars

Clarion Books

Oh dear ME this is such a funny book--and, better yet, wonderfully comforting for kids to read, especially at the beginning of the school year!

The narrator admits to being many things in his young life: hungry, four years old, crazy bored, soaking wet. But now he can add first grade dropout to his list. Because he did such an embarrassing thing that now he can never, ever, ever go back to Lakeview Elementary School tomorrow.

What did he do? He called his teacher, Ms. Morgan, "Mommy."

And everyone laughed. Including his best friend Tyler. "They laughed and slapped their desks and stomped their feet. And pointed. At me." Clever Audrey Vernick writes, "It was quiet. Then it started, all at once, like a big marching band of laughing people."

(Here's that big marching band of laughing people,
illustrated by clever Matthew Cordell.)

Our poor narrator can't imagine facing his class again, so he decides to drop out. He'll miss his friends and recess and a few other things, but he's got a plan to stay at home, work on his jump shot, get a job. You can tell this plan doesn't sit right with him, so he goes to soccer practice anyway. He sees his best friend Tyler, who acts like everything is normal.

Like the good best friend he is, Tyler listens to the plan and decides to drop out, too. "Awesome," Tyler says. "It'll be great! We can work on our junk shots."

Our narrator stifles a giggle. He tries not to laugh, but can't help it. Suddenly, he's smiling big and explaining to Tyler what is so funny--Tyler said junk shot, not jump shot. Tyler stands there for a second, but you know what he does next?

He laughs. At himself! Then they laugh together.

The boys decide to work on their junk shots tomorrow at recess, and show them to Ms. Morgan...er, Mommy.

Great, great, great message: That we all make some silly, embarrassing mistakes from time to time. And while we want to shrivel up and disappear or pretend like it didn't happen or invent a time machine to go back and undo it, it's easier and best to not take ourselves too seriously and laugh a little with ourselves.

(We parents can lead by example here!)

Super quick story in my own life of saying "Mom" when I shouldn't have: On my very first night of college during a super cool, freshmen-only retreat, I was sleeping in a bunkhouse with about 20 other freshmen girls. In the middle of the night I had a dream and yelled, "MOM!" loudly. In a shocking moment of maturity, I admitted it was me when a couple girls asked about it the next morning, and I laughed along with them. I was known as the girl who yelled for her Mom for a few weeks, then everyone forgot about it. Like people always do (though, at the time, it doesn't seem like that'll ever happen).

Again, fantastic book--and so very pertinent! Let's bolster our kids with the confidence in knowing that they can get over embarrassing stuff now, when they're young, so they can handle embarrassing stuff on their own in the future. Because we all know that, like it or not, embarrassing stuff continues to happen!

She Loved Baseball by Audrey Vernick

She Loved Baseball: The Effa Manley Story by Audrey Vernick, illustrated by Don Tate

Rating: 4.5 stars

Have your kids ever watched the credits after a show or movie, and asked you who all those people are?  It's always a good moment for me when one of my kids gets to this stage of questioning.  I like helping them realize that it takes a lot of people to make one of their favorite shows.  It takes a team of people to do nearly anything, really, even if there's just one person who seems to get all the credit.

For that reason, I am grateful that we stumbled upon She Loved Baseball: The Effa Manley Story. The book tells the story of a behind-the-scenes woman.  Young Effa moved to New York City after high school at a time when Babe Ruth and the Yankees were all people talked about.  She fell in love with the team, the sport, and with a young man who also loved the Yankees and baseball--Abe Manley.

After the two married they lived in Harlem.  During that time, even in black communities, most businesses were owned by white people, and white people worked in those businesses.  People told her "That's how things are, Effa," but she didn't listen. She organized rallies and protests and boycotts until black people were working in white businesses in Harlem.

Also after they married, they started a team--the Brooklyn Eagles--in the new Negro National League.  Despite the fact that women usually weren't usually part of a business, Effa did all the behind-the-scenes work: "organizing schedules, ordering equipment, arranging transportation." She took care of the men on the team; they called her their "mother hen."

In 1947, Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers--the first black player in the major leagues.  This was a huge achievement, but…what did it mean for the Negro League?  Major league teams started to turn to Negro League teams for players.  They didn't bother asking whether or not these black ballplayers had contracts.  They didn't bother paying the Negro League team for the ballplayer.

Effa was outraged.  "That's how things are, Effa," people told her.  She refused to believe it, and talked to the press about it.  When Cleveland Indians owner knocked on the Brooklyn Eagles' door for one of their players, Larry Doby, she stood up to him and insisted the team get paid for his contract.  The Indians paid $15,000, and Doby became the first black player in the American League.  After that, Negro League teams always got paid.

Long after this turning point in baseball history, and probably because Effa wrote long letters to them about how much they added to the sport, the Baseball Hall of Fame inducted many Negro League players.  And, in 2006, Effa Manley was the first woman to also be inducted.  "She was recognized for all she did for her players, for her civil rights work, and for getting the major leagues to treat Negro League teams with respect."  Pretty amazing, pretty cool.

There's so much kids can learn from this not-so-traditional baseball story… I would stick around to say more, point out the obvious here and there, but I've got to return this baseball book and all the others I've had on loan from our library.  It's baseball season and I think I've got them all!

P.S.  We like this book by Audrey Vernick.  But we love her Brothers at Bat even more!

Brothers At Bat by Audrey Vernick

Brothers at Bat: The True Story of an Amazing All-Brothers Baseball Team by Audrey Vernick, illustrated by Steven Salerno

Rating: 5 stars

I love this book.  Love it!

Meet the Acerras: The best way to meet them, methinks, is to go back in time and stand outside their house on a nice Spring day like today (here in Northern Virginia) and count how many boys run out.  Count how many gloves and bats fly out the door with those boys.  Count how many times the back door slaps against the frame as they come out, running, to the ball field.

It'll slap twelve times.  Twelve.  Twelve!  There were twelve baseball-playing brothers.  (And four sisters, too.  They didn't play ball because "back then, most people thought sports were just for boys.")

Their uniforms all said the same thing: Acerras.

Their story is fun and sweet and full of SO many little and big opportunities to compare and contrast today's childhood and yesteryear's childhood. The Acerras' house was crowded, and they entertained themselves, mostly with outdoor sports.  (Those two things are certainly related!)  Smaller house equals more outside play time.  In 1938, the brothers ranged in age from seven to thirty-two.  Their was an Acerra on the high school baseball team for twenty-two years in a row.  The facts are mind-boggling, and smile-inducing.

There were so many brothers that they formed their own semi-pro team and competed against other New Jersey teams.  Their coach?  Dad.  Each brother had their own nickname that matched his own personality. There was no rivalry or fighting--"we stick together," Freddie said.  And when that same guy, Freddie, suffered an accident and lost an eye, his brothers helped him through it and helped him get back on the field.

This is a feel-good book of all feel-good books.  The tight-knit, huge family; the all-American game of baseball; the nostalgic illustrations by Steven Salerno; the gut-wrenching moments when they all went off to war (and came back--each and every one--I have to spill the beans so you don't worry)…  All of this makes for a great read and a huge appreciation for the type of childhood that built characters I know and love.  Characters like my two grandfathers, my dad, my uncles.

The all-brother team always drew big crowds.

I kinda want to buy Brothers At Bat for those characters.  For my Grandpa K, whose excellent playing put him in the Pennsylvania Baseball Hall of Fame (but he went to serve his country rather than join the major leagues).  Or maybe for my other Grandpa, who coached--baseball on the field and life lessons off the field--his three boys and  all the neighborhood boys.  Or maybe for those three boys, who are now my dad and my two uncles.  Or…

Or maybe I'll just read it to Ben, who leapt off the sofa just a dozen minutes ago, where he was comfortably watching an afternoon cartoon, because the neighborhood brothers (all three of them) plus their cousin (all one of him) invited him to play baseball.  And he's out there now on this warm Spring afternoon, throwing and catching and hitting like so many boys before him.