Patch Picks: Books About Baseball, Families and Dogs

It may be August but there are plenty of beach and poolside reading days left so the have put together some great book picks to get you and your kids through the hottest and haziest of summer days.

Fiction

Wait Till Next Year by Doris Kearns Goodwin

A “must read” for anyone who grew up on Long Island and is a baseball fan. The book recalls a time when baseball truly was the national pastime, and everyone in the neighborhood knew everyone else. Excellent summer read.

Consequences by Penelope Lively

The subject is family and the continuation of family over time. Full of interesting characters and three generations of English women.

Children's Books

Meet the Dogs of Bedlam Farm by Jim Katz (J 636.7 KAT)

A beautiful book combining poetic narrative and stunning photographs of the author’s four dogs that all have a job to perform on the farm they share.  Each dog contributes a unique role, essential for the harmonious functioning of their family. This moving story will have children (and their grownups) questioning their own special function within their own family.

Seven Fathers by Ashley Ramsden (J 398.2 RAW)

Award-winning illustrator Ed Young’s extraordinary mixed media visuals add just the right amount of otherworldliness to reality in this Norwegian story of a traveler caught in a snow storm looking for a place to spend the night. When he happens upon a house and asks the old man who answers the door if he can stay, he is told that he must ask the father of the old man, who sends him to seek out his father and so on for seven generations.  This is a quiet, thought provoking story which is sure to spark discussion with its journey within a journey theme.

Thunder Birds: Nature’s Flying Predators by Jim Arnosky (J 598.91 ARN)

Naturalist Jim Arnosky and his wife, Deanna, have traveled the country extensively to find birds.  In this book, they revisit some of their favorite places to find the birds that hunt prey or catch fish.  These Thunder Birds, as he calls them, are named after the giant eagle like Native American spirit that brough thunder and lightning.  His paintings are extraordinarily lifelike, and many of the pictures are life size, using fold out pages.  Any child who has an interest in birds will pore over this book for hours.

Tweak Tweak by Eve Bunting (JP BUNTING, EVE)

Little Elephant and Mama Elephant go out for a walk, Little Elephant hanging tightly to Mama’s tail.  “Just tweak my tail twice if you have a question”, Mama says.  During their travels, they encounter a frog, monkey, crocodile, butterfly and bird. Little Elephant learns what is special about each of these animals, and as a result, what makes her special, too.  The illustrations add to the whimsy of this lovely book.

Tyrannosaurus Dad by Liz Rosenberg (JP ROSENBERG, LIZ)

Tobias’ dad is a lot like other dads, he enjoys corny jokes, practices magic tricks and works too hard, and oh yeah – he’s a tyrannosaurus!  Although we never find out why this prehistoric behemoth lives in the suburbs and wears a shirt and tie, the theme of a son wishing his dad worked a bit less and played with him a bit more is universal.  When the Field Day baseball game looks like it will be a washout, guess whose father shows up to save the day?  A humorous and imaginative Father’s Day tale with lots of visual interest, this one may become a favorite of older readers.

Audiobooks

Caleb’s Crossing

Pulitzer Prize winner (and one of my favorite authors) Geraldine Brooks tells the enthralling true story of Caleb, a member of the Wampanoag tribe, who leaves Martha’s Vineyard to become the first Native American graduate of Harvard, as told by Bethia, the young indentured servant he befriends. Jennifer Ehle, Elizabeth Bennet in BBC’s Pride and Prejudice, narrates.

22 Britannia Road

In her stunning debut novel, Amanda Hodgkinson takes on the story of a young Polish couple who emigrate to Britain after World War II to try to forget the atrocities of war and make a new life for themselves and their young son.

Three Seconds

While they are waiting for a possible follow-up to the Millennium trilogy, Stieg Larsson fans should try this offering from Roslund & Hellstrom, named the 2009 Best Swedish Crime Novel of the Year.

DVD

In honor of the 40th anniversary of Upstairs, Downstairs, the most popular series in British television history, all five seasons are being re-released on DVD with many special features. The first three seasons are available now, with seasons 4 and 5 coming soon.

If you want to catch up with the southern vampire series True Blood, now in its fourth season on cable, we have series 1-3 on DVD, as well as audio versions of the books by Charlaine Harris on which the series is based.

CD

Move Like This – All surviving members of the Boston New Wave band The Cars have reunited for this “authentic and satisfying” album.