Showing Not Telling with Great Stories

What you do is more important than what you say.  It's one of those truism about parenthood.  Good luck raising a reader, for example, if you never crack a book yourself.  And when it's a kids book, good luck stirring wonder and excitement and engagement with your child if it's a book about hopping little bunnies, sugary sweet love declarations from vapid forest animals - unless you're into that sort of thing - or a book full of clumsy, forced rhymes about who really cares what it's about?

Not long ago, I was contacted about a new book in a series that recognizes this particular parent dilemma (especially from the dad's perspective) and offers up a creative solution - children's books based on dad's sports heroes, and some of the greatest sports stories ever told.  With my Boston ties, I got a sneak peak at this newest one in the series: Daddy's Heroes: The Curse is Broken, The 2004 Red Sox:

I've got to admit, I am a guy who, when asked about "the game" last night, stares at you blankly, lucky if I even know what sport we're talking about.  Some years I am lucky to tune in to the fact the World Series or Super Bowl or Final Four is even happening, much less who is playing.  And yet there was something about that fall of 2004.  Living in Boston, there was no way to escape the fever as the Red Sox pulled off the unthinkable, after unthinkable, after unthinkable - and shook off the near century-old curse against the dreaded Yankees, who many blamed for it all in the first place.  Like the rest of the City, we were glued to our TV sets each night, as games stretched passed midnight into the early hours of morning.  We were bleary eyed, exhausted, and giddy in the following days, as more and more BELIEVE signs appeared in windows all over town, as if the power of our collective belief was an essential ingredient in breaking the spell that meant victory was close-but-not-quite reachable for year after year after year.

And then they did it.

Even for a guy who isn't a die hard fan of anything - it was impossible not to get carried away in the drama, and the citywide celebration that followed.

"Daddy's Heroes" is a simple, clear, wonderful telling of that fantastic story of underdog victory, of the colorful characters who were no respecters of curses, of the bloody sock that signified their grit and determination against all sorts of no-one-has-ever-done-this-before odds.

It took me back.  It stirred the old chills.  It made me think, here's a book any Boston dad (or any lover of great sports stories) could show not tell his kids how great reading can be.

"The Curse is Broken" and other great sports stories in the Daddy's Heroes series are available at: www.daddysheroes.com.