STITCH N’ PITCH℠

Needle and Thread: Stitching for Literacy teams with The National NeedleArts Association’s STITCH N’ PITCH℠ program for the perfect triple play.

Stitch N’ Pitch brings together the two wonderful traditions of baseball and needlearts–a perfect double play. Come stitch a bookmark at a ball game! Keep it for your own use or donate it to the annual Bookmark Challenge. Beginners, intermediates, and experts are all welcome.

This Funk & Weber Designs bookmark is sure to be a hit with baseball fans! (Groan. Really, what did you expect?) It’s also a great project to stitch at games.

• It comes in a handy-dandy kit so you have everything you need already gathered and sorted in a bag. Grab and go!
• It’s stitched on a Tokens & Trifles card, so it’s small and easy to stitch in hand, no hoop or stretcher bars needed.
• The bookmark is backed with card stock, perfect for collecting autographs of your favorite players.
• Now, it’s also available as a digital pattern!

As with all Stitching for Literacy patterns, 10% of profits are donated to literacy programs.

Here at Stitching for Literacy, we’re adding a third tradition to STITCH N’ PITCH℠ for a perfect triple play: Reading. Check out these books for young (and not-exactly-young) baseball lovers, and combine one with a bookmark for a grand slam gift. Click through to the reviews to learn more about the titles.

Picture Books

• Across the Alley, by Richard Michelson, illustrated by E. B. Lewis. Strangers by day, best friends by night. Two boys play catch from their windows across the alley. Reviewed by Just One More Book.
• Baseball Hour, by Carol Nevius, illustrated by Bill Thomson. A rhyming story of a Little League practice. Reviewed by Just One More Book.
• The Bat Boy and his Violin, by Gavin Curtis, illustrated by E. B. Lewis. A distant father learns to see his son in a new light. Reviewed by Just One More Book.
• Girl Wonder, by Deborah Hopkinson, illustrated by Terry Widener. Inspired by the life of pioneering female baseball player, Alta Weiss.
• Hank Aaron: Brave in Every Way, by Peter Golenbock, illustrated by Paul Lee.
• H is for Homerun: A Baseball Alphabet, by Brad Herzog, illustrated by Melanie Rose. Reviewed by The Reading Tub.
• Let Them Play, by Margo Theis Raven, illustrated by Chris Ellison. A true story about an all-black Little League team from Charleston, SC, that was not allowed to play in the World Series. Reviewed by Lori Calabrese.
• Lou Gehrig: The Luckiest Man, by David A. Adler. Reviewed by Lori Calabrese.
• Mighty Jackie: The Strike-Out Queen, by Marissa Moss, illustrated by C. F. Payne. The true story of Virne Beatrice “Jackie” Mitchell, the second woman to sign a minor-league contract and “the girl who struck out Babe Ruth.” Reviewed by Lori Calabrese.
• Players in Pigtails, by Shana Corey, illustrated by Rebecca Gibbon. Reviewed by The Reading Tub.
• You Never Heard of Sandy Koufax?!, by Jonah Winter, illustrated by Andre Carrilho. Reviewed by 7-Imp.

Fiction

• Abner Doubleday: Boy Baseball Pioneer, by Montrew Dunham, illustrated by Cathy Morrison. Reviewed by The Reading Tub.
• The Big Field, by Mike Lupica. A father-son baseball story. Reviewed by Fuse #8.
• Dodger and Me, by Jordan Sonnenblick. Can a blue chimpanzee really help Willie become a better baseball player? Reviewed by The Reading Tub.
• Free Baseball, by Sue Corbett. A boy runs away to become a bat boy for a Cuban baseball team in an effort to learn about his father. Reviewed by Jen Robinson.
• Heat, by Mike Lupica. A boy’s dreams of a Little League championship are threatened when a rival coach questions his age. Reviewed by Jen Robinson.
• Maniac Magee, by Jerry Spinelli. A super-athletic teen confronts racism in a small town.
• Mudville, by Kurtis Scaletta. Twenty-two years after a game between rivals was rained out, the rain finally stops. It’s time for a re-match. Reviewed by TheHappyNappyBookseller.
• No Cream Puffs, by Karen Day. It’s 1980, and 12-year-old Madison becomes the first girl to play on a southern Michigan boys’ baseball team. Reviewed by Jen Robinson.
• The Prince of Fenway Park, by Julianna Baggott. Who knew the secret to breaking the Curse of the Bambino lay with mysterious creatures living deep beneath Fenway Park? Reviewed by Reading Rumpus.
• Samurai Shortstop, by Alan Gratz. Tanita S. Davis at Finding Wonderland says, “Detailed and deeply researched, this historical fiction underscores the place that baseball has held for years in Japan’s national consciousness.” Reviewed by Finding Wonderland, Elizabeth O. Dulemba.
• Six Innings, by James Preller. A pitch-by-pitch account of a Little League championship game and the lives of the players between pitches. Reviewed by Jen Robinson.

Graphic Novel

• Satchel Paige: Striking Out Jim Crow, by James Sturm, illustrated by Rich Tommaso. Reviewed by Fuse #8.

Non-fiction

• Heroes of Baseball, by Robert Lipsyte. Profiles of “The Men Who Made It America’s Favorite Game.” Reviewed by Fuse #8.
• Louis Sockalexis: Native American Baseball Pioneer, by Bill Wise, illustrated by Bill Farnsworth. Reviewed by Just One More Book.
• Teammates, by Peter Golenbock, illustrated by Paul Bacon. This story relates a little-known incident between Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese and presents the issue of race in baseball’s history.
• We Are the Ship, by Kadir Nelson. The beautifully illustrated story of Negro League baseball. Reviewed by Fuse #8, Wendie Old, Lori Calabrese.

For Adults

• The Universal Baseball Association, Inc., J. Henry Waugh, Prop., by Robert Coover. A lonely accountant creates an all-consuming fantasy baseball world.