Wilf Pauls and Cathy Steeves have another slam dunk on their hands. Baby Brawn is back and this time, the strongest baby takes the basketball world by storm.
Pauls, a popular teacher-librarian at Bastion School, collaborated again with illustrator and Bastion colleague Cathy Steeves to produce Baby Brawn Basketball Superstar, a second book that celebrates life, achievement and what is most important – family.
Like his hockey star counterpart of last year, basketball Baby Brawn surprises his parents one morning by performing extraordinary feats.
“There’s a great picture of him leaning back with the ball in the air going for the hoop,” says Pauls, who offers Steeves high praise for her ability and support for the Baby Brawn books. “Her style’s perfect for Baby Brawn, and she comes up with these incredible ideas.”
In this book, Baby Brawn’s mother is a senior high basketball coach, who adds her super-talented son to the team roster when they play the Harlem Globetrotters, says Pauls, offering a brief peak into the action and explaining social media has been successfully integrated into the story.
“Baby Brawn is so spectacular that after the game his email and voicemail are swamped. Everyone wants him because he’s on YouTube and Flickr,” laughs Pauls. Baby Brawn’s success blossoms and he’s off to Beijing on a trip modelled after a real-life charity circuit created by basketball pros Steve Nash and China’s Yao Ming.
Then it’s the world basketball championships, where, after being propelled into space, Baby Brawn scores a slam-dunk with just seconds remaining in the game.
“There are several morals of the story,” says Pauls. “The one that stands up is that no matter how successful you are in life, the thing that really matters is your family and friends.”
Everyone is invited to the book launch at 6:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 9 in the gym at Bastion Elementary. Kids will be able to take part in five fun activities – duck on the rock, original basketball with no backboard, bump and ping pong.
Baby Brawn Basketball Superstar is $12 and will be sold at Bookingham Palace and Hidden Gems.