Home Is Where the Heart Is: An ABC Baseball Book

By Kristine Benevento

Home Is Where the Heart Is: An ABC Baseball Book is a tender celebration of baseball, family, and the quiet lessons passed from one generation to the next.

At its heart, this story is about how the love of a game becomes the language of a family.

From grandparents who once kept score in worn notebooks, to parents teaching a careful grip on a bat, to children nervously stepping onto the field for the first time, baseball becomes a thread that connects decades of stories, values, and love. It is how many families learn to talk about effort, fairness, disappointment, pride, and hope, without ever needing a lecture.

Through the structure of the alphabet, young readers travel from A to Z through moments both small and meaningful: learning to wait their turn, cheering for a teammate who struck out, shaking hands after a hard loss, listening when a coach explains what could be done better next time, and discovering that being part of a team means showing up even when confidence wobbles.

Each letter introduces a baseball term while gently revealing a deeper truth: that excellence is built through practice and patience, not perfection; that mistakes are not failures but invitations to grow; that collaboration matters more than credit; and that no one succeeds alone.

The story honors the kind of strength that does not shout. The strength that steadies a child's shoulders before a tough game. The strength that stays when the season ends. The strength that teaches, without saying much at all, "You belong here."

Woven throughout is the feeling of someone loving the game deeply and loving their family even more. A presence that lingers in the stands. In the advice quietly passed down. In the belief that character matters more than trophies. It is a gentle tribute to the kind of love that continues to guide long after the voice that first taught the lesson has gone quiet.

Written for preschool through early elementary readers, this book supports early literacy through its clear alphabet structure while also nurturing social and emotional learning. It encourages teamwork, empathy, perseverance, and courage, offering children permission to try, to stumble, and to try again.

Educators and librarians will find it well suited for classrooms and story times that explore sportsmanship, cooperation, resilience, and family traditions. Parents and grandparents will recognize their own memories in its pages: the dusty cleats by the door, the drive home after a tough game, the pride that has nothing to do with the score.

Because in the end, the field changes. The players grow. Seasons turn.

But love, once taught, keeps playing on.

Home is where the heart is.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0GZSS3VT5
• ISBN13: 9798317831165
• Release Date: June 2026
• Publisher: Bookbaby
• Length: 64 Pages
• Age Range: 3 to 8 years
• Grade Range: Preschool to Grade 3