With America’s favorite pastime in full swing, the Screen Actors Guild Foundation announces its newest Storyline Online video: Catching the Moon: The Story of a Young Girl’s Baseball Dream written by Crystal Hubbard, illustrated by Randy DuBurke, published by LEE AND LOW BOOKS and read by actors Kevin Costner and Jillian Estell (https://youtu.be/9kTVtML08CE).
Dedicated to inspiring a love of reading in children, the SAG Foundation’s Storyline Online, sponsored by the Entertainment Industry Foundation, is an interactive children’s literacy website that streams 29 imaginatively produced videos featuring celebrated actors reading award-winning children’s books as illustrations come to life. Costner and Estell join an illustrious group of actors who have read for the SAG Foundation’s Storyline Online including Annette Bening, James Earl Jones, Rita Moreno, Betty White and Elijah Wood.
“We are incredibly grateful to Kevin and Jillian for volunteering their time to read for Storyline Online,” said JoBeth Williams, president of the SAG Foundation. “We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect confluence of story and readers than Catching the Moon read by Kevin and Jillian.”
Catching the Moon: The Story of a Young Girl’s Baseball Dream is based on the real life story of Toni Stone, the first woman to play baseball in a men’s professional league, who as a young girl convinced a skeptical baseball coach, through her talent, skills and perseverance, to allow her to play in an all-boys baseball camp. Costner and Estell recorded the reading of the story prior to the release of their film Black or White (2014).
“Thanks to Kevin and Jillian, by the end of watching Catching the Moon, children will not only feel encouraged to live their dreams, but to find their dreams in books and through reading,” said Cyd Wilson, executive director of the SAG Foundation.
The SAG Foundation’s Storyline Online videos receive more than 4.7 million views every month by children and classrooms worldwide. Each video includes a supplemental activity guide that aims to strengthen comprehension, verbal and written skills for English-language learners worldwide, and can be downloaded from the website (storylineonline.net).
To watch Catching the Moon: The Story of a Young Girl’s Baseball Dream and all of the SAG Foundation’s Storyline Online videos, visit www.storylineonline.net.
