Ballet Cat: The Totally Secret Secret
Written and Illustrated by Bob Shea

Summary:
While Ballet Cat and Sparkles the Pony are trying to decide what to play, they each share an important secret.

Primary Source Pairing:
In this book Ballet Cat and Sparkle Pony come to an important realization that in a friendship, you should be honest with each other. At the end, the two friends decide to take a break from ballet and instead play checkers together. Checkers is in fact one of the oldest games known to humankind (and ballet cat and sparkle pony kind , too!). Check out the Wonderopolis article titled “Which Came First: Checkers or Chess” to learn more about the ancient game. In the image above, two boys play Chinese checkers together during World War II while their parents worked in Richmond shipyards in California. For more information on this image, view the Kaiser Permanente History website.

Questions for Discussion:

• What do you notice about the boys in the picture?
• What year do you think it is in this picture? What visual evidence supports your thinking?

Credits:
Book Cover and Summary: Follett
Image of boys playing Chinese checkers from the Kaiser Permanente History website.